Interview Ynterview #6 - Filip

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

Every week we'll bring you an Ynterview with a member of our Ylands team. In this week's Ynterview we have approached our Gameplay Programmer: Filip Vondrášek.

First off, what do you do here at the Ylands team and what’d you do before you joined?

I’m officially a gameplay programmer, although my area for the past year or two has mostly been collaborating with our backend guys to bring all of their online services (such as the in-game chat and friends system) to Ylands. I also share some responsibilities for our mastering process, i.e. building new versions, both public and internal, pushing them to Steam etc. But first and foremost, I’m a programmer.
Before joining Bohemia Interactive and Ylands in 2015, I was studying Czech Technical University and working in a company that creates and supplies hardware and software for gas stations. As a programmer, of course.

How long have you worked on Ylands? What was the 1st thing you worked on when you joined?

I’ve been here for 4 years. The first thing I worked on, if my memory serves me well, was Energy.

 

What do you find most exciting on Ylands in general?

Since we released our in-game editor, I’ve been nothing but amazed by all the creations that players make. Some of them leave me scratching my head and wondering: “Wait, is that even possible?”

 

And what is for you the most exciting feature coming in the near future?

 I’m most excited for the Explore improvements. For me, it was one of the two main game modes when I joined Ylands and it’s still dear to my heart.

 

What are you working on right now?

Right now I’m working on some armour and blueprint improvements. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to talk about specific changes, so let’s leave it at that!

 

What was the most difficult thing to implement to date and what will be in the future?

For me personally, the most difficult thing to implement was probably Blueprints. It took a surprising amount of time to wire it in and there were a lot of unexpected problems, even things that are seemingly simple, such as GUI previews. But I think the most complicated thing to implement is AI. Three programmers gradually tried to implement their version of AI, but we still weren’t getting satisfying results (until the last update). Implementing pathfinding in a dynamic world where everything can change is especially difficult.
In the future, for me personally improving blueprints will be the most difficult thing. I always remember how much fun I had with the initial implementation. I also can’t forget how I accidentally deleted about 4 hours of my Blueprints work before sending it to our code repository. I had to leave the office for half an hour and breathe it out.

 

What do you do in your free time?

I am an avid gamer and I really enjoy programming. So, usually, when I’m not playing something, I program stuff that I find enjoyable at the moment. Last month, I implemented a simple raytracer in C++, because I wanted to see what all the fuss is about. Is there a better way to get to know something than to try to create it?

What Ice-cream flavour do you like most? Vanilla, chocolate, lemon, chicken, wasabi or tears of your enemies?

I’d say mint, but since there isn’t mint in that list, then I’d say lemon and I would love to try a wasabi flavour. Spiced with the tears of my enemies.
 

[A3_Melle 150]

Great interview! 

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

1 hour ago, Adam Snellgrove said:

And what is for you the most exciting feature coming in the near future?

 I’m most excited for the Explore improvements. For me, it was one of the two main game modes when I joined Ylands and it’s still dear to my heart.

Same  I can't wait for explore to go to the next level