Week 3...

This week has been filled with continuing to create the blockout assets for my level. Majority of the major locales/points of interest have been developed, as well a couple of different terrain landscape layouts.

Once all the assets have been created I will then import them into UDK. I think at that point I will have to make a couple of designs to the level and decide as to which one is more suitable.

P.S - This week progress has been dramatically hampered due to my graphics card dying (may it rest in peace). A replacement should be arriving within the next few days, which then means I can get back to work. I feel that 90% of the assets have been created, however the task of importing and composing them in UDK still remains.

I have also discovered, that 'week 3', is actually 'week 4'!? So next post will seemingly miss a week, since I'll amend it as week 5.

Week 2...

This week was spent pretty much developing the locale I am to build. Upon looking at the time scale of the project my first task was to get down exactly what assets I would like to include. This list was then narrowed down to make it more manageable. However, I feel that even with a condensed list, the impact of the scene shouldn't dramatically change, since all the key features have remained.

Having 'finalised' my list of assets (which I'm sure is bound to be adjusted slightly further through the coming weeks), I set about creating a 'plan' of my level. Initially this started with lots of sketches and drawings, trying to get a basic feel for how the level would flow. The most important thing I was trying to focus during this stage was the idea of making a successful game level, rather than the aesthetics. Since I am catering the game primarily towards the

'third-person action adventure' genre, the layout of the level has to reflect this well.

By the end of this I had developed a couple of 'floor plans' as to how the level would be composed.

I feel only after creating simple blockouts of the assets and then placing them in this layout, will I understand as to which of the 'floor plans' is best suitable.

The next step is to create simple blockouts of the assets in my list. These will all be built in Maya. At the moment I'm not going to bother with any texturing/colour palettes etc since i want to finalise an actual level plan before moving onto anything else.

Film Selection....


The last week, majority of my time was taken into looking at what film i would chose for my coursework. I decided that i needed to take a few things into account in order to select the ideal film and more importantly, locale for my scenes. These included; picking an actual film which was good and successful, something which was rather unique and not cliche (for a time i couldnt think past the matrix for some reason), a film which would adapt well to a game and finally, something which would look good in my eventual portfolio.

After much deliberation, i decided to settle on the film, 'Apocalypto'. Released in 2006, directed by Mel Gibson, it is a movie which i thought would be perfect for creating a environment and adapting into a game level.

I am going to create a scene which would involve man-made mayan achritecture, alongside more natural organic locale.

My next task is to condense my ideas into something which would be viable to produce within the timescale, but also something which would work mechanically as a game.