Counter-Strike Map Released! cs_qasba Now Available On CS:GO Maps Workshop!

Valve has opened the CS:GO Maps Workshop to the public!  Yay!  In other news, cs_qasba was uploaded to the Workshop today, and is available now for download!  Enjoy!

L4D2 Addon Campaign - It Seems To Be Happening!

Well, it does seem to be happening after all!  I've stopped working on my untitled CS:GO and TF2 maps for the time being to return to work on the Still-To-Be-Titled campaign.  When I last worked on this, the first map was almost finished, and the second was a good bit along.  Now I'm considering making this new work the first map, although that's up in the air; it could work as a second or even third map, depending on how I move things around... Currently, I have the survivors starting just outside, you guessed it, a hospital!  The main area is an atrium, which leads deeper into the complex, and then out the other side (you'll come out in the area pictured in the last screenshot I posted a couple of weeks ago - see below!).  Here's a Hammer screenshot of how the atrium area is shaping up.  It's very WIP.  Just sayin'...  :)

L4D2 Workshop & Down On The Farm Update

Well, Valve has finally released the Steam Workshop for Left 4 Dead 2!  Both my released maps (Escape From Parkdale & Down On The Farm) have been uploaded to the Workshop, and will no longer be supported on the l4dmaps.com website...

Additionally, I've just completed a large update for Down On The Farm and it's running a LOT better now!  Here are the changes:

- Fixed many windows where bots were getting stuck

- Removed 2 main survivor ladders in barn, added stairs

- Added various clips to, and changed physics properties of a lot of foliage/props

- Improved optimization

- Improved soundscapes

- Additional fixes to Nav Mesh

You can download it here!

Cheers!

L4D2 Campaign - Is It Back? - OR - Am I Really Working On This Again?

Work in film has slowed down a bit for the winter, allowing me to get in a little mapping.  But what's this?!!  A new Left 4 Dead 2 map?  To be added onto the existing work on a campaign?  Am I sure?!  No!  But here's a Hammer screenshot anyway...

Oilcake Productions Website Now Live!

Just a short note to announce the launch of the new Oilcake Productions website.  Along with the launch of the site, you may notice that the blog has some changes as well...  A new header and several new links, etc., down the right side.  Hope you guys like the new look & feel!  Cheers!

CS_Qasba For CS:GO Almost Complete!

Well, It's been a pretty crazy summer, that's for sure! Work in film/tv has been constant, for the most part. I've had a couple of weeks free to get back at mapping, though, and have managed to (almost!) complete the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive version of my old, unpublished and unnamed CS:S map.

I've decided to call it CS_Qasba, which has a bit of a story behind it. When I began work on this map almost 3 years ago, I was really just starting out with Source mapping. Besides trying to design a well-balanced, fun-to-play map, one of the main things I wanted to learn was how to texture properly. Being a big fan of David Johnston and his work, I decided to go with the Dust environment... All this went quite well, all things considered, but at the end of the day, the CS:S version of the map was never released. It never quite looked the way I wanted it to, and then it got lost in the tidal wave of L4D2 work.

With the release of CS:GO, I decided to resurrect the map, which still remained nameless (well, I went through a series of names, but they sucked for the most part!).  Finally, I settled on CS_Casbah, only later remembering that David Johnston (again!) had made a Team Fortress Classic map called Casbah...  Obviously, this wouldn't do, but at the same time I liked the name a lot, and it fit with the map very well.  I ended up deciding to change the spelling to the Arabic version, Qasba.  That way I could keep the name, while still paying homage to the Johnston link.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it: "The Casbah (Arabic: قصبة‎, qaṣba, meaning citadel (fortress)) is specifically the citadel of Algiers in Algeria and the traditional quarter clustered around it. More generally, a kasbah is the walled citadel of many North African cities and towns."

So there it is!  Very close to completion now, only a few last things to do...  I'm still trying to decide if I should wait for Valve's CS:GO Map Workshop to release it,  or just go ahead on my own.  I'll make that decision soon.

In the meantime, here are some before and after screen shots, CS:S version on top, CS:GO below.  Enjoy!

[L4D2] Down On The Farm - Final Version Available Now!

Well, I've actually managed to get a fair bit done lately!  Here's the final version of DOTF, available for download at l4dmaps.com...  I've fixed a bunch of bugs, added a bunch of doors, cut a new pathway into the back of the barn, changed some lighting, worked on the nav and a bunch of other stuff!  Unless there are any remaining game-breaking bugs, this one is out the door!

You can find a load of other screenshots over here!  The (really, really long) WIP thread is at WOLD.  Hope everyone has as much fun playing it as I had making it!

The next order of business is to build a proper web presence, expanding from this blog to a portfolio site and including Facebook and Twitter...  Hopefully I'm going to have all this working by the end of the weekend...  As usual, we'll see!  :)

Escape From Parkdale v.9 (Final) Released

Well, it's been ages since I've posted anything here, but I have been getting at things slowly in the meantime.  There were issues with the last version that was up on l4dmaps.com, so I've done a little tweaking and uploaded the final version.  I made a few other minor changes and worked a little bit more on optimization, but that's as far as I'll go with Parkdale.  This one is finished!

Next up is to get at bug fixes for Down On The Farm.  I've made some progress with this, but have some more work to do.  As it has been for ages, Film/TV is booming in Toronto, and I'm staying very busy with that.  I will be trying to get the final of version of DOTF out soon, though, hopefully in the next couple of weeks at most...?!  We'll see how time permits...

I'm developing a  tentative long-term plan to follow that.  First up is to finish up my Counter-Strike: Source map, so I can see how it's received.  It'll be nice to have a map that can be upgraded to CS:GO soon after it comes out...  After that, I may finish up the first map of the L4D2 campaign, which is relatively close to complete.  If that's well received, I may actually finish the campaign, though that is a punishing amount of work to be looking at, given my already brutal schedule.  The other option (well, ONE other option!) would be to finally get at making a TF2 map, which I've been wanting to do for ages...  We'll see!

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!

Playable Map For WoLD Gameplay Challenge...

OK, here it is...  First version publicly available to test.  Download it here!  Contest is over on the 21st of May, so I'll be making changes for sure.  Love to hear any feedback, opinions, etc!  Latest screen shots and such on the most recent page of my WIP thread over at World of Level Design.  Cheers!

New Shots From The WoLD Gampeplay Challenge!

Hey!  Thought it was time to put some screens up here, as well.  Pardon the quality...  Since the Passing, I haven't been able to run my graphics above medium or the game crashes to desktop.  Ugh.  Anyway, Here are the screens!

Interior of the last room before the safe room.  Safe room entrance is at the left of this shot.

 One of the outside sections.  Few more props now, starting to look like a map!  :)

Looking through one of the arches into the final area.  The wooden barricades on the left will be blown up in the event...

Event sequence:  1. Player presses button on C4 Remote Detonator.  2. Wooden barricade is destroyed, opening way to the safe room.  Onslaught begins.  3. A second later, the charge at the top if the fire escape goes off as well, blowing open the blocked door.  Survivors can now make their way to the safe room.

Some overhead shots.  Again, sorry about the quality, it's really kind of embarrassing...  Valve may force me to get a new computer sooner than I'd wanted to.  Ugh, again.

Overhead again...

And again!  :D

That's it for now.  Here's a link to the latest page of my WiP Thread over at World of Level Design.

Cheers!

Back At It!

Well, there was a nice little burst of film & tv work there for a few weeks, but it seems to be dying down a bit now.  Highlight of that was 2 1/2 weeks in a gravel pit north of Toronto making it look like the Antarctic for the prequel to The Thing (John Carpenter's 1982 version).  Loads of fun (and brutal work) and some money in the bank to last until there's more work!  Haha.  So a few days here and there, I imagine, for the next couple of months or so?  Hard to say, but that seems about right.

So that means it's back to mapping!  I haven't gotten around to posting here yet, but I've been working on a new World of Level Design contest for the past week.  Here's a link to the Gameplay & Flow Level Design Challenge guidelines.  Here's a direct link to my WIP thread in those forums.

I'll post here occasionally, but that will be my main thread for the development of this new map.

Here are a couple of screens of it coming together:

Cheers!

Here It Goes... Again...

Alright, Version 7 will be available in about five minutes time.  Should be at least a few hours before a ton of holes get smashed through this one!  Thanks to all that have helped recently with bug reporting, play testing, etc.  I couldn't possibly do this without you guys...  Cheers!

Fixing Now...

Alright, haven't heard from Mik3 yet, but kithiero figured it out!  Thanks to him!  Making changes now.  Should have the fixed version ready soon...

Big Fix Coming Today...

Wow, so I'm going to have to do another version immediately...  I forgot to upload my custom horizon texture for the skybox.  I was so positive I had thought of everything!  Haha.  Also, right after uploading the new file, Mik3 and The Tuss found the nastiest exploit on the Hotel balcony.  Worst part is, I haven't actually talked to him still, so all I have is a brief explanation and the screenshots...  I tried to replicate it for ages, but can't figure it out!  In any case, I can't leave that in there.  I've fixed the skybox and a couple of new nav issues, and now I've added a couple of new custom overlays as well while waiting...  Some screens until I get this update going on:

 

Wow, that skyline is ugly!

Players can get behind the furniture block.  Obviously, this breaks things...

You can see from this angle the the chair is floating out there...  Ugh.

New door overlay...  Band used to practice at this place...

Woohoo!  Stevie graffiti!  Fresh from downtown Toronto!

More later when I figure this glitch out!  Cheers!