An Update

Hey everyone,

havent made a post in a while.

I been really busy the last couple of weeks working on some job applications and tests.
However it's all paid off as I'm starting a new job this week for a game company. It's only doing QA work but its a step in the right direction. Plus its for a company doing game's i'm really passionate about so it should be a lot of fun.

I'm still working on my gears of war level and after some feedback from a level designer friend i've been making some modifications for the better.
Hopefully i'll get the grey box finished soon. I've been taking things a bit slower with this level latelly as after 6 months of constant portfolio work I've enjoyed having a week of relaxing and getting back into games again.

Been really enjoying Nba Jam on xbox 360 and the new cataclysm changed in world of warcraft look amazing.

Elevator Evacuation Greybox Update.

So i've finished blocking out my gears of war level up until the start of the berserker fight.
I have decided that i'm going to leave the end boss fight in this level for now as I really want to get this level finished quickly so I can put it up in my portfolio. I may return to it after I have finished the level.

Anyway I have finished blocking out all the basics for the level.
Been a lot of mucking around with kismet as i'm learning all the basics. Moving an elevator with button triggers turning on and off was a bit of a pain.
If you watch the Video below you will notice there are still a lot of lighting issues with the elevator as I'm having trouble getting the dynamic light to move with the elevator.

Also the second courtyard fight needs a lot of tweaking as the enemies tend to just run forward towards the player instead of being defensive. Im guessing setting up proper cover groups might fix this.

Another thing to note the basement where you encounter wretches doesn't look that hard in video but in the final version of the map this area is going to be really dark so its going to be a lot harder to see where the wretches are.

Anyway any feedback at all is appreciated

Please see the HD video on youtube. below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLQTwHo6hY0

Progress Update

Hey guys,

Its been a short while since my last update. I've been a bit busy with some shifts at work plus as a result of walking around in all the cold weather I got a cold :(
Hopefully my new thermals and jacket will protect me from the elements in future :P

Anyway I have begun mucking around with matinee a bit more and have set up my first camera event for my gears of war level.

Also since my last update on elevator evacuation I have blocked out the second encounter in section A of the level, It all seems to work alright the biggest problem i'm finding is that if the player gets the Boomshot from the first encounter it makes the second encounter with the turret really easy. So I might have to look into dropping the ammo down to 1 on it or adjusting encounter to compensate.

Here's a quick upload I did of my level so far. I apologize about the frame rate my computer doesnt like it when I play levels with fraps running.

Here's the link for the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9DUOQz1btA


Heres a shot from the cutscene :P

Updated Portfolio and video's

Over the past few days I have been busy updating my portfolio to include gameplay footage from Legend of the Guardians the Owls of Gahoole (the game I worked on)
This was quite a pain as I had to record video via dazzle and then edit it together on my pc. Unfortunately the dazzle only records in SD which is a bit of a shame but oh well.

I also set up a matinee camera path through my dm-waterfall level and took some footage of my finished level.

The video's can be found in my professional work section and personal work section of my website.

www.brendonvince.com
or at these links if you are to lazy to navigate :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej8CfyPQLaM
Dm-Waterfall Flythrough (Dont forget to watch it in 1080 :P)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i_mmQMFH1o
legend of the guardians gameplay compilation

Dm-Waterfall - Crypt Revamp

Today I worked on revamping the area underneath the church to be more like a crypt.
I also added a set of stairs that come up on the outside of the church.
I think this makes a huge improvement to the overall flow of the map as it makes the underground area alot more accessible.

The crypt is looking alright still not 100% happy with it. Biggest issue i'm having is that I dont have any static mesh's for coffins so I have to make them out of bsp brushes which are resulting in less than stellar results.

its time's like these I wish i was using gears of war version of unreal ed so I could place all the cool damaged books and ground debris assets they have :)

Anyway here are a few screenshots.

DM-Waterfall Second room Update.

Ill make this blog short.
After trying a bunch of different things I finally settled on having ramps in the new room instead of an elevator to get up to the second level.
I also added some more trim and add a cover to the stairs that go to basement

Heres an update.
The level is now playable again :)

The next big thing I need to do is make the downstairs basement more exciting I was thinking of giving it a complete re-work to make it more open instead of just a long hallway.

I'm just debating whether I want to do that right away or take a break from dm-waterfall for a few days and put in some time on my gears of war map.

Ill see how I'm feeling tomorrow :)


Still need something on the floor to break it up trying to work out what

Dm-Waterfall Second room WIP

So I spent today working on the second room that i added in my dm-waterfall level.
The main reason for adding this room was so I could make a set of straight stairs leading down to basement of church instead of the crappy dog leg ones I had before.

I also think it adds a lot more to combat as well as it gives the players another room to fight in and gives the players another opportunity to use the second level.

Here are a few screenshots of the room so far. I'm pretty happy with it the main things I need to do is fix the lighting up so more natural light comes through the windows and to decorate the back wall and the floor a bit.

I also need another way to get up onto the second floor/walkways. currently the only way up there is via the stairs at the other end of the church or by going the long way from behind the waterfall.

I am thinking about maybe putting an elevator in this room because I cant see a clean way to get a set of stairs going up to the second level.

You can see in the 5th picture I have a platform on the ground that I was thinking of using as an elevator but don't think it quite fits in. any advice from anyone who's done a lot of elevators on a good way to get it to fit in?


This is my favorite shot for this room as it looks really polished in this shot :P the other shots show things that need a bit of work :P



Now with added doorway above altar.

DM-Waterfall Church revisions

So I spent the day working the main room of the church.
Think i've got it to a point where im pretty happy with it. Only thing it really needs is some more trim on the walls as they are a bit bland at the moment.

Today I finished the lattice work on the roof added in some columns, the altar, added a new floor and added some rubble decorations to the floor to help break it up a bit.

The only thing im not sure on is the second reaper placed high on the back wall im thinking of moving it to be the centrepiece of the new room im building as its a big cylindrical room and I need something to break it up.

Im currently in the process of building another room behind the altar which is going to have a straight set of stairs leading into the mausoleum below which I will have to rebuild from scratch.

Anyway here is what it looks like at the moment (Still needs few minor touch ups)

Any feeback appreciated :)

I can do better (Dm-Waterfall Revisions)

So I was having a look over my Dm-waterfall level today the interior of the church especially and the really long boring tunnels located underneath the church and on the way to behind water and thought I can do better.
So With Sigur ros music playing as my inspiration I've begun to give this level an overhaul starting with the church interior.
I began work this afternoon on it and as you can see from the original picture its very dark and un-interesting.


Heres a WIP of the updated the ground level and upper walkways still need re-working but I think overall its feeling a lot more open. Also need to work on the godrays as i've kinda spammed them at the moment



Also here's a shot of the roof from outside




One last bonus screenshot before I head off to bed :P

Elevator Evacuation WIP Video and An updated DM-Waterfall Video

Today I spent a bit of time sprucing up my UDK level Dm-Waterfall and made a small gameplay video to show some game play in the level, Unfortunately the footage is really low res as im still experimenting with movie maker.

I have also uploaded a small video of the WIP of the first area in Elevator Evacuation. The music is very silly in the video as i didn't realize that fraps recorded all audio on my computer, But figured it was an interesting contrast in music to have playing while i was slaughtering locust :P

Check out the video's on my youtube page below
Dm-Waterfall Gameplay Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9u0f3AK19M

Elevator Evacuation Area 1 WIP Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNctAEfR97A

Dragon Age Environments

So I've been playing dragon age pretty full on the last few days and am really enjoying it.

One of the things I have been blown away by is how impressive all the environments look and how well all the area's are designed.
I love how through awesome lighting, god rays and placement of decoration props they can make simple square hallways look interesting.
I think my favorite location is the abandoned temple in briscillion forest (did I spell that right)
I've included a few screenshots that I've taken in area's that I found inspiring below.
Makes me really wanna do another fantasy level, I've downloaded the dragon age toolset. I'm not sure how powerful it is and if you can make your own levels with it but figured I would give it a whirl at some stage down the track.

Anyway Hopefully I can finish dragon age in the next day or two so I can get back to building my gears of war level.




Love how nice this simple square room with pillars looks so interesting because of the lighting and prop decorations

Dragon Age

So after almost a year of my wife telling me I should play dragon age I got it off steam yesterday and figured id give it a decent go.
I had played it briefly before as a mage character using my wife's copy but for some reason it didnt appeal to me.
I created a combat rogue and so far am having a lot of fun with it, it sucked up about 8 hrs of my day yesterday :P
I still cant get over how awesome the graphics are in it I love the visual art style and all the outdoor landscapes and structures are beautiful.
It's given me some inspiration and I think my next map after Elevator Evacuation is going to be an outdoor fantasy environment in UDK where i'm thinking I might make a bunch of fantasy props myself to get my skills up in 3d studio max again.

But in the meantime my gears of war level is coming along pretty well. Ive fully blocked out the first encounter and despite a few cover glitchs it seems to be working well. I will post up some gameplay footage of this area in the next few days when i've ironed out a few bugs and can drag myself away from dragon age :P.

Long as I keep telling myself im playing dragon age for level design research its ok ;)

Elevator Evacuation progress update

Just thought id post an update to let you guys know what i've been up to and how my gears of war level is coming along. (All 4 of you who actually follow my blog lol)

To start of with I have updated my CV. I felt that it was a bit cluttered before so I've reworked it a bit to make it more concise and to the point. Hopefully this will pay off and get me some response :).

I've also started working on the first street area of my gears of war level.
Ive done basic grey box for the first street area and started working in kismet to get Dom to spawn and the first set of enemies when the player moves forward into a trigger.
I'm finding the initial planning I did and maps very helpful however from some basic testing I think ill have to move a few cars and other cover points around as I'm finding at the moment there is way to much cover making it very easy to take out the boomer and the 4 locust drones with minimal risk.

I think the biggest obstacle at the moment is the lack of information and tutorials on the net about Unreal editor for gears of war.
I've found the following two sets of tutorials helpful for basic things like setting up exploding propane tanks and setting up a basic matinee sequence.
I'll post the links below in case anyone else is interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCnWppj6i28 (This tutorial has 3 parts and goes into brief details on how to set up a few basic things)
http://www.youtube.com/user/Shaffizlee#p/a/u/1/cOQEAQ1sfDo (basic matinee sequence in GOW)

Anyway here are a few basic screen shots of the level so far.

Gears of War editor Is GOOOOOO

with the level design document for my gears of war level "Elevator Evacuation" now complete (A link to it can be found Here in case anyone is interested). I finally get to open up the gears of war editor and start work on this bad boy, Im Really excited :)

Learning from my mistakes on my last map DM-waterfall where I progressed through the blue box stage too fast resulting in a few gameplay issues like long boring corridors and epicly tall stair cases, On this map Im going to get the entire map blue boxed, complete with all enemies, gameplay and matinee sequences completely done and thoroughly tested by myself and anyone else I can wrangle into giving it a go before I even think of making the level pretty.

Anyway stay tuned for some exciting updates over the next week.

Elevator Evacuation Gameplay Maps

Its 3:25 am and Im off to bed after a night of updating the gameplay maps for my level :)
Figured Id post them up here before I headed off.

I feel the level is coming along really well. I'm sure there will be a few minor tweaks to gameplay design as I begin construction but that's always the way with any design process
Iteration Iteration Iteration :)

Any feedback would be highly appreciated

Legend of the guardians the owls of Gahoole is out

Also Legend of the Guardians the Owl's of Gahoole is finally out On PS3 xbox 360 and Wii in US and Canada Im very excited about this seeing as its the first Game I worked on as a level designer :)


Havent made a post for a few days as I've been a little busy as I got some shifts at work this week.
Anyway Ive still been keeping busy I just started re-reading A theory of fun Game design. Forgot how inspiring it was. Ive also been doing a bit of research into MMO development. and found an editor called Multiverse that lets you create and run an MMO (Albeit looks like the graphics engine is pretty simple) but still might be good to make an mmo prototype down the track as mmo's have always been my favorite type of game and Ive always wanted to try out some designs :).

Besides that I have been re-working my website to make it more user friendly. I'll probably upload the updated version of it within the next week once I have finalized the design document for Elevator Evacuation.

Anyway here is the link for the Theory of fun book Id recommend it to anyone who is interested in game or level design :)

Here

Elevator Evacuation Level Maps

Ive done a bit more work on my gears of war level and done basic first pass of the level maps. they still need a lot more detail like props and more exciting rooms.

Ill also be doing gameplay flow versions of these maps with enemies and encounters on them as well.

any feed back would be great :)

In section A the player starts on a road then must travel up a small set of steps into the building courtyard to take out the enemies who are guarding the entrance with a Troika Turret.



Upon entering the building lobby the player finds that the stairs up are blocked and they must take the elevator, however as there is no power the player must venture down the stairs and turn on the back up generator before they can take the elevator.


Upon getting in the elevator the player ascends only to be interupted on floor 10 by a group of drones.
After these drones have been defeated the player continues to the top floor where they have a boss fight with a beserker.
Im still trying to work out a way to make the boss fight area more interesting.

Gears of War Level update: Elevator Evacuation!

So ive been busy working on the level design document for my gears of war level which I have entitled "Elevator Evacuation" for now seeing as I can't think of anything else :P

The document is pretty much complete except for the proper top down maps which I have only sketched up on paper and have yet to make proper photo shop or illustrator versions of.

Its been fun and sometimes tedious experience doing up this level design document as I enjoy writing it up but at the same time i'm just itching to get into the editor and get my hands dirty.
The document is currently 30 pages long and has a lot of reference images etc most of them being from gears of war itself taken with fraps.

anyway to tell you a bit about the level itself, as you know its a single player map for gears of war.
In this mission the player who is playing marcus awakes in a war torn street after his armadillo transport vehicle was ambushed, Only him and Dom survive out of his 10 man COG unit, Finding himself outnumbered deep in locust controlled territory the mission is to get to the top of a locust guarded building for helicopter evacuation, however the player is confronted with several obstacles along the way such as.

1. A locust drone defense post with a mounted turret guarding the entrance to the building
2. Upon entering the building lobby they find the stair case upwards has been blocked with debris (my secret revenge on stairs dam I hate them :P) with no other way to get to the roof the players have to take the rickity old elevator, however the power to the building has been cut so they must venture downstairs into the basement to turn it on and take out some pesky wretches along the way.
3. With the elevator working the doors open revealling dead cog members not a good sign of whats to come, Either way the player activates the elevator and heads to the top floor of the building. However they are ambushed when a group of locusts interupt there ascent when the elevator stops halfway on a floor and are greeted by a group of locust drones who promptly open fire upon the unsuspecting COG members
4. After the Player has defeated the enemies by either using existing cover in the elevator or diving out to seek alternative cover methods they continue there journey to the top floor only to be greeted by a Beserker, The player without the Hammer of Dawn must find a way to defeat this seemingly impossible opponent, Through clever positioning the player can force the berserker to charge through the main glass door on this level causing it to fall off the side of the 20th story building to its death.
5. Having defeated the berserker the king raven rescue helicopter lands and the mission is a success

Im hoping to get the maps done in the next day or so and the basic blue box of the level well and truely blocked out by the end of the week.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Update on Gears of War Project

Since my last blog I have spent a lot of time researching level design documents and have began writing mine up for my new level.

I have a basic map layout split up into 3 parts and the level design document well under way. Its shaping up to be a really cool level with a fair bit of scripting and a few cutscenes. Kinda worrying as its shaping up to be a lot bigger than my last DM-Waterfall project which is a bit daunting but I think If I put the effort in it should turn out alright :)

I also think that having a professional level design document to add on my portfolio will help as ive noticed a lot of positions requesting examples of documentation.

Anyway Stay tuned next blog I will be able to give more details on what level is about and maybe even include some overhead map sketches :)

Gears of War Fun

So I finally got a copy of Gears of war off ebay woot.

Ive started mucking around with the editor. Feels a bit gimped seeing as im so used to using UDK the last few months. But im getting hang of it
Major thing that seems annoying is trying to find props that are in packages. Which means I have to just keep loading random packages trying to find props.

I think after tonite and tommorow of mucking around with spawners etc I will be ready to start making a a basic single player level.

will probably start by making up a basic level design document and going from there.
My aim is to create a short single player game play experience including small cutscenes, audio and various kismet events.

Back into the fray!

So after a week of taking it easy and playing way to much starcraft 2. I am debating on what to start on next.

Ive narrowed it down to a few things

1. Make an awesome single player experience in gears of war showing level in stages of blue box and finished level.
2. Spend some time learning Lua
3. Learn Google Sketchup
4. Learn Hammer editor.

Still debating on what Im going to do at the moment. Im leaning towards a gears of war level. at moment.

Note: Added a few more final shots of my Dm-Waterfall level

Dm-Waterfall Beta

So Ive finished a basic beta of the level.

Here are some pics of the map. The biggest issue I have so far is the lighting which I prob need to improve on any tips would be much appreciated.

Plus any other tips on what you think would make the level any better are appreciated.

I think the main things that need improving is
1. Lighting
2. Filling the area around the map on the side opposite the cliff
3. Wish waterfall was a bit more dynamic as the scrolling texture looks a bit boring.
4.Inside of the church looks a bit bare wouldn't mind filling it up a bit more but dont know what with.

Note: Also redid the front of the church to something more orginal :)

Foilage Madness

Only got a few couple of hours in today. So didnt get a lot done.

I worked on adding foilage around the place. (Not sure If I went a bit overboard)
Covered parts of the church with hanging plants to help break it up a bit. Thinks it makes it look a lot more real.

I also fixed the grid water issue(turned out to just be the texture I was using) I also added a bunch of lily pads in the water :).

Did bit of work on one of the stair cases and chucked in some basic lights.

Replaced the walkway with a static mesh walkway that just luckily had to be in UDK.

Im getting closer to finishing I just need to fix up a couple of underground passages and finish off the stair cases then Im onto setting up lighting properly and going to start adding polish to level overall to try to bring it up to the standard of the front of the church.

Dm- Waterfall

So did a few hours work on level today.

I focused on the side of the church, some light props for interior of prop also made a start on the underground tunnel and did the underground cave section that players can jump down into.

I also tidied up the waterfall and added cliff wall on either side and some statues on top and added some basic props to the courtyard.

Think its starting to turn out really well. Just need to work out why the water has that grid pattern on it. :P

Plus that light beam in the cave is a bit intense