Clocktower Early Development

Soon after I'd chosen my theme I decided to roughly scope out the size I wished the Clocktower to be. I created several different cylinder sizes for the Clocktower.

 This image shows how the Clocktower size changed throughout development.

The cylinder on the left was the original size I tried. I soon realised that this version was too narrow to offer compelling gameplay. There wasn't enough space for an interesting layout.

I doubled the size of the cylinder which gave me MUCH more room to work with.

Clocktower Clockface

The first area I developed was the central clockface of the tower. I used 3ds max to model a simple circle for the clockface, along with two simple clockhands.

I converted the hands into Interp Actors and used the rotation property to make them move around the outside of the clockface. An early idea I had was to allow players to walk along the clockhands to obtain a useful power-up or weapon. This would require timing, since the hands would need to be nearing the horizontal position.

I decided to place the all powerful Redeemer (mini-nuke launcher) weapon in this position.

I created a hole using BSP subtract in the wall of the clockface room.

I then added a series of platforms leading up and around to the clockhands. The player can, with the correct timing, jump off of the last platform land on the big clockhand, and run along it to the Redeemer spawn. The player can then jump back to the platforms and pass back through the hole to return to the battle.

I think this concept is a good one. I've mixed the theme of the level (dynamic/moving, height), with gameplay to improve the map experience.

Clocktower Middle

The middle of the clocktower began as a place to test out gear rotation. I modelled some extremely simple gears in 3ds max and imported them into the map to test the idea of moving, rotating platforms.

The lower set of gears allow the player to cross the middle of the map from one side to the other. The gears rotate in an alternate fashion, gear 1 rotates left, gear 2 rotates right etc.

The upper set of gears can be navigated by using the Jump Boots power-up. The player can jump from the starting platform, onto the first gear, second gear, and lastly through the open hatch into the clockface room.

Clocktower Lift

Initially I created the lift as a temporary measure purely to make testing the map easier. Every time I fell down to the ground floor, I could simply hop in the lift and speedily reach the clockface room, without needing to die and reload the entire level.

 

At some point during development I decided that keeping the lift would be useful since it allows players to easily traverse the maps height.

I decided to add glass to the lift so that both players inside, and outside the lift could see and respond to each other moving around the map.

Clocktower Ground Floor

The lift was a success but the only way to reach the middle of the map was to take the lift to the top and jump down from cog to cog. This was inconvenient.

I decided to create another method of reaching the middle of the map. On the ground floor I created a series of gears that spun up and down a pole. The player could jump on the first gear, wait until it's near the apex of it's ascent and jump onto the next gear.

If the player did this correctly they could quickly ascend to the middle of the map and then jump onto two small gears leading to a platform.

Conclusion

This concludes my post explaining the early development of my Unreal Engine map Clocktower.

Dissertation Level Themes & Unreal Editor Testing

Hello again, for the last three months I have been working on my dissertation idea in an on-again, off-again fashion. I've been writing all my thoughts on the project into a word document, most of which I will make more legible and post on my blog.

In my last blog post I mentioned three map themes I was considering. In this post I will talk in detail about each theme, the new game mechanics they present, and the static meshes needed to realise each theme. I will also explain why I chose the mechanical Clocktower theme.

Themes

Aztec Temple

The second theme I considered was an Aztec Temple hidden in a tropical jungle. The level would be composed of the jungle surrounding the temple, a cave system connecting the temple to the jungle, and a large fast flowing river.

Aztec Temple Game Mechanics

Climbable Vines - could use ladder volumes to allow the player to climb up vines to reach new areas. (Replaces traditional UT lifts on this map).

http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/587364-LadderVolume-WallDir

(Code to get ladders working properly, apparently they are semi-broken in UE3).

Swimmable River - Could have a small river, with a current that pulls the player lightly along. (If the player swims against the current they can access an underwater temple entrance. The underwater passage would lead to a corridor in the temple that is half filled with water. (Think of the first Alex Rider book, Stormbreaker, and how the protagonist thought the water was a metal sheet blocking the mine tunnel). Leads to 1-2 important rooms in the temple.

Traps -  The temple would contain various traps which can kill an unwary player. Not only does a player need to dodge enemy projectiles, they must also dodge the traps.

Spikes on walls/ceilings

Trap doors, ancient arrow traps, fire pits etc.

Bottomless pits.

Caves - The jungle section would lead to a cave system, which also has 1-2 paths leading to the temple. (Destroyed wall in the temple will lead to the caves).

 

 Aztec Temple Game Static Meshes

- Vines

- Spike Trap

- Small Tree

- Trap Door

- Big Tree

- Arrow Trap

- Small Plant

- Fire Pit

- Bigger Plant

- Aztec Temple Walls

- Damaged Temple Wall

 

High Tech Military Facility

This idea is the least explored out of the three ideas. In essence the map would have been set in a scientifically advanced military facility, complete with lasers, security doors, and a giant vault, containing power-ups.

 

High Tech Military Facility Game Mechanics

Vault - The vault would open on a timer allowing players access to the power-ups within. After 45 seconds, however, the vault will close trapping players inside, who will then be killed via a grid of lasers.

 

High Tech Military Facility Static Meshes

- Vault Door

- Vents

- Security Doors

- Pipes

- Laser Projector

- Lasers

Clocktower

When I began to think of ideas for my Dissertation level, I thought back to books I had recently read. I immediately thought of the "Mortal Engines" series of books by Phillip Reeve. The main concept of the books, is that cities, such as London, have evolved into giant roving vehicles named, "Traction Cities", which prowl a post apocalyptic world preying on smaller cities and consuming them whilst enslaving the population.

The central idea of gigantic moving cities interested me, and made me wonder what it would be like to live inside such a city, in particular the mechanical district. Countless numbers of cogs and gears would spin, forever powering the giant machines.

This gave me the initial inspiration of setting a map inside an industrial area with many moving components such as cogs/gears, which rotate and move the players.

I thought it would offer interesting opportunities for gameplay to fight in a dynamic moving environment.

 

Clocktower Game Mechanics

1. Moving Objects - The main mechanic in the map would be moving objects. Devices such as gears, cogs, lifts etc would move players around the map.

2. Height. I wanted to base the entire map around the idea of height variation. I wanted the map to have multiple floors, and many methods to traverse up or down the map. Early on I had the idea of creating several paths that needed Jump Boots to take, that allowed players to gain height in the map more easily.

3. Environmental sounds triggered by players will clue other players into the position of opponents.

 

Clocktower Game Static Meshes

- Pipes

- Gears

- Cogs

- Mesh walkways

- Girders

- Ramps

- Lights

- Glass Clockface

- Metal Clockhands

- Mechanical device connected to clockhands.  (So they don't move by magic). :P

- Stairs

- Axels (For cogs)

- Floors

- Floors with holes for gears/cogs.

 

Aims of the Theme

- Provide z axis gameplay. (aiming and shooting up/down rather than just horizontally).

- Create a moving environment. Lots of moving parts, (cogs, gears, clockhands) via Kismet.

- Create sounds to make the environment more immersive and realistic.

- Mixture of open spaces and enclosed corridors.

- Clocktower Adapted for Tournament Usage. (Jump Pads, possibly teleporters added)

After deciding what I wanted to achieve I decided to test my initial ideas by setting up a quick test in UDK. (Unreal Development Kit).

UDK Cog Test

The following screenshots show the basic UDK test I created. As you can see I created giant 3D cog models using 3ds max. Since this was a test earlier the 3D models are extremely basic, but adequate for testing.

 Caption 1: Overview of the Test.

Caption 2: Closer view of the Test.

Caption 3: These steps lead to a rotating Cog. The player can double jump onto the tooth of the cog as it rotates towards them.

Caption 4: This shows the player after landing on the tooth of the cog.

Caption 5: This image shows the player nearing the apex of the cogs rotation.

Caption 6: This image shows the player reaching the highest point of the cogs rotation. The player can now disembark the cog by double jumping onto the platform near the apex of the cog.

I felt this game mechanic of using devices such as cogs to traverse the map was sound, so I decided to re-create the concept in Unreal Editor 3.

Unreal Editor 3 Test Area

I created two basic test areas to learn the interface of Unreal Editor 3, and to try out different ideas I had for my level.

Simple Rooms and Platforms

 

These three simple rooms make up the first test area. This area was created purely as a simple way for me to learn the differences in interface between UDK and Unreal Editor 3. The biggest difference is the way movement around the world is handled, in UDK I used the "Flythrough" controls (WSAD) to move around, like in a simple game.

The rooms themselves are extremely simple, two rooms are identical in layout, with a corridor intersecting them. (One room has rain and different lighting). A jump-pad in each room allow the player to reach the roof.

I was curious as to the properties of the UT3 Jump Boots Power-up since it wasn't present in the previous UT game (Unreal Tournament 2004), which is the game I'm most familiar with in the franchise.

I decided to test out the jump boots by creating several floating platforms, eventually working out that 500 Unreal units was the height per jump.

I also created some UT jump pads which work identically to UDK. The purple lines show the trajectory of the jump pads.

The Tower

This simple Tower structure is the second test area I created. It was created to further test out the height in Unreal Units that a player can jump using the Jump Boots Power-up. I placed platforms and Jump Boots at intervals of 500 units in height around the structure of the tower, allowing the player to jump from platform to platform and eventually climb onto the roof.

Caption 7: This image shows the bottom of the Tower and a pair of Jump Boots.

Caption 8: This image shows a view from halfway up the Tower.

Screenshot of halfway up the Tower.

Caption 9: This image shows the top of the tower, complete with two

 power-ups I was experimenting with.

After creating the two test areas I was satisfied that I had the ability to create a fully functioning level in Unreal Editor 3.

Final Map Choice: Clocktower

I eventually decided upon the Clocktower theme, since I believe it offers more scope for z axis, height based gameplay, in dynamic environments. Moreover the gear moving tests were a success and I felt that this would create interesting gameplay in a level.

Dissertation Project Idea: Unreal Editor 3 Level

 Dissertation Project Idea: Unreal Editor 3 Level

Hello 2012. It's been a while since I've updated the blog, but I will be updating regularly from now on, throughout the summer, and continuing into next year. I will primarily use this blog to show weekly progress on my Dissertation project. Speaking of my Dissertation project, I have been considering some ideas and would like feedback on if they are feasible ideas for my Dissertation.

Initial Dissertation Ideas

Below are my initial ideas for a Dissertation project. I really enjoy "level design", that is planning out levels on paper, and then creating them via game editors such as the; Unreal Editor, Unreal Development Kit, Hammer Editor etc. It seems logical to base my Dissertation on something I am interested in, and want to learn more about.

To this end I will create a highly polished multiplayer map using the Unreal Editor 3 tool. Unreal Editor 3 is similar to the Unreal Development Kit I learned to use this year, except it is geared towards making maps for the game Unreal Tournament 3, rather than entirely new game projects which is what UDK is designed to do.

Over the summer I plan to come up with three varied map themes from which I will choose the final theme for my Dissertation multiplayer map.

Regardless of the map theme I select I will create entirely new custom static meshes (game objects), and textures to accompany them. All the assets in this map will be 100% my own. I will not use any of the existing Unreal Engine assets.

Skills it will Teach me

- Greater knowledge of Texture creation.

- Greater knowledge of UVW unwrapping.

- Greater knowledge of 3ds Max 2012. In particular creating modular game objects which can combined and manipulated in the Unreal Editor.

- Greater knowledge of Adobe Photoshop CS5. In particular creating textures to be applied to UV maps.

- Greater knowledge of creating detailed Map floorplans. I am undecided on which program to use while making Floorplans. This year Myself and my group experimented with Using Microsoft Visio for our UDK project, but in the end it proved easier to use Photoshop.

- Greater knowledge of Unreal Editor systems, such as the Kismet animation system and the Unreal Editor 3 filming system.

Career Opportunities

This Dissertation Project will help me apply for a job at... a game studio. Plenty of games use the Unreal Engine to run their game. Throughout the summer I will research and find possibly game development studios who are seeking level designers with the Unreal Engine skillset.

Epic Games the creators of the Unreal Engine are one such developer, but I am sure they have extremely high standards, and require potential candidates to have several years experience working in the games industry before hiring. Still something to consider.

Academic Sources

I will support my Dissertation with academic research, specifically relating to Twitch skill, and level design. Sjoerd De Jong (Hourences) a well known map designer who created several of Unreal Tournaments most popular maps, wrote a book: The How's and Why's of Level Design - SE. This book contains useful information covering floorplans, gameplay for both singleplayer and multiplayer maps, sound effects, and more. It will be extremely useful to me when I plan out and create my multiplayer level. I will finish reading the entire book over the summer. I am presently about half way through the book.

I will also use Twitch skill related books and articles while making the map. I will decide on which books and articles during the summer break.

Bibliography

Sjoerd “Hourences” De Jong (29 August 2011). The Hows and Whys of Level Design – SE. N/A: Sjoerd De Jong. N/A.

Conclusion

I am looking forward to starting this project over the Summer. If I can work on my Dissertation ideas weekly I will have a solid, well researched base to iterate on for when term starts in September.

Thank you for reading my blog. I plan to post additional blog updates throughout the summer, highlighting each of my chosen map themes, and all the design challenges I will need to overcome to execute my designs.

P.S.

I simply can't reliably log in to the My UCS system. Every time I get my account unlocked, it works for one day, and then tells me the password is wrong the next. This makes no sense and is extremely frustrating. Thankfully I will be able to use this blog to show my Dissertation progress next term, rather than relying solely on the temperamental My UCS system.