BlackWolfTR

Interview by Reza (aka Charles Kane)

December 2023

CK: Hi there, BlackWolfTR. Thank you for participating in this interview. First, can you please introduce yourself?

BWTR: My name is Kamil Krawczyk and I live in Poland, in the city of Wałbrzych. I attend high school on a bilingual profile. I'm an introvert, and I prefer to spend my time alone at home playing a video game or watching a movie than going out with people. Sometimes I will go to my garden to chill and do absolutely nothing. In the future, I plan to travel a lot as I'm really curious about this world. Regarding Tomb Raider - I've been a fan of it since my earliest age. It was my parents who introduced me to this game, and I'm grateful to them for it. I grew up with Tomb Raider, and it's obviously my favourite game, though nowadays I don't play it as often as I used to.


CK: How lucky of you to have a family that introduced you to Tomb Raider. Talking about Tomb Raider, when and how did you get introduced to TRLE, and trle.net in particular?

BWTR: I first got to know about TRLE via YouTube. I saw a few custom levels, and I was intrigued. Later on, I started watching playthroughs of different custom levels very often, a few times a week. Back then, I knew I wanted to someday start building my own creations. It was in 2019 that I first downloaded the editor, which was NGLE. I struggled a lot because there were not many tutorials in Polish back then, and my English wasn't as good as it is now. In the summer of 2020, I released my first project, which is "The Coastal Town". I remember being really happy and excited when I was about to release it. It is my only level built on NGLE. Later on, I moved to Tomb Editor.


CK: Ah, so it means that the concept of TRLE is so interesting, that you have got to learn and build levels in no time. But, how do you manage to spare your time between building levels and other activities or hobbies?

BWTR: There were periods when, during most of the day, I would just build and not do much else. I used to build really fast, but later the pace slowed down. During my spare time, I'm usually lazy, laying and staring into the ceiling. Sometimes I watch something on YouTube or play another game. I listen to music (mainly metal) and I play guitar as well, but I'm pretty bad at it. In addition, I'm also a geography freak, and I can spend hours just exploring Google Maps and reading about different geographical facts. Maybe I'm going to disappoint people, but I don't build now, and I don't really plan to anymore for certain reasons. I'm fulfilled and satisfied with my latest levelset, and I achieved my aim of creating a high-quality game.


CK: Oh.. I'm sorry to hear about it. It's that you're just coming into the TRLE community for a while, and you're suddenly quitting. But, at least you leave some exceptional levels as your legacy.
Now, who and what were your inspirations in building your levels?

BWTR: One of my main inspirations is another level builder, Mahetus. He taught me a lot about level building, and I always admire the quality and creativity of his levels, which are of top quality. Another inspiring level builder is Danath. I loved "The Ancient Jade Mask" - it's one of my favourite TR2 games ever. The unique environments he created and the sense of adventure he managed to capture in his level set inspired me a lot. I also love Leoc's horror levels, which were an inspiration for some ideas in "Into the Realm of Eternal Darkness". Basically, I think every level that is decent is a source of inspiration for me.


CK: Agree. Decent levels can inspire us a lot. Next, which engines are your favorite to build levels?

BWTR: I like building on all of the engines. I don't think I have a favourite one. Maybe TR2, since it's my favourite game, but I'm not sure. Every engine has something unique to offer, and all of them are fun.


CK: I also like TR2. One of the first TR games that I managed to beat without cheats or walkthroughs.
Back to level engines, how did you manage to build 2 non-TR4 levels with a 9+ rating (3 if we also count the collaborative project "The Forbidden Place"), given the limitations those engines have?

BWTR: The limitations for the non-TR4 engines aren't really a big problem nowadays because of the "patches" such as TR1X, TR2Main, or Tomb3. They delete or enlarge the limits to the point where you don't really have to bother them. Of course, there are still things you cannot do on these engines as you would on TR4 or TRNG. That's when your creativity comes in and the ability to come up with solutions to certain problems. I spent a lot of time building my non-TR4 levels, especially "Into the Realm of Eternal Darkness". There were some annoying problems, but eventually almost everything was solved.


CK: We should also be thankful to TRLE community for those patches, because without them, we couldn't build much wonders in our levels.
Now there's a thing I often wonder about. What do you think contributes to the large number of builders from Poland? Since you're also from Poland, maybe you have a more direct experience related to it.

BWTR: Well, there are 37 million people living in Poland, so that's probably why there are a lot of builders from here. But certainly there are countries with a higher count of builders (Germany, UK, USA, Italy, France). I think the number of builders in each country is related to its population as well as to the popularity of the game in the country.


CK: The UK and USA are sure things, but maybe we can agree that TRLE is a huge thing in Europe. Related to them, what are your hopes for TRLE community?

BWTR: I wish the best to the TRLE community. The community is one of a kind and often does a better job than the developers of the main TR games. I hope many more builders come in, and many more levels are released. I believe that TombEngine is the future of TRLE building, and we will see more and more wonderful levels being released, built on this new engine.


CK: Agree, I really hoped in 10 years that TombEngine will be the definitive engine for TRLE community. Last but not least, what's your advice for other builders?

BWTR: Don't get discouraged, ask for help if necessary, and unleash your creativity.


CK: Splendid. What a great interview we have here. Thanks a lot, BlackWolfTR. See you next time.