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.

It's Over!

Well that's it guys. We are finally finished. I think that our group was the best in the entire class. We stuck together the whole time and never lost focus of our goals. I would like to say that we will get an A on this project, but that is not for me to decide.
I would like to conclude this post by saying that these past 10 weeks have been great and i couldn't have done this without you guys. It was my honor to have worked with you guys and I will be proud to say that I was a part of Maximum Amazing no matter what grade we get!
Have a great break guys! See you next term Chris and Leo (Lionell).

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!

lol wut

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.