I've finally made a video demo of the villa. I'm going to try to make a higher quality video later when I have a chance to play test the newest edition. Enjoy!
Friday, January 30, 2009
video update
what i do when i'm not at my computer
I thought I would post some pics of what else I've been working on. In my spare time I like to paint plastic figures for one of my games that's sitting in my closet. I've been working on them with the ever-so-lovely RachelKiah, and we've already finished four of them in just a couple of weeks.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
cave pictures
The results of an all-night, all-day, all-night session. I need to get faster at this...
The scenic villa...
A trap door...
No point in wasting time, let's bash it apart!
Probably should've looked before leaping...
A whole new area to explore...
I added the cliffs because I was bored...
I can't say why, but I just love this look...
only one more update to go
I have some new pics of the progress I've made. I made one big change and one small change. I'm trying to fix the scenery around my map, so I added surrounding cliffs to make the villa really feel nestled in the mountainside. I added some hills behind the town in the distance to make it look less flat (I'm from western Washington, so I'm used to seeing hills on every side of me).
The change I'm most excited about is the addition of a larger room with a lake in the basement caves. I'm hoping that with the addition of a few more tunnels, this will be a centralized hub below the map. The sweeten the deal, I threw an RPG in the lake. The reason that I added it here was to give the player a feeling of danger, since no place is more vulnerable than the water, especially deeper water. I threw a trap door in the living room to allow the player to jump from the upper level to the lower level very quickly.
I just finished playing with my roommate, and I'm already noticing areas where I wish a passageway existed. I only need to add a couple passages to the basement and I think I will finally be able to upload the second beta version of the map.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
lofty goals
There was a little interest in a downloadable version of my second beta so my hope for my two days off will be to have a fully playable and somewhat decent looking version up and running; I'm hoping it'll be ready by Thursday night.
*fingers crossed*
Monday, January 26, 2009
now the sky is purple and the lighting is orange... what will i think of next?
I've really worked on the ambient lighting on the level for the last few days and I'm playing around to see what time of day I like the look of most. So far, all of my pictures have been noontime pictures, with really bright lighting and an unappealing sky texture. I'm playing around now to see how I like other combinations of sky and lighting. The thing that is so fun about using the Hammer editor is that you can pick individual sky textures (say, one with orange and blue clouds at sunset or one with a bright blue sky) and you can set the lighting's color, angle, and brightness independently for some pretty interesting results. My latest experiment follows:
Thursday, January 22, 2009
big update... el mas grande
I've changed a lot of the map since I started playing the beta version with my roommates. Everything feels very smooth so far and the weapon placement seems pretty natural, and these are the two most important aspects besides fun. We talked about different ways to take the map and my favorite suggestions involved expanding the map up and down, and adding some interactive traps throughout.
The biggest change I've made was the addition of a roof to play on, which seems small but really adds an entire layer to the combat. My next plan is an expansion of the underground tunnelways.
Enjoy the pictures guys.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
beta available
The beta version is up! I'm keeping my fingers crossed now that everything goes okay. I uploaded it to this address.
To install, download the map to the ...Program Files\Steam\Steamapps\(username)\Half-Life 2 deathmatch\HL2mp\maps directory. Yea, they had to make it challenging enough. It should then be ready to play using HLDM.
If you download the map and play it, let me know what you think either through email (klyemar@gmail.com), or in the comments section. Let me know if you have any problems downloading and I will see what I can do about it.
My Steam account name is psy_cosis; if you download the map, add me and I would be happy to play.
Thanks everybody!
beta version pics
I posted some pictures after the jump in sweet, sweet HDR:
eerie...
the back yard
pic of the newly destroyed courtyard hall
from the attic
i wonder what's up there...
what would you want to do with those?
more rubble
contrasting colors
contrasting colors
the living room
looks like someone's been drinkin' out of a paper sack...
i've finally made the beta version
I really can't say how good this feels to finally have a playable build of the map after an intense month of work. I made the final preparations and played it with my roommates earlier today. It was a success! I changed a few things afterwards, some minor and some major (no more doors). I'm going to add some pics in the next post and hopefully by tomorrow I'll have a link to download the map if you have HLDM.
Friday, January 09, 2009
the blooper reel
I added a light to the map earlier to experiment and had no idea just how bright I made it. This is what happens sometimes when you load your new map after making some innocent changes:
This first room just looks very washed out:
Outside, it's even worse. It looks like a semi-truck is shining its high beams out the windows:
one full day of work
Today was a challenge. I've spent eight hours working only to be exactly where I was when I started today. This must be a common experience for anyone that is designing a level without much experience: I found myself working on one small aspect that I don't like, like the look of the living room for instance, making changes for hours only to have it look the same when I'm done. I must have done that for four hours today until I took a break (bowling!) and came back at it from a fresh angle. Sure enough, I got at least something minor done! I added some of the fundamental elements for a multiplayer level (multiple spawn points ftw), and I fixed up a few areas where the player has a tendancy to get caught on the geometry while running.
On a more constructive note, I spent a few hours today reading through some literature on level design and finding a career in the games industry. There were a lot of great pointers in the former and quite a few insights in the latter. If I feel motivated at some point I'll write down what I've learned. Lots of great stuff, it's just 2 in the morning and I think I need to reboot for tonight.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
a new year's update
I finally have a new update for the new year. I've completely redone the attic to allow players from the lower level to engage players up above, and to prevent players in the attic from hiding and camping. I added minor detailing to the windowsill, but most importantly for picture taking's sake I made the shadows on some of the walls much more detailed. I'm posting comparison shots so you can see the difference in the shadowing on the wall.
The Living Room:
The primary difference here is that the lighting from the bulb is rounder than it was and the sunlight is now able to shine in through the window (which has a beautiful and painstakingly crafted wooden lip on it now!).
The Attic:
I'm thinking of making these cross-beams breakable. That would be a cool effect but I don't know if it translates well in multiplayer.
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