Project Update & Continuation
Today I spent 5 hours stranded on a bus trying to get
home from Norwich because the snowy weather conditions worsened. Yay. Anyway before this
catastrophe I had been at a project session discussing my work with tutors
Lothar and Nigel. They mentioned a few important aspects regarding our learning
agreements and project time such as:
Ensure the learning agreement dictates what
you’re doing,
how you’re doing it and why you’re doing it.
Learning agreement needs to be precise,
concise and exact; it shouldn’t really be very vague.
We don’t necessarily have to create a
level or large environment; an efficiently built model with proper textured
ready to be put into a programme such as UDK can be classed as “interactive” to
fulfil the brief.
If we do want to create an environment
then we can block out the rest of the area roughly and insert the 1 fully
textured model as part of the
submission.
When I told Lothar and Nigel about my idea I didn’t
really receive a positive or negative opinion back :/ Lothar seemed
apprehensive about me trying to create a full environment but after stating
that we could perhaps just texture 1 asset within it he seemed alright with the
idea. I think it will be better to physically show him my ideas as opposed to
trying to explain them.
Okay, So, What Am I Doing Huh?
I guess now is the right time to clarify where I stand
with the work I want to create. Although my original learning agreement stated
I was going to create a single asset I am actually going to attempt to build a
basic environment. Within this environment there will be a small selection of
models that I have built to create the scene in which the player finds
themselves.
The environment I want to create is a study room from
the museum setting in Distorted Delirium. For this I am fairly open in terms of assets to include
but my current ideas are to have glass display cabinets, a bookshelf, desk,
chair, ornament and possibly a rug. I also want to populate my desk with a book
and letter the player can pick up in the game that relates to the story as well
as having draws to open or a clue in one of the glass displays. Something like
that anyway!
So that is my idea currently. I have a good idea of how
I want to create the room and use simple, clean primitive meshes to inhabit it.
More Tips and Advice from World of
Level Design
First things first…reference material. If I can refer back to the book I have been
reading created by Alex Galuzin from
World of Level Design(.com) then I can talk to you about section 3, planning
and researching your map.
Galuzin gives a really handy workflow method to
planning, organising and researching your levels…
Decide on your idea.
Know your purpose for your design. Why
do you want to create this game environment? What is the final outcome? -
this ties in nicely with what Nigel was saying to us today about knowing WHY we
are creating something (and it’s NOT just to “get better at 3D remember guys!
Haha)
Research your location (architecture
style, time of day, colour, palette you want to use etc)
Collect photo references (architecture
references, lighting, props etc)
Create a top down layout. How will your
Environment play? How will the player navigate through your environment?
What are the objectives, if any, for
the player to complete?
Create a background story for your
environment. Why is the player there? What does he/she need to do?
What will you need to learn? Are there
any skill sets that you need to improve on (modeling, texturing, lighting)?
In the following section (section 4) there is a
paragraph which I think greatly relates to what Nigel was telling us today
about having meaning and purpose behind our work…
“[…] figure out WHY
you will spend time so finish the map. Knowing the outcome you want to achieve
will help you through the hard times during your production when you feel like
it isn’t working out. When you feel that you may be better of starting a new
map. Knowing your outcome will help you stay on track.”
I am now going to spend some time finding visual
references for my level environment which I will post up next time :)
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