L4D2 Scavenge/Survival Map Nearing Completion

First of all, some news about this blog.  It will soon become part of a bigger portfolio site, which I'll start on just as soon as I'm finished "Down On The Farm".  I'm seriously considering doing all my development updates through this blog after that, as opposed to posting on other sites.  I'm not sure about this idea yet, though.  I would still be posting on other sites, but just some occasional screens and things...  Anyway, we'll see!

For the time being, here's a few new screens from [L4D2] Down On The Farm.  I've been doing a lot of work on lighting, which still takes me a long time and many iterations to get right.  That said, I feel like I am actually getting better at it, which makes it all worth it!  I'll do the final detail and lighting passes next, I think.  After that, I'll get onto sound.  I haven't done a lot with audio in the game before, so this will be fun.  I've done a bunch of reading on soundscapes and some basic tests, so I don't think it will be too hard to achieve something I'm happy with.

There's not actually that much left to do on this map now, comparatively, at least!  Haha!  It shouldn't be too much longer in any case...

 

 

 

 As usual, the full dev thread with additional screens and commentary is over at the brand new WoLD forums.  Here's a link to the latest page of the thread.  Cheers!

[L4D2] Down On The Farm - Scavenge/Survival Map

Quite a bit has happened since that last post...! Made a lot of progress on both maps. Then the holidays hit, and as January began I decided to take a bit of a break from the campaign and do a map for the WoLD Winter 2011: Level Design/Game Env Challenge. I'd been asked to help with the judging, so I wouldn't be eligible, but the idea of having another published map at the end of the month was quite appealing! The challenge is now complete (Grats to all involved!), and here I am still working on it... Haha! Anyway, I'm aiming for completion in another two weeks; I think that should be enough time.

Here's a link to the original dev thread in the Winter 2011 Challenge section. I've started a new one in the Work In Progress section that continues on from where the challenge thread leaves off.

A few screenshots, all WIP:

 

L4D2 Campaign Screenshots

Well, here it is into December and I haven't posted in ages! Work in film has dropped off to almost nothing for the time being, so that means back to the level design in a serious way. We've come a long way with this campaign now. The first map is just about ready for testing, although there is still a ton to be done on it. We haven't even touched the audio portion yet, for example. That said, it's looking really good, and feels great when playing through it.

I'm in the process of putting the second map together right now. Some of it is only basically blocked, while other areas have far more detail. Roughly half way through, there's an event I'm planning in a warehouse train bay. The way forward is blocked by the train, so the survivors will have to "disengage the track lock" (or something to that effect) so the train moves until an open box car allows passage onwards. I'm not sure exactly how long the event will last yet, but basically the survivors will have to fight off the horde until the train is in its final position.

I got a little out of control with the texturing and lighting before even building the event (which I'll be getting at later on!), and even though the area is by no means finished, I felt it was time to drop at least a few screenshots...

I'll try to start posting here more often, but for the time being enjoy the screens! Cheers!

TV/Film Work Currently Endless...

Well, it seems that it's going to be a while before I have a chance to get back at the level design in any kind of concerted fashion...  Just finished 11 days in a row on Covert Affairs (TV show, believe it's airing on USA in the States), and it look like the next few weeks will be just as busy.  I'd been trying to get Escape From Parkdale finished up to be hosted by Valve on their official servers, but even that has had to be put off for the time being.  As soon as I can I'll get that done, at least.  Not sure when this massive wave of work will slow down, but for the moment I have no choice but to go with it, and fill up the bank account for when it all slows down again.  That being the nature of the business...  Cheers!

Long Overdue Update!

It's been quite a while since I've posted on the blog.  Life seems to have a way of getting unbelievably busy lately.  There's been lots of work in film again, so that's been keeping me out of the house a lot more.  Good for the bank account, not so good for the level design work!  Most of the work is for TV Series/Pilots, so the wages aren't what they are for Feature Films, but so be it.  They're saying that there will be fairly solid work through to next Spring.  At that point, the actors, writers and directors will all go to the bargaining table with the producers at the same time, and the general thinking is that there will be some fairly significant labour stoppages. We'll see, i suppose.  In the meantime, we'll be getting a lot of work so they can bank shows/movies to see them through any strikes that may occur.

As for the WoLD Challenge, well, I lost that one quite badly, it seems.  Not quite sure how that happened, but suffice it to say that's it for me and contests for the time being.  I could still swear that mine was the only one that actually worked properly...  In any case, it's time to set aside such things and get down to work on a proper campaign.  The screenshots from my My 16th post are all outdated.  None of that will be used in this new campaign.  The team is currently myself and MikeTheBodacious, and we've come quite a long way with the first map.  It's coming along really well, although we're still unsure as to whether the campaign will end up being 3 maps or 5.  The first map is fairly long, but instead of doing 2 more longish maps with the finale at the end of the thrid, we may do 3 additional shorter maps, with a fifth that would be mainly finale.  That remains to be seen.  In any case, I'm going to start doing more of a development diary for this campaign.  I imagine that I'll use this blog for that purpose, instead of one of the mapping site forums, at least for now.  So, I'll get some screens together soon and post them here.  Not sure when I'll actually get to this because of all the IATSE work, but I'll be trying to update a lot more as the work progresses.

Cheers!

WoLD Challenge Update & Sneak Peek...

The WoLD Gameplay & Flow Challenge is heading into it's last week.  I've been sitting on my entry for a week, now, getting some feedback, etc.  Monday I'll be starting to do the final changes & fixes for the Friday deadline.  I'm not going to go crazy with it, though, as I think it's achieved what it was meant to do.  It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that a campaign should, but it's not ever going to be that, so why do that much more on it, is my feeling. I'm happy with the way it has worked out in any case.  I think the level design, within the parameters of the challenge, is actually pretty good...

So, here's a sneak peek at a couple of screens from a new campaign.  Seems we'll be a team of three for this one, at this point.  I'm really excited about working with a great modeller.  So nice to not be limited to Valve's props...  More news about the make-up of the team at a later date.

Check out the screens:

 

Not sure when we'll be officially announcing, so there won't be an official WiP thread for now.  I might drop some screens on here occasionally, though...

Cheers!