Portfolio Pariah and UnrealTournament 2004
Third part of this portfolio. Years 2003-2005!
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Pariah(2003-2005)
onsite mapping for Digital Extremes.
While bug fixing maps for UT2004, I started talking to some co-workers from Digitalextremes Toronto. They were busy working on Pariah, and could use some help. So in fall of 2003 I started work on Pariah part time. Rather quickly I got handed the desert maps, which ended up being chapter 14 and 15.
The tricky thing was to design levels for car versus car combat, without that actually being ready yet. I focused on chapter 15 first, and made it on foot combat. By adding some extra areas and the hiding some WEC's (cookies to find) I tried to make Chapter15 a bit more open, and not just a simple walk down the hill to end the map. The second part of the chapter is in the rafters looking out on the courtyard that makes up the first part of the map. Re-using the same art / location but giving different gameplay.
After that was done I went back to Chapter14. A lot more cover was added, and barricades were added to stop the player from racing through the map without fighting. I added a couple side routes that had to be explored to open the end door to the next level. I loved toying around with the triggers, setting up gates and timers, making sure the map couldn't be broken by players. Since then I have been focusing more on trigger systems and programming.
Besides the desert maps I ended up working on various maps to help out with AI setups and spicing up the layouts a bit more. For example, I added the little underground bits to Chapter10, to give more areas to explore, and make the map a little less linear.
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Unreal Tournament 2004 (2003-2004)
onsite work for Digital Extremes
DM-Tribulation(2005-2006)(amateur mapping)
Starting 2005 into 2006 I was mostly doing paper design work for DarkSector. Surrounded by all this new tech, I started to wonder what I could do in the older tech generation. This is why Tribulation was designed to show off good visuals and secondly to have interesting and fun gameplay. This map has traps and secrets! I like adding in other little things now and then. It is not a hardcore thing to have in the map, but it spices up the gameplay.
I think hardcore maps are not the ultimate form of gameplay, just one form of it. If you can effectively use traps and know where the secrets are, you apply different skills that are also part of the game.
Besides getting feedback I did everything on this map, visuals, gameplay and testing.
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BR/CTF -BridgeOfFate started with just the flag room. I designed it more for visuals and fun, rather then gameplay, but when I walked around it I started to get a feel for it as a base. I then added the room with the big pillars as a middle area and copied the base over. I kept the entrances to the base small because I turned it into a bombing run map.
In UT2003 you can throw the bomb ahead of yourself and then teleport to the same spot with the translocator without much delay. This made defending a base very hard. With small entrances the defenders have an easier time fighting against this.
Later I added the cave area as the new middle area, to make the map harder and a bit slower paced. The CTF version was modified even more with adding separate rooms on each of the pillar rooms, to make flag running easier. It created more hide and seek gameplay that way.
I was responsible for most of the layout / meshing / lighting and bug fixing.
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DOM-Aswan was inspired by a two week trip to Egypt, I couldn't help myself, I had to use all the visual goodness and apply it in a level. It was fun to go through my photo's all the time for inspiration. The end result is a mix of many temples and tombs combined, but primarily inspired by the temple of Edfu. This temple lays between the city's Aswan and Luxor.
For the gametype double domination you need to hold two points for 10 seconds without the enemy touching them. Usually the points were more then 10 seconds away from the spawn points, which made it hard to come back if you died and the count down started. I created the map with trick jumps in mind so you can make it to the point in about 8 seconds if you do 3 jumps just right and have no distractions on the way. Most of the powerful weapons were further out of the way, so if you truly wanted to build up a defense you had to take the longer routes.
Double dom is unfortunately not a very popular gametype, so I didn't have much feedback on this map.
I was responsible for most of the layout / meshing / lighting and bug fixing.
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DM-DesertIsle is a medium Deathmatch level set in an oasis. One thing that bothered me for quite some time was that most maps are blocked off by cliffs. The player is not only limited to the arena gameplay-wise, but also visually. In Unreal Championship I made a BombingRun map that looks very open (BR-Adrift) and I applied the same principle to this DM map. I had to find a way to keep the player inside the arena though. To fix this I ended up making the forcefield that pops up when you walk out too far away from the fighting...
This map could be considered an experiment or gimmick map. It is not designed for optimal gameplay or flow but it had its own kind of character gameplay wise.
I was responsible for most of the layout / meshing / lighting and bug fixing.
==================================================================
==================================================================
Pariah(2003-2005)
onsite mapping for Digital Extremes.
While bug fixing maps for UT2004, I started talking to some co-workers from Digitalextremes Toronto. They were busy working on Pariah, and could use some help. So in fall of 2003 I started work on Pariah part time. Rather quickly I got handed the desert maps, which ended up being chapter 14 and 15.
The tricky thing was to design levels for car versus car combat, without that actually being ready yet. I focused on chapter 15 first, and made it on foot combat. By adding some extra areas and the hiding some WEC's (cookies to find) I tried to make Chapter15 a bit more open, and not just a simple walk down the hill to end the map. The second part of the chapter is in the rafters looking out on the courtyard that makes up the first part of the map. Re-using the same art / location but giving different gameplay.
After that was done I went back to Chapter14. A lot more cover was added, and barricades were added to stop the player from racing through the map without fighting. I added a couple side routes that had to be explored to open the end door to the next level. I loved toying around with the triggers, setting up gates and timers, making sure the map couldn't be broken by players. Since then I have been focusing more on trigger systems and programming.
Besides the desert maps I ended up working on various maps to help out with AI setups and spicing up the layouts a bit more. For example, I added the little underground bits to Chapter10, to give more areas to explore, and make the map a little less linear.
==================================================================
Unreal Tournament 2004 (2003-2004)
onsite work for Digital Extremes
DM-Tribulation(2005-2006)(amateur mapping)
Starting 2005 into 2006 I was mostly doing paper design work for DarkSector. Surrounded by all this new tech, I started to wonder what I could do in the older tech generation. This is why Tribulation was designed to show off good visuals and secondly to have interesting and fun gameplay. This map has traps and secrets! I like adding in other little things now and then. It is not a hardcore thing to have in the map, but it spices up the gameplay.
I think hardcore maps are not the ultimate form of gameplay, just one form of it. If you can effectively use traps and know where the secrets are, you apply different skills that are also part of the game.
Besides getting feedback I did everything on this map, visuals, gameplay and testing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
BR/CTF -BridgeOfFate started with just the flag room. I designed it more for visuals and fun, rather then gameplay, but when I walked around it I started to get a feel for it as a base. I then added the room with the big pillars as a middle area and copied the base over. I kept the entrances to the base small because I turned it into a bombing run map.
In UT2003 you can throw the bomb ahead of yourself and then teleport to the same spot with the translocator without much delay. This made defending a base very hard. With small entrances the defenders have an easier time fighting against this.
Later I added the cave area as the new middle area, to make the map harder and a bit slower paced. The CTF version was modified even more with adding separate rooms on each of the pillar rooms, to make flag running easier. It created more hide and seek gameplay that way.
I was responsible for most of the layout / meshing / lighting and bug fixing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DOM-Aswan was inspired by a two week trip to Egypt, I couldn't help myself, I had to use all the visual goodness and apply it in a level. It was fun to go through my photo's all the time for inspiration. The end result is a mix of many temples and tombs combined, but primarily inspired by the temple of Edfu. This temple lays between the city's Aswan and Luxor.
For the gametype double domination you need to hold two points for 10 seconds without the enemy touching them. Usually the points were more then 10 seconds away from the spawn points, which made it hard to come back if you died and the count down started. I created the map with trick jumps in mind so you can make it to the point in about 8 seconds if you do 3 jumps just right and have no distractions on the way. Most of the powerful weapons were further out of the way, so if you truly wanted to build up a defense you had to take the longer routes.
Double dom is unfortunately not a very popular gametype, so I didn't have much feedback on this map.
I was responsible for most of the layout / meshing / lighting and bug fixing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DM-DesertIsle is a medium Deathmatch level set in an oasis. One thing that bothered me for quite some time was that most maps are blocked off by cliffs. The player is not only limited to the arena gameplay-wise, but also visually. In Unreal Championship I made a BombingRun map that looks very open (BR-Adrift) and I applied the same principle to this DM map. I had to find a way to keep the player inside the arena though. To fix this I ended up making the forcefield that pops up when you walk out too far away from the fighting...
This map could be considered an experiment or gimmick map. It is not designed for optimal gameplay or flow but it had its own kind of character gameplay wise.
I was responsible for most of the layout / meshing / lighting and bug fixing.
==================================================================
Labels: leveldesign, portfolio
posted by Checker at
8:03 PM
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