DM-Crater wip 3

Hey guys,

Quick update on the progress I've made during the week on my handpainted/sculpted deathmatch map for Unreal Tournament 2004.

I'm currently sculpting the bark texture at the moment, I'm quite happy with how the maps turned out so far, I've just started working on the skybox and looking at reference for ideas as to what i can add to it. So I've been looking at clouds, planets and starts etc.

Thank you for your time,

Andy

DM-Crater Wip2

Hey guys,

Just a quick update on the DM-Crater map from my previous post

The trees and some of the foliage are finally in awaiting textures and I've added some nice orange glowing bases for all the weapon spawns.

I'm currently sculpting some rune stones to add outside near the cave entrance and in the caves interior by the bio-rifle.

Thanks for reading,

-Andy

DM-Crater

Hey guys,

I've started working on a new Unreal Tournament 2004 map on Friday. Its a small 2-8 player deathmatch map, I've been keeping this one pretty small so I can really polish the visual for my level design portfolio. I've been looking at some of my old concept art and some of the new World of Warcraft art for inspiration.

Some of the references I've been looking at for ideas are:

This piece of environment concept art I made couple of years ago

These screenshots from the new World of Warcraft content

As well as mostly spiritual inspiration from the mood of the level The Truth and Reconciliation from the original Halo game.

I'm currently designing some foliage for the map and looking at different types of props i could use to improve the visuals. I'm considering making blue glowing rune stones for decorating the cave and orange ones as a base for all the weapon spawns.

The map is will also have a lot  more cover when I add the 7-8 trees in engine based on my original layout design.

Thanks for reading,

-Andy

DM-Crushbone - Cliff walls

After chatting with my brother about the map I gathered some reference for cliff walls then sculpted and modelled a cliff mesh to use for the map.

The sculpted texture was base on vertical layered rocks found in places such as the grand canyon or in cliff forest areas where the softer rocked had more easily eroded leaving sharp inclines of this type of layer rock exposed as a surface.

I'm currently decorating the level with the cliff mesh shown above.

Thanks for reading,

-Andy

Advance Wars update

Just back from seeing the hobbit with my best friends family, was pretty good had some really good light comedic scenes and couldn't help but laugh every-time they're in a mine falling and no one ever falls or is hurt from falling. Also laughed at the MMO adverts they put on before hand, seems to be a trend to get a cheesy quote and high rendered cutscene to advertise MMORPG's at the moment. I mean have you see this one :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajz5Poh_giI

Added all the units, except APC's so far

-Infantry
-Mechanical Infantry
-Recon
-Small Tank
-Medium Tank
-Neo Tank
-Artillery
-Rocket Launcher

Got the triggers sorted for capturing the buildings, has a lot of issues detecting just infantry units in a region so the infantry initiate the capturing now and as long as you have more units than the opposing player then you continue capturing. Also like the turn based game-boy game the buildings heal allied units on upkeep. The floating text for upkeep (+100 and the HP +25%) slowly pans up and last for 5 seconds). Permanent Floating Text is also used to represent who owns which buildings and changes colour when captured by the opposing team (blue).

There is also a simple weather system which checks every minute having a 1 in 5 chance to be raining this minute or 4 out of 5 of being clear weather. The rain half's the vision of units which disables artillery significantly and makes Recon units more important.

The other terrain advantages and disadvantages are controlled using region entering/leaving triggers. The forest regions slow down the units movement by 25% and the roads increase movement by 25%.

Spent a lot of time getting the units balanced counters but only a good length of play sessions will really show if there are significant dominant strategies or units. So I can't really start fine-tuning unit stats yet. I've been thinking over whether to have CO's (commanders) like the advance wars games each with there Special Powers and Unit bonus'. But again it's probably something best added when the units themselves are at a more balanced stage. I could have a select like Hero maps do for the game before the game begins or perhaps just a Button input select screen at start.

I also have another idea I might try for a map inspired by seeing the old bomber-man game being played on the sega genesis at my friends house before going to the cinema. Where as bomber man is about capturing people offguard with bombs placed, kicked and thrown. I was thinking of doing the same with a caster and different missle types. Missleman! :D Delayed missles, slow heavy damage missile,s fast missiles strengths could be based on there mana cost or recast time. Could throw in random pick-ups and destructible environments like bomber man also maybe even creatures?

Also decided to get some 3d modelling done for a change, working on a Anti-Infantry Steampunk Mecha-Tank design at the moment

Advance Wars : Steampunk Rising? :D

So I've had the idea of making my favourite GBA game into a map and been thinking about how to go about changing it from turn based to real time and what triggers I'd need for the capture points. Whilst sorting out my other map, which is a come very far and quite near a finished build. Currently working on issues with the escape airship placement and need to add the ending cinematic.

I decided to go with the iconic map Little Island since it focuses entirely on ground units and fast close quarters 1v1 combat, the very opposite of my current survival hero/tower defence map.

Here's a Screenshot of the map so far, just added the income triggers and been play-testing/setting up 3-4 units.

The original Gameboy version of little island looks like

I've decided since it's real-time to break the forest A-symmetry as they effect the infantry movement/flow a lot more on my map and have lengthened the width by one space to allow a gap between the 2 closest buildings to the base and the trees.