Interview with Minh Le (aka. Gooseman)
The famous author of the Navy Seals patch has finally spoken to us! hehe.. Kewl interview with Gooseman, who's talking about the future of Navy seals, his love to me, and lotsa other interesting stuff ;-)
Navy Seals page.

Gooseman Interview | .. and he said he loved me too!

Mr?> Why don't you tell us a little about your self, like where you live, what you do for a living, and stuff like that..



Mr?> For those of us who have been living under a cave for the last few months, what is Navy Seals about?
    Gooseman> Navy SEALS started in early July of 1997 and was initially only going to be a replacement of all 8 of the Quake weapons but after finishing up 6 or 7 of the guns I found out that it was really boring shooting up the quake monsters..cause they totally clashed with the Navy SEALS theme.. so I decided to make some military style enemies.. you know , the kind of guys you might see in a James Bond movie.. Navy SEALS *IS NOT* a multiplayer patch, which 90% of the people who email me think it is...


Mr?> Why did you star working on navy seals, and how did it start?
    Gooseman> When I first tried out some of the QuakeC patches out there like the gatling gun and the minigun and the railgun , I realized the potential of the Quake engine.. and so I decided to make my own gun. Being a military freak the first 3d model I made was the M16A3 dual assault rifle. I sent it into the QuakeC archives and it was thrashed quite badly. I almost stopped working on Quake patches right then and there.. but I decided to make more guns .. simply for my pleasure only, and not release any patches until I felt it was atleast twice as good as my first patch. So, the next gun I made was the mp-5, and then the mk.23, etc.. and soon , I had done all 8 of my current weapons. Some of the weapons went through several versions, such as the mp-5 which went through atleast 6 different variations.


Mr?> How come you're so damn good at modeling? ;)
    Gooseman> well, I did mention that I was into art since grade7. and I took a drafting course in grade11, and with these tools I was able to slide right into the 3d realm.. I think the hardest thing to learn was texturing the models.. It took me awhile to figure out what the heck front/back/seam were... and I think the user friendliness of QME was also a contributing factor.. it's very intuitive.. kudos to Rene Post!


Mr?> Have you ever worked as a modeler, or maybe dreamed about it? (I'm sure you could get a job at almost any gaming company, if you just asked ;)
    Gooseman> wow, you sure know how to press a man's buttons... I've only got 3 months of experience under my belt.. I'm not sure I'd fit right in that well... To be honest with you , I don't like working in a company because then I'd be modelling stuff that other people would tell me to do.. I like to have FULL control over what I model, that way, I can give it 110%.. otherwise I just tend to go through the motions.. and the result lies somewhere between crap and mediocre.


Mr?> How long time have you used on Navy Seals all together?
    Gooseman> hrmm.. I don't keep a log of how much time I spent on Navy SEALS but let's just do some math :5 hours * 5 days * 8 weeks = 200 hours. spent over the course of July and August. give or take a second.


Mr?> How long time did you use to model the enemies?
    Gooseman> actually, I did one enemy called the terrorist.. he was dressed in blue but he looked really crappy so I threw him away and did a new guy.. the guy you see right now.. the guard. He took about 10 hours to model, 2 hours to texture, and about 20 hours to animate... animation is boring.. but I try to be patient when I animate or else I get naff results.


Mr?> What is you're next goal after the new enemy, and the re-modeled shotgun is in?
    Gooseman> a hostage model.. more enemies, a rocket launcher, maybe some vehicles you can blow up.. but I think the most prevalent addition would be the hostage.. He'll add a whole new dimension to my patch. I'll also enjoying shooting at targets that don't consume as many bullets.


Mr?> Do you have any plans on adding bots to Navy Seals? (maybe now, with the released ZeusBot code?)
    Gooseman> Not really, the one thing I hate doing is borrowing someone else's stuff, even if it's released publicly.. It detracts from the sense of accomplishment I get when I release Navy SEALS, it's a personal thing and I get frequent email about it but I can tell everyone to slag off cause it's my patch and blah blah blah :)


Mr?> Have you gotten any good level editors on the team?
    Gooseman> yeah, I got this one good level from a guy in Sweden, my apologies to him because I seem to have forgotten his name..(his web site is www.efd.lth.se/~d96mr/ ) you can pick up the level he made for me. I really like it and it and it has some really cool combat sequences that take place on that level.. it was especially cool with my new bad guy! I have offers from 8 or so people who promise to make me a level, but no one has taken up my request to make a level that takes place on a small destroyer (like the one in Goldeneye N64).


Mr?> Can we have a sneak-peak @ the new enemy in Navy Seals?
    Gooseman> Tell you what, since you've been such a hep cat to me and you've always been a supporter of my stuff, I will GIVE you the latest Navy SEALS (NO ONE has this version.. 'cept my neighbour, but that's another story..) email me back and tell me whether or not I can email you a 2 meg file.. cause if I can I will gladly send you the goods!

    (w00! You da man! - ed)



Mr?> Anything else you'd like to add before we end this interview?
    Gooseman> Yeah, over the course of the Navy SEALS patch.. I've gotten numerous mail from people .. some good, some bad..some posing to be real SEALS themselves.. I get a kick out of those who frequently email me with the following "I'm Joe Schmoe and I was a Navy SEALS back in Nam.. I've killed more gooks than you can shake a stick at.. I want you to add this and change that and blah blah blah .... " and then I glance at the return address and find out that this character is using AOL .. haha.. I'm sure the Navy SEALS get their own dedicated server donthay ? :) But anyway, I'd like to take the time to thank those who've emailed me constantly and these are the greatest bunch of fans I could ever ask for.. If I had the power to, I'd gather these people up and throw them in my garage.. and every once in awhile.. when I'm feeling down , I'd open the garage door and I'd hear these people chanting my name, Gooseman! gooseman! gooseman!! rarrghhhhhhh! Then I 'd throw them some fresh meat cause I know sitting in a garage for days tends to make people hungry. No really, these people are great.. they never bothered me about the bugs and they only noticed the good stuff in my patch...Without them , I wouldn't have the confidence to continue my work on Navy SEALS. kujos to them!


Mr?> Thanks for the interview man!! Luv ya ;-)
    Gooseman> yes.. the feeling is mutual.. I have love for you as well.. doesn't that make you feel special ?Oh , thanks for interviewing me.. it actually makes me feel important...