The Finished Product! (Almost)

Need I say more, below is a video walkthrough of the entire level, I recommend viewing in the highest resolution possible so you can read the text.

Addition of AI Bots

I added some very basic AI bots to the level in an attempt to direct the player in a certain direction. Basically the player wont have a weapon so they will have no choice but to avoid oncoming fire, since they cant fight back. So to funnel the player in a certain direction I placed 2 bots in corridors that the player shouldnt be in. I think it gives the level the illusion of being bigger than it actually is ^_^ plus it show I can do AI stuff in Kismet, even if it is pretty lame AI.

Loads of bot Kismet, most of which doesn't work

I intended on having the bots on patrol and the player needed to avoid them by timing their movements, but I ran into problems and I couldnt find a solution, the patrols just wouldnt work, the Kismet stuff for it is still there, as it didnt stop them from firing at the player when they came into view.

Latest Additions!

Recently I have added some partial transparent textures to the level in an attempt to add some depth to the environment. I created a grate style floor tile, which had many holes in it (hence the transparentness ;D ) To give a sense that there was stuff going on under the floor, and to make the level feel more like your walking through a bit space ship, I added some cables running under the floor and a red light so you could actually see them. (I dont know why I chose red, it seemed like a good idea at the time)

I also created some sound effects using a pretty cool sound effect generator thingy a friend of mine discovered, you can access it here. Anywhoo, I used it to make four short sounds for when the AI computer that will be communicating with the player has something to say, the different sounds express a different emotion, so there is a sound for when the AI starts talking (like an intercom beep) also a happy sound effect, and an angry one, and another sound for when the AI continues talking.

(the sound effect creator above)

Low Cost Reflection Attempt

I tried using a reflection trick I read up on somewhere on the interwebs, basically it gives the (sort of) illusion of a reflection on whatever surface you apply it to, but it doesnt have the same resource costs that realtime reflections would have, but it also doesnt look anywhere near as good as the more costly version, basically you multiply the texture that you want to reflect onto the texture that you want to be reflecting, then just change the value of the multiplication to increase/lower the "reflectyness"

I can see the potential for this sort of technique if its used in certain circumstances, I think it would be more useful in outdoor themed environments where you could apply a sky texture to be the reflection, but it doesnt seem to look right with my indoor environment, if applied multiple different textures and they all look a bit odd, but a sky texture applied looks great, it is just incredibly out of place in my level........since its in space ^_^

(You might need to watch the video in full HD to get best impression of the "reflections" in the video)

Latest Asset Addition - A BED!....Pillows included ^_^

I knocked up the walls for what will be El Capitan's bedroom, then I decided to model an incredibly low poly bed for the room, and after searching the interwebs from top to toe looking for some images to texture it with (with very poor results I should add) I decided the best thing to do was to risk my life balancing on my computer chair to get a few top down photographs of my own bed to make the textures out of, as you can see I kinda got the scale a little off on my first attempt, but it didnt take long to rectify >_<

I also photographed my pillows from the safety of the floor and modelled them separately, and made some simple skirting boards to add a bit more detail to the environment ^_^ I made a straight piece that I would be the main skirting piece and I made a corner piece and an end piece for either side of any door it may meet ^^ simply to make it look a little tidier.

Horribly Represented (but fully functional) One Way Stargate

Today I finally moved onto trying to get the teleporter to work, I thought it was going to be a lot more complicated than it actually was, maybe I'm just incredibly pessimistic...

Anywhoo, it seems you only need to name the two teleporters and then supply each with a "URL" to where you want it to take you, pretty much exactly how a normal URL works, so I set both teleporter 1 & 2 to take me to teleporter 2, which made it a one way system, it even automatically hit the second teleporter, so you cant run into it and be returned to the same location, or be trapped in an infinite loop of teleportation madness (you know you've done it when playing Portal ^-^)

Besides the character models the teleporter will be one of the few assets from the UDK library that I wont be making myself for this project, I don't want to tempt fate by trying to fix what isn't broken........yet

Equally Awesome Soviet Elevator (Now With Warning Sign)

I knocked up an elevator that the player must use after using the (yet to be added) portal, it is activated on touch, similar to how the doors operate, I was going to add a button at the top and bottom, but I thought that if humans can build a giant spaceship with elevators and stuff, then they can surely create an elevator that doesn't require a button to operate ^^

I also added a (sort of) warning sign under the elevator that is revealed after the player exits the lift and it returns to its original position. By sending the lift back to the top, the player is once again presented with a point of no return, similar to the locking door and the (yet to be) one way portal.

Super Awesome Star Trek Styley Doors!

I've finally moved onto Kismet! I added the meshes for the first two doors that will be used in the level as "interpactors" (I forgot you had to do this, and nearly went postal because I couldn't figure out what was wrong)

Videos are now available in HD! for all of my (5) subscribers. Woo!

Anywhoo, I set the first door to open/close as many times as the player wants, since there is nowhere to go that way. For the second door I set it to only open and close once, as I want it to lock behind the player in order to get them to progress through the portal in that corridor and continue the level. I'm trying to get the level to flow nicely, and to stop backtracking, locking the doors seemed like a simple enough way to do it ^_^

Loads of Assets!

I've spent the past week using Maya to model as many assets as possible to flesh out the level, I currently have mapped out the basic shape for said level in UDK, now I'm slowly modelling everything that will fill it, So far I've made:

• Desk - fully textured, also revised texture to include loose paper & a notepad, also a "World Domination for Dummies" book ^_^
• Desk Chair - also fully textured, slightly based off my own computer chair, which I photographed and used images to texture, quite pleased with how it turned out (only looks good from top down view, didnt waste time making it look pretty from every angle since it will only be seen from the top, I did a smart)
• Desk Light - something to put on the desk so its not completely flat (not textured yet)
• Overhanging Cables - fully textured, something to hang above the character in corridor sections (between the character and the camera, I think its should look quite cool to have some geometry between the camera and character that doesn't obscure the players view too much. I hope it will look good if I can get the placement right)
• Lazy Chair - has been textured but simply put, it looks crap and I will be re-texturing it
• Door Frame & Doors - Like a tin of Ronseal really, they are doors, and with some Kismet involved they will hopefully operate like doors, if I can get it to look right they should look quite cool when they open, but the camera angle may need tweaked for the player to actually see it, otherwise it would be wasted effort)
• Floor Guard - under the doors & door frame, basically I made this to hide the part where textures between rooms meet, but it should help to complete the look of a spaceship door that would be air tight if it has a completely surrounding frame.
• Wall Light - something to make the walls less barren, ill probably make make a few random simple objects and place them on shelves on the walls to make it seem a little more interesting, also use kismet to allow the player to get a description of what the objects are ect. (get as much interactive elements in the first room as possible, as it will be where most time is spent in the level hopefully)

I will continue with the texturing and add all these assets to the level to see how they look, if everything looks how I want it to look I continue to make more and flesh out the rest of the level.

Super Quick Level Draft Version Uno

Here are a few scans of a basic level concept I came up with, there are still a few things I want to add to it, but this is the basic layout I'm going for, no doubt it will change somewhat, but it wont take long to change the shape in UDK, the walls and floors are the easy part anyway ^_^

Level Start - The player will exit an elevator into a sort of "Captains Quarters" esque style room located on a space ship/station, the player will be given a few minutes to explore this room, it will be the most detailed part of my project, with various objects the player can select for information, after a few minutes when the player has had time to explore the area, an explosion will occur and an alarm will begin to sound, the player will need to follow the instructions and escape through the newly revealed exit. (Since I'm an UBER Battlestar Galactica fan, I've opted for the "corners with corners" aesthetic design that is featured in the show :) )

Once the alarm begins to sound, the wall behind the captains desk will open up, revealing an escape route, (the door the player entered the level in will be locked) The player will follow this path to find another elevator which will take them to another part of the "ship" where the escape pods are located (I'm thinking about adding a portal in the room behind the captains desk, which will take the player to the next area, then have an elevator. Basically just to add another interactive piece to the level without feeling intrusive to the gameplay)

The last area will be a sprint to the escape pods, and in traditional action Michael Bay-ish fashion there will be many explosions that the player will just get past to survive (If I can figure out how to trigger them) and also possibly some AI enemies that wont move but will shoot at the player, which I could use to funnel the player through this section of the level) I want to use as many methods as possible to direct the player to the end goal of the level. Its going to be short and sweet, and I want it to have as little repetition as possible, but that will be limited to what I can teach myself about kismet >_<

Collision & (poorly textured) Furniture Test

I quickly modelled a desk and "lazy person" chair and slapped some textures on them. Once I got them imported into UDK I dropped them into my test level to see how well the collision was working.

This quickly turned into a game for me and my incredibly short attention span, I discovered if you hit "F" the character falls over, clearly the first thing that would come to mind when given this ground breaking information would be "I wonder if I can get the character to fall on the chair so it looks like he's sitting on it"

Anywhoo.... everything was going well until there was a horrific accident, as you can see at the end of the video, the character seemed to get its head lodged under the desk, and as everyone knows how incredibly dangerous the underside of a desk is..... :S

Top Down Camera

Since I am now a master of Kismet (not really, but seriously) I decided to test a top down camera angle, I knocked up a quick level and threw a few colourful lights in for good measure, I also stuck a tiling texture I made in but whenever I went to record the video the texture wasn't there (only noticed after I recorded the video, so if you were expecting to see my awesome photoshopping skills you will have to wait a little longer :P)

Anywhoo, the level I knocked up had a few corridors and open spaces, some ramps going up and down, and a large jump. I wanted to see how the camera would behave to these environmental variations. There didnt seem to be any problems with the camera, I think I have it set a little too far away from the player though, so in my next video you will probably notice the camera is a bit closer to the character, and also with a bit of luck.... some textures

The Joy of Kismet!

Since I cant program to save my life, I decided now would be a good time to start learning the next best thing, since I was going to need some understanding of Kismet for my UDK project anyway. Turns out I quite like this Kismet jazz once I got my head around it.

I loaded up a pre-made level to mess about creating different interactive pieces within the level.

• Star Trek Door - when you fire up the level you can walk through a gate that opens and closes by itself when you go near it (just like in Star Trek :) )
• Super Awesome Light Switch - then I made a light switch beside the door, made a trigger to turn the light above the door on and off, also changed the light material to make the light look more florescent when its turned on (but that part stopped working as I worked on :P ) 
• Angry Button of Doom - I made another button that gave the player multiple notifications each time it was pressed, each notification had a progressively more angry tone, if the player persists after being warned I set a few things to happen
• Alarm Sound - a dramatic alarm starts playing to make the player think they are in trouble (they are in big trouble at this stage)
• Locked Door - the door automatically locks after the final warning, so the player cant escape the horrible things about to happen.
• Countdown - a set a countdown from 10 - 1, a voice calls out each number as the notifications count down to impending doom.
• Horrible Things - When the countdown reaches zero the player explodes ^_^

Incredibly Optimistic UDK Project

Ok, so I'm not incredible at UDK, I can build some semi decent looking levels and model and texture some acceptable stuff in Maya, now for one of my assignments I've decided to attempt and make an incredibly simple top down shooter. I've already done the research task for the assignment, you can download the pdf and take a mosey here if you want ^_^

Anywhooo, I'll blog the progress of the project up until the point when I die of a rage/stress induced stroke, the image is a low poly ship concept I came up with, nothing special but it'l be grand for the time being.