Block Out Phase Part One

  After finishing the top down plan last week this week I have started to block out the level. In the screenshots uploaded before you can see the beginnings of the block out for one of the small tower islands. The block out is a rough pass on the level to work out how the level plays and flows and will be tweaked and adjusted accordingly.

Full Map

Just a brief update this week, I've completed a top down layout of the map, which is shown below, the last two things before I start the initial block out within the editor are to have a map with mood board and a annotated full map.

Central Island Top Down plan

  After creating the mood board last week to gather inspiration and organise my thoughts, this week I decided to do a quick photo shop plan of an idea of how I would like the central island building to be laid out. (see below.)

Central island plan

The plan has been split into a different sections as shown above, below are brief descriptions of each of these areas.

  The central area of the temple has been set aside to be the main combat focal point for this island, this will be achieved by placing lucrative pickups that all the players will be drawn to creating a frag pit. The temple will also have an upper level giving combatants extra vantage points to engage each other from.

  Surrounding the temple are three "bridge towers" these towers provide the user access to the second layer of the temple as well as being the connection point to each of the outlaying islands. Each tower will accommodate two bridges.

  The temple will also have a main visual point, as label above, the idea for this is to be a statue/alter to the Skaaj emperor or deity.

  The main entrance will act similarly to the bridge towers and will be the main access points for the bridges connecting the southern island, however these will be attached to the islands cliff edge rather than directly to the main entrance.

 

Idea Development

Skaaj Temple

With the background of the arena changing as the Skaaj clans evolved the map will need to subtle portray areas of how the map arena has progressed from a simple ritual area to a fully formed tournament arena, expanded by the empire's architects.

Skaaj sacred trial/temple grounds:

With the first purpose of he arena being a trail grounds for the Skaaj youths to under go there rite of passage from adolescents to full fledged clan warriors, sections of the map need to hint at this showing the player what the arena was used for in ages past.

For the central structure to keep with the trial ground theme, the central focal point with this idea would most likely be a temple or temple grounds see mood board. A second focal point could be an obelisk or a statue erected in the name of there gods. As with most societies the focal point should be big and attract the player to it, as this is where most of the fragging should happen.

The surrounding platforms will be support structures that branch off from the central area and interconnect with each other. Each of the towers will have several levels with the connection to the central point being done through bridges. In the case of the outer structures that are only connected to the centre there will be jumps pads connecting them to the adjacent platforms, these jump pads will only be one way.

Below is a mood board of the architectural style and feel I have been thinking of using for the basis of the level.

A mood board of the architectural style and feel I have been thinking of using for the basis of the level.

 

This basis could be used in conjunction with one of the main goals for this project, the aim is to use pre-existing meshes so I can focus on the design and layout of the environment. The Necris packages could be used to help portray this idea. The team at utmapping have put a great reference page  for the static meshes available with UT3.

Below is a table for the Necris Meshes:

Package	Contents	Assets
NEC_Arches	7	arches (pointed)
NEC_Base2	1	yellow vortex
NEC_Buildings	9	Turk roofs, octagon pillar (actually it's hexagon, but who would question the mesh name? :-))
NEC_Ceilings	5	Turk ceilings (vault)
NEC_Deco	42	babel spires, tree huggers, statues (angels, figures), infection tech, elevators, bulkheads
NEC_Doors	12	door frames, door leaf, tech doors
NEC_Floors	22	stairs, walkways, trims (all one set)
NEC_Lights	11	wall lights, free lights, turk lamps
NEC_Pillars	19	pillars, decorated pillars, tech pillars
NEC_Roofs	8	tiled roofs, trim, broken roofs
NEC_Supports	13	babel spire supports, tech supports
NEC_Trims	67	tons of trims, decorated/plain, grates, Vertebrae stuff, some decos
NEC_Walls	44	walls, bricks (moisture), arch doors, arch walls, armor walls, curved/decorated
NEC_Windows	5	windows, frame, window wall
NEC_Wires	39	bulb pipes, wires, wire connectors

With an idea in place for the general basis of the level the next stage will be to look at the surrounding area, and the setting of the none playable area. At the moment the initial troughs are to set in and around a cliff face/ocean area. However this idea progression will be covered in a separate post.

Environment Overview

A brief overview of the aims, background and setting of my environment. Below I have asked myself several key questions as to better plan my map. Answering the questions below will give me a better starting point for the shape, structure and design of the map.

Game Type:

Single Player or Multiplayer?

The map will be a Multiplayer Map, based on Unreal Tournaments death match and team death match game modes.

Game Type?

The map will support Death Match &Team death match game modes with the aim to support up to sixteen players.

• Death match: A classic every-man-for-himself player vs. player combat. The objective is to out-frag all opposing players.
• Team Death match: Teams compete together to out-frag the opponent team. Up to four teams will be supported.

What game is this map for?

    The map will be designed to fit the core game play mechanics of Unreal Tournament 3 and the universe it is set in. Although set in the UT universe the back story the map will be a standalone multilayer map for the community with its own background, story and features. 

Story:

Why are the players there?

  After the empire invaded human space wiping out any and all resistance, the emperor decided to re-establish the Liandri Corporations Death tournaments. The map will be set on one of the emperors "Arena worlds" where participants in the tournament can train and prepare to hold off there impending doom. The map is now a core arena in the emperors tournament fixtures used as a flagship to showcase humanities destruction.

Why is the place/environment there? Write the history of your environment. What happened to the place before the player entered the environment?    
 

The arena was original a central Skaaj holy site where clan members were sent to the trials. It was here at this site that they would begin their rite of passage, turning from an adolescent into a clan warrior.

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After many centuries of inner fight with each tribe vying for supremacy the clans formed together to create the Skaaj empire. It was then that the ritual site change from being a holy site to being a gladiatorial arena where clans could settle disputes, tussle for dominance and show there strength to any would be challenges.

After the empire invaded human space and instilled their version of the Liandri Corporation tournaments on humanity the site has now become a core arena in the tournaments fixtures list. 

   
Game play


What is the objective of your map? 

The main objective of the map is to be a portfolio piece that can be released into the unreal community for feedback and development. The map will be designed to fit in with the current UT3 Lore. The main aim of the map is to go back to the traditional roots of the first person shooter, re-introducing the fast pace frag fest of Multiplayer games of old.

How would the level play out? Games play wise?

The original idea of the arena is to have a central focal point or structure, surrounding this will be smaller structures. The main goal is for the contestants to make their way to the central structure to frag each other to death. The outer structures will be support areas where players will spawn, and stockpile on weapons, ammo and pickups. To accommodate for team death matches structures 1,3,7 & 9 have not been attached directly to the main structure but have instead been attached to another smaller structure which has in turn been linked to the main structure. Therefore structures 1 and 8 are linked to structure 4 and structures 3 & 9 are attached to structure 6 with structures 4 and 6 then being attached to the central point. (See the map below.)

 How big is the map?

The map will need to be big enough to allow up to 16 players to play in an 8 v 8 death matches but not to big that it will make normal death matches unplayable. The playable area should roughly be 1km by 1km while an extra 0.5km will be added for the none playable area but will be used to add background detail.

Who is your audience? Who is your player? What is your Demographic?

The target audience for the map is the traditional first person shooter player who wants to get back to the frag count of the early Unreal, Quake and Doom games. The map is aimed to support both Death match and Team death match where users will requires skill, the clever use of powers ups and knowledge to kill there opponents.

Production Plan

  A brief production plan on how I will split the process of designing and implementing my level from paper design through to a playable map.

Pre-Production: 

• Idea Development and Brain storming.
• Location and environment setting.
• Photo reference and Mood boards.
• Map story and objectives.
• Main Focal Point(s) of the map.
• Top down layout.

Production:

• Block out.
• Weapon and bot path placement.
• Base mesh pass > Alpha.
• Detail mesh pass > Beta.
• Particle Pass.
• Lighting Pass.
• Post Processing Pass. 

Post Production:

• Final Cook and Rebuild.
• Prepping map for distribution, Text file, support images, layout and settings to work with UT3.(http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/590932-Preparing-your-map-for-publishing-and-distribution)
• Forum upload and distribution.
• Video and Picture samples for portfolio. 

Goals

The inital plan idea is to plan and create a Death Map level for Unreal Tournement 3, using the guide lines and help from articles found from the world of level design by 

http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/

Using the princples and lessons found from the following articles:

• http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/level_design_tutorials/why-i-failed-for-years-at-level-design-and-game-environments.php 
• http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/level_design_tutorials/how-to-plan-level-designs-game-environments-workflow.php
• http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/level_design_tutorials/how-to-have-best-level-design-game-environment-year.php

What are my Level Design Goals:

The things I want to achieve are to take a project from inception and work on it all the way through to release quality. The main focus will be on to finish a project in a realistic time and not let it fall by the wayside. The main aims are to:

1. Work on my planning and structure so the project will flow better
2. Too work on all stages of the project from Pre Production through to release.
3. To get better at paper designsand 3D designs
   
4. To learn new skills in UDK and build on my foundations.
5. To release it to the community for feedback.
6. To keep a production dairy to help with motivation, planning, analysis and post mortam.