ChrisT. Weary Blog 10

The Final project for World Building was really. Things my team, and I have done during this project the effect how the projects was completed or the reason for no completion. So, what went wrong, what went right? These are just some of the question I will answer.

When I things go right it feels real good and there was a lot of good feel flow in and around this great project. There were many time that we were saying to ourselves that this level is looking pretty smooth so far, one of those point was when Lionell brought to us the model for the serpentine like vine for the vine whip section in the game. We were blown away at how great it looked, we were even more surprised when we seen people actually so down to walk carefully across it. Another one of those points was when Jordon brought to us the second version of the second part of our levels block in. This was after  the one I made had a ton of convex  shapes in it. The level had great atmosphere potential too, all it need was the right amount of light to really make it feel like a cave. This was most evident in the case of the pit room. The pit room as of now lit at a level where it is a challenge to travel though. In the level we had many great asset allowing the cave to really feel real, it’s fantastic. Most of all, we did everything that we set out to do.

 But, everything wasn’t the sunshine and rainbows like it may seems, some things in our level just did not work. One of the least unsuccessful things that happen was the original block in for the second part of our level.  That block in had some major issues, when made the level I decided that it would be great to bother with the verts, so I did. I started movin’ and jerkin’ around the verts like I it was some kind of zoo, little did I know convex shapes are very bad. So, I found out the hard way that the level did work.

 That wasn’t the only thing that that went wrong there was one major flop. It was the way too difficult. It was the dreaded rock wall jumping challenge. That challenge was the most hated thing I have ever had the privilege to take part in creating. To go into detail would just be too cruel to you, so I will just say that it was dealt.  Well during the play test people complain about two different thing one being the rock wall and the other being the pit room. To be specific it was the lighting in the pit room, the room was just too dark you could not see the holes in floor. To remedy the situation we put in lights, but there was still a problem the next play tester just breeze though the area like ti was not even there. I thought to myself “Good lord in the heaven below!” it was an easy fix and now the area is looking really great.

                If there was more time there would be more ideas implemented into the level. Some of these idea include a teleporter that would transport you a large area with a skybox and a feel of completion of the level.  Also I was thinking about a secret challenge level. The secret level would have involved using the translocater to jump from area to area. It was just something I thought up while I was attempting to do the second part of the level in reverse. But, there ain’t no time for such dreamery. Bots with limited a patroling like path would have been really cool. Adding music would have been awesome I was going to research how to do it today (the day of typing)but, two post-mortem are kind of time consuming for a cool dude such as myself. Other than that there is nothing else I can think of.

Jordon's Post #10

My Post Mortem

First of all I would like to say that I loved this class! I wouldn’t change a thing about it if I was the instructor. I like the Unreal engine a lot, and it was great to have my teammates there to back me up the whole way. I was satisfied with the way the class was set up as far as the milestones were concerned. I really felt that taking the first level design class gave me an edge in World Building and that my biggest challenge was in the conceptual phase of the class. Once my group got that out of the way I was able to get to work in the engine and that was where we had the most fun. With that said, I will now get down to the actual key points of my Post Mortem.
So many things went right for my team that it is hard to organize them all into a coherent message. First off, I sincerely believe that I had the two best teammates in the entire class. We had great concepts that we passed back and forth between each other until they turned out perfect. We had great communication and work ethic which is what gave our group a distinct advantage. Chris and Lionell’s concept art gave us the vision that we needed to make our level look just like we planned. I had a very clear vision of how our level would be laid out when I began working on it in Unreal. When Chris eventually took over he completed the level better than we could have imagined.
Also, I feel that our group placed our assets at just the right locations to make our level looked and felt authentic. Lionell did a great job with the textures for our level and that was the difference between realistic and fake. My experience with Unreal really came in handy because I was able to dig out a good portion of the level in a relatively short period of time. This turned out to be a great asset to us because we needed the extra time to deal with some problems that came up after the first playtest.
There were a few problems with our level design process starting at the very beginning. At first our concept was way too broad because when I heard world building I thought that your concept had to encompass the entire world that the game takes place in. In actuality your concept only needs to be comprised of the areas that your action would occur in. Eventually we were able to slim our concept down, but not before we made our group look slightly foolish to the class.
After that the road was generally smooth for us until it came time to actually dig the level out in Unreal. I had completed a good two fifths of the level by the last weekend before the playtest and it was time for us to ether let Chris take over or let me finish it. We decided to let Chris take over, but I just couldn’t leave it alone. I then proceeded to finish the rest of the level on my own while Chris was working on his own version. Two days before the playtest we had two versions of the level and one choice to make. This was the first and the last time our group had a breakdown in communication. We ended up choosing my version of the level because I had added a pool of water as well as a rock wall as was stated in our concepts. Chris’ version looked great, but it was full of convex shapes and therefore buggy as all hell.
The only other thing that went wrong for our level was the rock wall jumping challenge. I can’t say anything else other than that it sucked. I take full responsibility for it and I was able to fix it eventually. It was way too hard to construct as well as no fun for the player, and therefore had to go. We ended up adding a vine climbing challenge in its place to make things easier on the player. I have a very good feeling that it is a vast improvement over the rock wall.
If we had more time I can tell you that we would have added a small outdoor part to our level just to show the player what it looked like when they got out of the cave. I also think that we would have tried to add some lighting and fog effects to our level to make it look more mysterious. My group may have also tried to model a few of the awesome enemies that we had come up with and put them in as placeholders for the player’s viewing pleasure.
If I could go back in time and change something I wouldn’t. I loved working with my group as well as working with Unreal. Through all of the ups and downs our group remained focused and determined to make the best level possible. As I stated before I had the best group in the class and I feel privileged to have worked beside them. The past ten weeks that we spent working on our project have been some of the best times of my entire life and I would not trade them for anything! I would also like to thank Amanda for being a great instructor and helping us with any problems that came up. In conclusion I feel that I can only sit and pray that our level is looked upon with favor by the class as well as the instructor.
Long Live Maximum Amazing!

ChrisT. Weary Blog 9

What stages of the project am I on and how is it progressing?

i finish the boss room and was really a work of art, the inspired me to think more clearly about the level and to find more way to creatively exploit the engine. Itwas all very exciting.

Right now I am tweaking some lights and getting ready to present this project.

Did I change my (project) milestone goals? If so, why?

Its far too late to do that.



How did I deal with the problems that came up?

Most of the we have found to be in the level has been ironed out.


 

Jordon's Post #9

We are at the final stage of our project. All that is left to do is mess around with the lighting and add some portals into the level. Our goals have not changed and we are moving forward as planned. One problem that did come up was that we had to turn the collision off on our big vine so that the player could climb it. To fix this we put a blocking volume around the vine. We also added small vines to the big one so that the player can see that you are able to climb it.
Right now everything is working normally and we are just tweaking a few things such as the lights and level optimization. I think we only have two more assets to add into the level and they are both just for extra flare.
Most of my time has been spent in Unreal messing with the lights. I also imported my ice spikes into the level and they are looking good. Chris was finally able to finish off the boss room for our level and I must say that he did any awesome job. It looks great and I can't wait for us to show it to the class.
Lionell (Leo) is doing a great job as usual adding in our assets in key areas. He has also been of great help advising me as I place the lights into the level. Chris showed up big this week by finishing off the boss room. He did a great job lighting and placing the models into his portion of the level. I am doing OK right now. I had to give up on a couple of my models because they were taking to long to keep exporting again and again because they would not work. I am doing a good job of adding the lights to the level in order to capture the feel of our game. My major problem was organization of the texture files. That is why my textures were not showing up on my models. It was just dumb mistakes on my part. As a whole however, our group is working very well together. I think our project will be in the top three in the class for sure!

L.Fisher Blog 9

o What stages of the (project) am I on and how is it progressing? How or what could I improve?

I thought we were pretty much done, but we still have lighting essues. Also we are trying to make things more appeling to the player.


o Did I change my (project) milestone goals? If so, why?


Yes, the boss room was soposed to by viewed from up above, but we could not get that to work. We did somthing else thats working just fine.


o How did I deal with the problems that came up?


since my job is done I was trying to get transparency working, I did it and now I have to put it into the level.


o What is working and what is not working in the planning and implementation of the (project)?


The lighting for the hole challenge is giving us a migrain. Hopefully Jordon can fix it over the
weekend.


o Briefly describe your time spent and any problems (within the team, with a computer, etc)


Most time spent was on the walls and lights. Problems will be delt with apon arrival.


o Evaluate the (project) as a whole including team members, if applicable


Going great can't wait to show everyone.

L.Fisher Blog 8

 o What stages of the (project) am I on and how is it progressing? How or what could I improve?

Final Stage. Is the final stretch, Putting the last totches on the level is going to be difficult.

o Did I change my (project) milestone goals? If so, why?

Every thing is still set. But it might change later on.

o How did I deal with the problems that came up?

Bust through it with sheer skill and preserverence.

o What is working and what is not working in the planning and implementation of the (project)?

The latter didn't work for a while, but we fixed it.

o Briefly describe your time spent and any problems (within the team, with a computer, etc)

Putting the walls in the level so it'll look like a cave.

o Evaluate the (project) as a whole including team members, if applicable

The team is working, but other classes is getting in the way of progression.

ChrisT. Weary Blog

What stages of the project am I on and how is it progressing?

This weekend i will be working on the Bosses Dome room in greater detail.  

How or what could I improve?

Ignoring most distraction, they are my greatest enemy.



Did I change my (project) milestone goals? If so, why?

none of the things decided has been through any major changes.



How did I deal with the problems that came up?

The rock wall was a major issue but it has been resolved, and it has been replaced with a much more reasonable obsticle.

Evaluate the (project) as a whole including team members, if applicable.

The project is going great and it will be the best in the class I am sure of it. Maximum Amazing is as the name would suggest we are as amazing humanly possible, we are getting our work done and destroying problem areas in our level with the guns of teamwork. 

Jordon's Post #8

We are really getting down to brass tacks with our project. We are at the stage where we have begun to pool all of our assets and bring them into the level. The level is starting to look more and more like we envisioned it every day.
Our goals have changed slightly in that we have decided to trim the fat. By that I mean that we will be cutting out some of our less valuable assets in order to focus on lighting and effects.
No real problems have occurred other than my models not exporting correctly. This happened because I put a PNGs on my models at first in order to test them when you really just need to put on a TGA. If Unreal notices the slightest hint of a PNG it won't work. I will have to go back and retexture my models.
Lionell is doing a great job of bringing in his wall textures and placing them in key positions in order to make our level look more like a cave. We also took out our jumping challenge and replaced it with a vine climbing obstacle instead. This is way easier for the player to navigate in a shooter style game. What is not working is my assets as I mentioned before. I will have to retexture them.
As I stated earlier, our group spent a lot of time this week working on the jumping challenge. We ended up getting rid of it and choosing to add a ladder volume to get up the wall instead. We also spent a lot of time making sure that vines and rocks where placed in the right spots along the walls.
I think our whole team is doing a great job with the exception of myself. I really screwed up with the textures on my models and that has set us back by a bit. I will have to come in on Monday and work on them until I am sure that they work. Lionell is doing the best out of all of us. His wall meshes look great, as do his vines. Hopefully I can get my models done so that I am pulling my own weight again.

ChrisT. Weary Blog 7

What stages of the project am I on and how is it progressing?

As of now i am working on the the textures of the some really sweet fat vines and what not. Also i would like to comment on the play test of the level, i would like to say that we had some pretty successful areas, but there were some areas that completely flopped.(Rock wall jumping challenge) 

How or what could I improve?

Rock wall jumping challenge needs a complete overhaul. It needs to be completely redesigned, but its being worked on at the moment.



Did I change my (project) milestone goals? If so, why?

Major changes have not been need yet. 



How did I deal with the problems that came up?

The play test has shown us our first mistake. This mistake is the RWJP(Rock Wall Jumping Challenge). no one liked it at all was a complete flop due to it difficulty. it is currently under reconstruction.

What is working and what is not working in the planning and implementation of the (project)?

The atmosphere was some thing that people really like about our game.So, when we start our fine tuning of our level i will make sure that we keep the atmosphere in the same tone.

Jordon's Post #7

At this stage in the project we are focusing on completing our assets so that we may bring them into the engine. We are going at a nice steady pace and I think we should be able to begin asset importing and placement next week.
Our goals have changed in that we are now trying to make sure our level is fun and layed out properly by the end of this week. This is so that we can begin to bring in all of our assets which will be the meat of our level.We may even conduct a few extracurricular playtests to get it right.
Some major problems came up this week that needed to be handled right away. First off, Chris' build of the level looked great at first, but when we went into the engine there we a lot of errors. The convex shapes that he put in just screwed everything up. We handled this problem by having both Chris and I try our hand at rebuilding the level. We both came in on Thursday with good builds, but we decided to stick with mine because I added the walkway challenge, jumping challenge, teleporter placeholders, and underground spring.
For the most part people liked the concept of our level as well as the teleporters, walkway, and pitfall challenge. What failed were the patchwork lighting job, the placeholder textures, and MY GOD the jumping challenge. Funny thing, I just remembered why not many shooters have jumping challenges. THEY SUCK!!! They are a total pain to make and plan out for the designer as well as a pain for the player to navigate. I will be getting rid of ours ASAP or making it way shorter using ladders or a mover.
All of Our problems had to do with the game engine so I worked hours on end on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to fix them. Unreal is a great program, but she is a delicate flower that will crumble before your eyes at the first sign of a PNG or a convex shape.
Our project is going great at this point despite the challenges we faced this week. Our first build is done and now all we need to to this week is refine it. Once that is out of the way we can bring in all of our assets and make our level a thing of beauty. The people in our group who made mistakes (including myself) have owned up to them and we have moved on. I am on edge this week because we will all need to be passing the level around to add assets. I hope nothing goes wrong.

Lionell Fisher Blog 7

o What stages of the (project) am I on and how is it progressing? How or what could I improve?

The Final Stretch. We're sooo close to being finish I can taste it. So far its going better than expected. Hopefully we'll be done by Thursday of next week.


o Did I change my (project) milestone goals? If so, why?

The jumping challenge was a flop. So Jordon's gonna change it up "I hope its good".


o How did I deal with the problems that came up?

So far the only problem we came across was the jumping platforms. We as a group came up with ways to fix this problem. And Jordon will choose the best option.

o What is working and what is not working in the planning and implementation of the (project)?

Now that we got some feedback from other people, we know that the lights need work, the flatness of the walls need to be fixed, and the platforms.

o Briefly describe your time spent and any problems (within the team, with a computer, etc)

My time spent was creating the assets for the level. And now I have to put them in the level.

o Evaluate the (project) as a whole including team members, if applicable

The members are great I wouldn't switch them for anyone.

ChrisT. Weary Blog 6

 What stages of the project am I on and how is it progressing? 

As of now i am tasked with completing the level block in, and for me this is pretty easy.  I should be done with it by Sunday depending on the level of distractions around me. 

How or what could I improve?

Ignoring most distraction would easily make my work  become completed faster, make it look nicer.

Did I change my (project) milestone goals? If so, why?

no none of the thing decided has had any major changes.

How did I deal with the problems that came up?

Considering the fact that block in is pretty straight forward it should not have issue, but the only problem i can for see is this one huge area in the map. But i am the greatest street fighter alive and i think i can deal with that!

  What is working and what is not working in the planning and implementation of the (project)?

I am really like the atmosphere in the level so far. All it need is some creepy sound off into the distance and echoing footsteps, but so far nothing is failing on us.

Jordon Davis' Blog #6

First of all its great to be back at work on our level after a week off. I hope everyone in the group got a lot of rest because we are about to come down to the final stretch of the class.
At this point our group is working on digging out the level in Unreal. Its hard work, but Chris and I have finished more than half of the dig so far. Chris is about to take the level home for the weekend and finish it. I could improve on getting my models and textures to Chris faster. I say this because we are already almost done digging out our level and Chris has only been supplied with two or three textures to choose from.
Our goals did change slightly because for some odd reason I thought this milestone was due on Tuesday. Now we can take more time and care in digging out our level which is great.
The only problem that came up this week was getting our assets to Chris so that he may work on the level over the weekend. Lionell and I solved this problem by working on half of the level on my computer and then pooling all of our assets, maps, and packages onto Lionell's flashdrive.
Our projects is going smoothly at the moment, but I will have to wait until Tuesday to see what Chris has done. Our team is doing a great job of finishing our assets ahead if time. This is really great for the person who is digging out the level because they can go full speed ahead without having to stop for any reason.
Our biggest problem has been getting all of our ideas to look and feel the way we had originally planed them. When first digging out a level in Unreal it is important to remember that everything will look bland and blockish until you add the models to it. I have finished all of my minor models in 3Ds Max, but I have one major one left. Once I have modeled the walkway for our large open room I will be done with modeling.
All team members are still performing at a high level in my opinion. Barring a few minor confusions our group all seems to be on the same page. I am pleased with the direction our group is headed and I can't wait until Tuesday to see what Chris has come up with.

ChrisT. Weary Blog 5

         Some lessons I would really like to know would be is how to affect the player. What I mean is

that I want to be able to make the player sprint when I hold down a button or something like that.

Also gravity stuff really peaks my interest. 

As of now i am resting due to my birthday being today. And i will truely start working on tuesday.

Jordon's Post #5

At this point our group has just turned in our design doc and gave a presentation about our concept. I feel that we did a good job of clearing up any questions regarding our concept. At this point we are starting to create the textures and models for our level. Our goals haven't changed yet, but when we get our grade for the design doc we will have to tweak it a bit I'm sure.
The major problem that sprang up this week was that we had to hustle to get our presentation ready for Tuesday. It came down to the wire, but I pretty sure we put on a good show. Chris and Lionell were able to scan in all of their drawings and I was able to get everything printed out. The binder looked great in my opinion.
We are defiantly getting better at bouncing ideas off of each other. We usually get things decided within a couple of minutes instead of a half hour. We just need to start plugging away at our asset creation. That will be the deciding factor in our final grade. I already have some ice textures and rock models completed. I am working on cliff ledges and ice stalagmites at this point.
I think that we are doing a great job at this juncture. Now is the important moment where we must take our work from concept to tangible assets. Chris and Lionell have proven themselves to be great concept artist and I have shown that I am good at getting our ideas written out. Now we must see just how good we are at using the skills that we have gained in Photoshop and 3DS Max.
My job is to model the cliff ledges, rocks, stalagmites, bones, and treasure chests. I also am responsible for the textures for the ice, treasure chests, and bones. Chris is mostly responsible for working on the texture for the rocks, plants, and transporters. He will also have to model the sword and healing plant for our level. Chris and I will work on digging out the level in Unreal while Lionell will do a little more modeling than us. Lionell is responsible for modeling the plants, enemy placeholders, cave walls, and transporters. He will also be texturing some of the plants with Chris.
I think that this class has answered most of my questions so far. I also think that referencing the Unreal book will help us a lot. If there is one thing that the instructor could demonstrate to us to give us a little more help I would say that she should show us how to create a level that uses both indoor and outdoor areas effectively.

Lionell.Fisher Blog 5

o What stages of the (project) am I on and how is it progressing? How or what could I improve?

The stage now is to create my list of assets given to me by the team. create the Vines, the cave walls, and some other things that I will give you.

o Did I change my (project) milestone goals? If so, why?

The goals are all still the same. At least for me.

o How did I deal with the problems that came up?

With the help of Jordon and Chris, any problem that I've come to they helped me out.
(motivation, and keep me on track)

o What is working and what is not working in the planning and implementation of the (project)?

For Now nothing is working, because I havent started my workload yet

o Briefly describe your time spent and any problems (within the team, with a computer, etc)

My time spent was creating concept art for the character, enemies, and weapons.

o Evaluate the (project) as a whole including team members, if applicable

I can't say anything right now, because we just started to create the assests for the game. So I hope everything goes alright for my team and me.

Blog Entry 4 ChrisT. Weary

 At this point I am working on more concept art as well as some assets for the level. This precess is kind of difficult due to me not being use to drawing scenery. But the other stuff i am doing is going well for the most part.

How it could be improved. 

I still need to speed up in my draw while letting loose with the ideas.

Lionell's Blog 4

The stage I'm working on is modeling the assets. No milestones where changed. will not dramatically. Jordan told me not to slack so I won't . Every thing is working fine. Most of my time spent was on the assets. The team is doing better than ever, we have all the pieces to the puzzle all we have to do is put them to gather.

Jordon's Post #4

At this point our group is beginning to work on our design document for our level. We have the maps and flowcharts done as well as the asset list. I am confident that we are moving in the right direction although the road is rough. I think that if I had to improve my efforts in one way I would start to model and texture more so that we will be prepared in case something goes wrong later on.
Our project goals have changed slightly since last week. we all decided to get a little more ambitious with our level and actually model all of the cave walls in order to give them a rock feel. We also decided that we are going to at least place enemy placeholders in the level to show where combat would take place. I think that this would be a great idea, although I did stress to the group how important it was to get the basics done and solid.
One problem that did come up was our asset list. The group had a small amount of trouble deciding what was worth putting on the list as well as what was the highest priority. we solved this problem by organizing our stuff into things the level absolutely needs and "Jello" stuff. In the end we came up with a pretty good list.
Our group had no problems handing out rolls because we have already completed some of the models and textures. We all compromised and came up with what projects best fit our talents. For instance, Chris is really good with the Wacom tablet so we agreed that he should do the difficult textures. I am assigned to mostly model with some textures on the side.
Our group is working great together as usual. One advantage that we have is that we are all cool with each other outside of this class therefore it is easy for us to compromise with each other. I think that they trust me to do my best work and i trust them to do the same.
we are coming up on the meat of the class, where we move beyond just concept and into creating the level. before we get into that we are going to have to give this design doc all we've got!

Jordon's Post #3

At this point we are in the Diagram and flowchart phase of our project. I think that I need to improve the way I get my ideas across to my teammates. We had some miscommunication that cost us points unfortunately. Over the last few weeks our project has changed in a big way. Originally, our level was supposed to take place in a desert and our game was supposed to involve our whole world. (Pretty much the completely wrong way to go about things) We changed it to make our game about just one mission taking place on Mt. Everest.
Our team has defiantly come together to deal with the problems we had early on which is great. Last class we really got down to brass tacks in order to set up a plan for our diagram and flowchart. We all sat down and discussed the way the level will play out as well as how each part of the level will work. Chris came up with a couple of really good ideas for light motivation and concepts for our rooms. Lionell and I came up with a basic map and list of rooms.
I think that our team is working very well at this point. We all just bounce ideas off of each other until we come up with something good. With two great artists like Chris and Lionell on my side I feel like I can make any concept come out looking great. The concept drawings will come in very hand when we go to make our level so I am very glad that we have them.