Sjoerd De Jong

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Sjoerd De Jong
De Jong at the 2014 Nordic Game Conference in Malmö, Sweden
NationalityDutch-Belgian[1]
Other namesHourences
OccupationVideo game developer
Years active1999–present

Sjoerd De Jong, also known as Hourences, is a Dutch-Belgian video game developer, level designer and the founder of Teotl Studios. He serves as technology evangelist for Epic Games, promoting Unreal Engine 4 in the northern half of Europe.

Career[edit]

De Jong started making levels for video games at the age of 15, when he purchased a copy of Unreal in 1999.[2][3] Shortly after, he started to make a name for himself in the Unreal community, not only for the many maps he released, but also for his work on popular Unreal Tournament mods such as "Operation Na Pali", "Xidia" and "Jailbreak". With a few more custom maps and contributions to mods for Unreal Tournament 2003, he was contracted by Epic Games to create 6 maps for Unreal Tournament 2004,[4] two of which were included in the demo. He has worked on several games, including Killzone, The Chronicles of Spellborn and Huxley.[5]

In March 2010, following his work on Syndicate, he founded Teotl Studios.[6] The studio's first project was the first-person action-adventure game The Ball, which was originally a mod for Unreal Tournament 3.[7][8][9] His most recent work, The Solus Project, came out in 2016.[10][11]

Video game credits[edit]

Books[edit]

  • The Hows and Whys of the Games Industry (2007). Self-published
  • The Hows and Whys of Level Design (2008). Self-published

References[edit]

  1. ^ Adventure Island (2010). "Teotl Studios - Interview". Adventure Island. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  2. ^ Dana Cowley; Brian Cowe (15 January 2014). "Survival, Sci-fi and Discovery With Unreal Engine 4". Unreal Engine Blog. Epic Games. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  3. ^ Callaham, John (5 November 2009). "Interview: Toltec Studios talks about the UDK version of The Ball". Big Download. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  4. ^ Game Artist (1 January 2007). "Interview: Level Design: Sjoerd "Hourences" De Jong". Game Artist. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  5. ^ Charlotte (6 December 2010). "Gamercast interview with Sjoerd De Jong on The Ball". Gamercast. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  6. ^ Bassey, Vic (27 November 2013). "Profile – Hourences". The Square. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  7. ^ Rossignol, Jim (11 November 2011). "The Ball: The Interview". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  8. ^ Walker, John (18 February 2010). "Screwball Scramble: The Ball Trailer". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  9. ^ Samuel (19 November 2010). "The Ball - Interview". Gaming Lives. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  10. ^ Future Games (2 February 2014). "Futuregames teacher Sjoerd De Jong announces new game project". Future Games.se. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  11. ^ Bassey, Vic (16 March 2014). "Swedish Game Awards Conference – A Summary". The Square. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Sjoerd De Jong - Credits". MobyGames. Blue Flame Labs. Retrieved 8 December 2014.

External links[edit]