Hi all, I have worked on this short sequence and wanted to share it with you. As usual, I will go through the process from concept to a good foundation. The entire process from concept to Finish took roughly 10 to 12 hours to complete (spread across three days due to time constraints).
*** First, I will make it clear that the props and assets that I have used for this level were from free packages that I have downloaded from the UE4 Marketplace (Credit to Infinity Blade and Paragon).
The idea for the level was to incorporate jumping puzzles, some combat ideas for melee/ranged attacks, with an approach of “Show, don’t tell” level design. I hope you enjoy reading it.
The Gate of Eternal Flame
The Valley of Eternal Flame lies behind a gate that has been closed off for many years. Our hero, equipped with a sword and a bow is looking for a way to open the gate. The gate has two Fire Eaters on its sides. The Fire-Eaters are statues with large jaws (Did not have Fire Eaters for this, so I have used a cool looking statues instead). The goal is to open the jaws and shoot a fire arrow into the mouth. The Fire Eater will consume the fire, opening the gate in the process.
Where Can I Get Fire Arrows? The player will have to face a creature of metal and fire called Magmor. When the creature is defeated, it will drop Fire Essence. The player can use the special item to imbue his arrows with fire.
There are two ways to fight the Magmor:
1. Melee: The player can fight the Magmor with the sword. This approach although straightforward is slower and dangerous. The Magmar does not take much damage from the sword, and with every player attack, will spray lava from its wounds. The lava will hurt the player in the process.
2. Ranged: Using a method called Kitting (drawing an enemy to a certain location) and trigger a trap. The trap is located at each one of the arches around the Magmor. Each Arch has a heavy boulder hanging from it. When the Magmor walks under the arch, the player can use the bow to shoot an arrow at the hanging boulder, dropping it on the Magmor. Although slower than melee attacks, this is a safer way to deal with the creature.
Show Don’t Tell: A destroyed Magmor is laying under an Arch with a large boulder on it. Exploring the area will reveal that there are several arches, each one has a boulder hanging from it. The scene can create an association with the hanging boulder and the destroyed Magmor.
Fire Eater: The Magmor is encountered by the pool of lava. There are three Fire Eaters around the edge of the pool. One of the statues has its mouth open and chewing fire. The other one is passive, while the third one is partially sunken (a choice I have made to make the scene more interesting).
The player then has the freedom to roam and explore the level. They will find two mechanisms (In the form of Altars) that when used, will let out a loud grinding sound. These will affect the Fire Eaters by the gate.
Show Don’t Tell: The player can associate the first Fire Eater by the lava with the two by the gate. It is working with fire, and the player just acquired the ability to use fire arrows.
Ledges and Jumping There are locations in the level where the player will have to perform ledge jumping (Horizontally and vertically). The player will have to use these ledges to reach several key locations.
Other Locations and Secondary Quests:
While the main goal is to open the gate, the world has more than just that. I wanted to create an explorable area that can be fun and rewarding.
There are several locations that will require the player to stray away from the main path. The rewards are unique with a location for a side quest.
Rewards:
A collectible reading material about The Valley of Eternal Flame.
Fragment of Jath: an object that is part of a larger item. Each piece grants the owner with +5% resistant to Fire damage. There are five altogether scattered around the world.
Side Quest: Spirit of the Forgotten Dervish: This spirit can be found at the bottom of old stairs. It hovers over its dry bones and will offer the player a challenge. If successful, the spirit will give the player a special gift: X item that can serve another NPC around the world. In return, that NPC will trade item X for item Y and so on. At the end of the chain, there will be a weapon, boost, or a reward for the overachieving player who follows this quest.
Here are some images of the creative process behind the level (Paper, Blocking, Outcome):
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Blocking:
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Outcome:
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That is all for now. I hope you enjoyed the post and feel free to leave comments, questions, suggestions, criticism, and all that good stuff.
This post is about revising my work on a level design that I have created. The task was to create an area with a storyline. After playing around with several ideas, I have decided to go with a sewer system.
Short story time: The sewer system belongs to the prospering city of Bisstan. 300 years ago, an earthquake collapsed the eastern side of Mount Draggan and buried the city under it. The survivors rebuilt their city on top of the ruins, using them as the new layout for a new sewer system. Much of the ruins remain unexplored to this day.
Back to our topic, there are several locations such as a Thieves’ Den (all sewers must have one of these), A large area where many unfortunate people live (including children), and a short quest line area. I came up with a layout that I liked but was very out of scope. I have received a lot of compliments but also much-needed criticism. This criticism led me to look at the layout with new insight.
The following image was the layout that I came up with (large and ambitious, and yes, I have misspelled rat):
I enjoyed making the level and wanted it to be epic. The problem was that it was too mazelike with a very complicated layout, and a too simple quest.
The story behind the quest was about a large number of rat attacks that caused an outbreak of a disease. The team that went to cleanse the source was never heard from again. The quest revolved around burning rat nests, find the missing team and discover the source. The last part of the task introduces a mysterious disfigured woman who controls rats; The Rat Queen. There were several ways of dealing with the Rat Queen: Confront and kill her, Come to a set agreement (conversation), or make her leave by sparing her life after defeat. Also, if the player or an NPC in the party is a Druid, there will be extra dialogue options and possible outcomes.
Revisions: The revisions here are mostly about the layout, less about the story or the quest. I have looked at the layout and figured out which parts may not be necessary to progress the main storyline or the side quest for the Rat Queen. The Old Sewer Station, although it had a short story about a sea monster, was shelved. I love sea monsters as I find them mysterious and intriguing, but it had to go. Next, I have relocated the Under-Den (Thieves’ Den), and overall “trimmed” the area:
With the new layout, I was able to keep the feel of a sewer and the parts that were important to the main story and the Rat Queen’s side quest. This new layout is smaller than the previous one and map readability is better. The New Sewer System is the only part that might be confusing at first, but you quickly realize that there are only three main routes. I moved the Rat Queen’s quest location closer and put it behind a concealed path. The area around it will have several rat nests, and clues about the whereabouts of the missing team.
A fun and creative Idea: When I liked the new layout, my mind wandered away. I took a short break to play some games. After two rounds (approximately 20 minutes), an idea sparked deep in my head: I should make a level for this game!
The following is what happens when I am left alone:
Note: I am not very good at Overwatch, but thought “Why not”?
I came up with an idea for a payload map where you have to sit on a vehicle (a car or a transport of a sort) and escort it from Point A to B, and sometimes even C.
I came up with an idea for a payload map where you have to sit on a vehicle (a car or a transport of a sort) and escort it from Point A to B, and sometimes even C. The attackers will have to move a bomb to the target location. When the payload reaches its destination, the building above will collapse.
There are three destinations that once “capped” will trigger a different spawn area for the opposing teams. For example, Objective A for the attacking team is to capture the payload and heading towards Objective B. This will trigger the new Spawn locations for both sides. The same for finishing objective B and heading towards C. Both teams will now respawn at Spawn C.
I have added nooks for Health Packs and vantage points that are elevated and can buy some time for the defending team.
Although I had no intention of making this, I like the outcome. It was fun to make and explore the theme and idea.
Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts. Creative criticism is always welcome.
Hi all! I have not posted a thing for a while! I have been busy with our newborn daughter (congratulations! Oh, thank you!).
Anyways! As the title suggests, this post is all about outdoor level design! Going over some layout and from start to finish, I aimed towards an open world/MMO starting location (think World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, etc,).
After two and a half days (December 26-29 of 2710) of hard work and new things to learn such as how to create a waterfall from particles (yup!) and extra work with terrain painting and sculpting, I can say that I am happy with the outcome!
No, there are no working quests, enemies, or any cool animations. As I have said earlier, this is not a game, just a design for a level that I had in mind with a short story that you can read:
Some Story (Because I like stories)
The village of Ke’Tan, is built over the ruins of an ancient civilization and they have discovered “The Flame” which is an artifact that they can’t control yet, but they have been able to use it for miracles such as healing, augmenting minds, and overall communicating with it and spiritually enhance themselves.
There are those who wish to control the Flame and those who wish to work with it to heal and spread a new golden age. The two factions fought over who will control the Flame, eventually, the ones who wished to control it became outcasts and left the village, never to return.
Well, they didn’t obey the rules and came back, worshiping a new god that they have found in the mountains surrounding the village and are now tainting the wilderness around Ke’Tan.
You are the hero and suppose to unfold the mystery that is shrouding the returning outcasts, find its source, and destroy it so you can bring back peace to the area.
Day 1:
I want to make it clear that the assets that I am using (structures, several materials) are not my own and are included within the Unreal Engine 4 and/or are freebies that I have downloaded from the UE4 Marketplace. I have built the level and manipulated some of the models to fit into the level, but I did not create the models.
With some story in mind, I used it as a guideline for the map/level, and came up with some lore for the people of Ke’Tan – but this is a different post!
Back to the level design!
So I have created this top-down in painter:
The numbers are locations or areas that are going to push the story as we play (remember that this is just a design of where things should be and that none of it actually exist so no fighting, no crafting, none of that).
Starting location where you “Spawn” when starting a new game (and where your story begins).
This area is a way to teach the player how to play, use a store to buy/sell gear and learn a profession for their character (Mining, weapon/armorsmith, cooking…), as well as an area to learn how to fight.
This is an old watchtower that was infiltrated by the Outcasts and one of your first quests is to go there and clear the courtyard.
This area has a military post with a view to where you are going to head next. Also, probably a good location for a “Fetch” quest: I am too lazy to get food, you seem like a nice person, go back to the village and get me something to eat.
The village of Ke’Tan lies behind a wall. It is broken and the guards are overwhelmed with Outcasts attacks – potential to gather materials to repair the wall, help with the Outcasts, and level up a bit (gaining experience) before you head out to the real world.
The forest! Potential for resource gathering, quests, and more plot as you level up. Also the first encounter with an Outcast leader (a lesser one… a gang leader at most).
The open wilderness and the Relth River. This is where the cultists are really getting to do things that they shouldn’t and they are polluting the river, angering “Relath”, the ancient water spirit.
This location has a shrine and is between Ke’Tan’s lush forests and the wasteland of Te’Ral, where the Outcasts’ new base of operations is.
This is Te’Ral: A mountain pass where the Outcasts have to build a small base and are causing havoc in the area. Maybe you can figure out who are the Outcasts really working for, or who is the mysterious force that they worship.
So that is an outdoor level design in a nutshell. With the ideas above in mind, I went in and sculpted a world, raised forests, dug rivers, placed foliage, and populated the level with life (at least buildings and a sense of story).
So the next several images are from day one where I have sculpted the terrain, painted it, and placed some structures to get the idea where everything is:
Day 2:
Day Two is dedicated to more foliage, some particles, and last touch-ups in the form of structures and locations.
Day 3:
Today I have dedicated the time to learn about particles. I have created some fire (The Flame!), and the waterfall (because everyone who is playing games knows that rivers, lakes, and even puddles, requires waterfalls).
I hope you enjoyed reading and watching the images. Please feel free to ask questions.
I wanted to share some of my random thoughts that linger in my mind.
Around mid-September (2017) I had some time to sit with myself and have some mind opening observations towards life. At some point (somewhere around 3 or 4 AM) my phone turns on, and a message is letting me know that my sleeping patterns are out of whack. I am unsure how the damn phone can tell when I am sleeping or not but I looked around me with suspicion, making sure that I am not being followed by whatever secret agency out there.
Anyways! An idea came to mind; what if without us knowing, our machines are becoming sentient and all that scary stuff. I fiddled with it for a time, then went to sleep (my phone was probably happy about that part).
I had a peculiar dream that night: I sitting in an empty room, bright white walls, not sure if they were glowing or just bright. By my side was a human-like machine dressed in white robes, comfortably sitting in the lotus position.
Unlike me, it was sitting in a somewhat of a large capsule that resembled a throne. Many cables covered the capsule and some were hooked into the machine’s head, arms, back, and pelvis. Its face was simplified: slits for eyes, a bump for a nose, but no mouth or ears. On its chest was an LED screen, the words “Mediation Mode” flickering with blue light.
I looked at my companion for a while and wondered what was going on. I was intrigued!
A high pitched sound of a Tibetan singing bowl startled me and the machine turned its head towards me, its eyes glowing blue now. I think my eyes widened with surprise as I didn’t expect that to happen.
“I am 008.” the machine said with a fairly pleasant human voice and I just nodded. “I am meditating, would you like to join me?”
I just nodded and said “Sure.” with a stupid smile on my face. There was another high pitched sound of a Tibetan singing bowl in the background, a lower note than earlier, but still high pitch one. The light in 008’s eyes faded and it began to hum “Oooooommmm”, its voice getting deeper and deeper.
It lasted for hours and when I woke up I felt recharged and better than ever.
Now, the dream and 008 made me think; what if one day, AI will be able to break away from its programmed pattern of “you were created to this or that”, and actually seek some answers for their existence? This will lead to a spiritual awakening of machines, a renaissance, and might be interesting to see how their pattern of, well, “Thinking”, will affect us and them.
I read some articles about it (apparently many people are thinking about that stuff), and many said that meditation is only for those with spirits and since machines don’t have one then they won’t be able to meditate.
Now hold on a second! 008 was meditating (it said so on its LED screen!) and there are some beliefs out there that are saying that everything around us is alive. According to these beliefs, if everything is alive, it means that so are machines, and with enough AI juice in their processors, like our brain, maybe they will be able to reach that part of umm… evolution?
The question is that even if it gets to the point where machines can be autonomous, and then one of them or a group will come up and say “Yo! We can meditate now.” will we as humans ever accept it? Because we can barely accept ourselves and will probably say something along the lines of “shove off you chunks of tin and silicon”?
To be honest? 008 didn’t bug me at all and I did not see it as a threat. It was very relaxing sitting with it in the same room and didn’t strike me as odd. On the contrary, it made me very curious about it.
What do you think about the whole idea? Is it really far-fetched? Is it possible? No? I would like to know because I find the idea to be very fascinating, and something that we as humans might be able to learn from.
Hope you enjoyed reading my random thought sharing.
Thank you or reading!
/thumbs up
P.S.
My phone is still messaging me about my bad sleeping habits.
Ever wondered what the first draft of a story looks like? I don’t know about other writers and authors but I am going to share my experience and add some images.
The common belief is that the first draft is a piece of paper with words, sentences, scribbles, and doodles. While this is true, this is not the first draft.
The first draft comes from your mind. Unfortunately, I don’t have an image of that particular process, but I will do my best to explain.
The first draft can catch you anywhere; red light, shower, the line at a local grocery store, and so on.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, you will have a seed and an image. You will say “Oooo!” and then the autopilot of your imagination will build and gather details around it. Now you understand why that man running with no shoes is actually a time traveler who did not want to get mud on the time machine’s floor.
After a short cookout of thoughts, ideas, and something that I call “Creative Process”, you will have a porridge of your story. Fast forward and you have some events in a chronological order. You like the idea so far and decides to put it down on paper or a computer document.
In the process, many new ideas will come to mind and you will probably change some little details here and there and add a cool scene.
Congratulations! You now have your first draft!Or is it actually the second draft? I will let you decide.
So now that we have put this mild confusion behind us, I wanted to share what my notebook looks like when I first translate my thoughts into writing:
I know it is not pretty, but It is what it is, so accept it and move on.
I like writing stuff down with a pen before typing them into a document. I don’t do this every time though, mainly from being lazy and reaching out and grab the notebook from the shelf. Nonetheless, there is something magical about the flow of a pen, the sound the point makes on paper, and the smell of ink, that is letting my brain work better and create better images.
The example above, although rough and unedited, is a short story that I am working on at the moment. I have promised one a few days ago while talking about the crowdfunding campaign for “Gaea’s Reach”. This short story is part of the World of Gaea’s Reach and I wanted to share it with you to give a better idea of what some of the stories are about – a glimpse of a shard of that universe.
I hope you enjoyed my “How do stories come to life” process. Wait for the upcoming short story “Mara’s Gift” that I will be posting in soon.
I always liked level design and mostly done it on paper for a Saturday morning Dungeons and Dragons meetup with friends, or just for the fun of it. I have made several campaigns (just for fun, friends, and never published) for the original StarCraft and Neverwinter Nights (2004 not the MMO) but never sat down to actually document the process.
This is a good opportunity and might be interesting to some of you whether pros, beginners, or just interested in the process.
It started with an idea for a Capture the Flag map that is usually mirrored which means that both sides of the map have the same layout/geometry. This is done so both sides are equal and will not have an advantage over the other (of course you can do whatever you want but I went the traditional way :p).
The way I wanted to bring my workflow and experience was to show what was done in each day from day one to day eight (yes it took that long to make and I will explain why in each section).
So I hope you enjoy this one and please feel free to ask questions!
Day 1:
After sitting for about an hour and coming up with the fact that I would like to create a CTF type of a map I delved into the “What’s the Story of this Map” state of mind. About two hours later I found myself going towards a sci-fi themed level, I have decided to go with fantasy! (Wait, what?)
I am unsure why, but the movie “Fire and Ice” (yes the Frank Frazetta and Ralph Bakshi one from 1983) came to my mind and I thought to myself “OOO! What a cool idea!”
I sketched a bit (a bit, seriously… about two sketches before I liked it which proved to be a bad idea as you will see later) and moved it into Unreal Engine (aka UE4) which is FREE to download by the way. FREE!
I haven’t used UE4 before and last time I have was UDK (Unreal 3 around 2010) but it wasn’t hard to get into and surprisingly easy if you have some basic knowledge with 3d programs such as 3dmax or Maya. Blocking was the first thing. Blocking is basically creating some geometry and placing it around to create a layout of the level and space where the characters are going to run around.
So from this:
(yes this is actually a screenshot of a new project)
It turned into this:
And this:
I tried it for a bit, running around with a built-in character and noticed that this layout had several issues; too small, and I did not like the stairs leading to the sides (not a bit!). This is where that part when I only made two sketches came to haunt me and I have done several other sketches and came up with this:
Ignore the terrain part for now as I was just toying with the brush on a moment of short attention span. You can see that I have placed the stairs on the opposite side of where they were located before which also gave me the idea that this could be a backdoor sort of approach.
I still had the “too small” issue. It then hit me that most of the movie “Fire and Ice” was actually in a jungle… (go figure). I did not want to take much from the opposing fire and ice sides and made this:
A small divider of a “Neutral” area where the fire and ice gradually faded away, yet still had a clear understanding as to which side belonged to who. This also solved the part of red and blue teams and let the level itself tell a story by showing landmarks instead of bluntly adding red or blue arrows to make sure that the players know where to go (a proud moment right there).
So a short summary of day 1: idea, reference, sketching (don’t be like me and make more than 2), blocking, running around, redesign, reblocking, redesign, and dinner (just like that the day was gone).
** Understand that this is passion and requires a lot of attention and a lot of redo/redesign. It is either you like it or you don’t, and don’t be discouraged because it is a lot of fun. So just keep at it and get better – if I could have done this in one day then everyone can. Trust me, I have the attention span of a clam and my brain has its own frequent flyer account.
Day 2:
I started day two with thinking if I wanted the “create my own” approach or “look around” approach for assets (textures and models). I searched the UE4 Marketplace and came upon several “Free” (yes free stuff again) packages.
First was the “Kite Demo” pack that was great but the only issue with it is that all the models within are extremely high poly models and take about 2-8 minutes to load once you decide to drop them into the workspace.
I thought that my computer crashed for a moment when I waited for five minutes after dragging a tree into the workspace. Luckily it did not crash which bring me to offering you all a tip: SAVE your work!!! SAVE it frequently!
The second package that I found was “Infinity Blade” and surprisingly it had exactly what I was looking for! It had three different packages (also free to download) that were: Ice, Fire, and Forest/Plain. The textures and models within were really good and while some were “heavier” than others and some had a weird pivot point, the amount of content was phenomenal and I highly suggest that you go and get it.
I have placed some of the new models and replaced some of the blocked geometry:
Added a wooden bridge instead of a platform because I thought it will add flavor to it. Day two was by far one of the days, if not the day that I had the most fun. The part where I went in and searched the folders that were filled with content and tried many models was just wonderful and very rewarding to me.
After several hours I remembered that I still had all of this:
I took a deep breath and went back to my ice place where I have placed trees, bushes, and other things that added some story and a sense of a living environment (because it was fun and I was drifting away… again).
Day 2 Summary is short (well summary is usually short anyway). You need to go wild with your imagination but stay focused and in line with your plan. It is always good to come up with new ideas once you see something new that spark that mind of yours but don’t go overboard and try to stay within the scale of your project or day 2 might turn into a week or much longer.
Day 3:
Day 3 was special because I learned about terrain. It might sound simple but there is so much to it than just move the brush around and make a hill and a valley.
I did not use height maps or any special trick or add-on for this and simply sculpted it using the brushes that came with UE4. What I did learn though was how to create layers for the terrain so you can switch the texture from “Rocky” to “Grassy” or “Sandy” ones.
I also found out that from some reason, if you have more than three layers (at least on my computer), it causes some serious lag and delay with the textures much like the darkened part of the terrain in the image below.
It took me a while to find a good source and tutorial for the terrain and I wanted to share a really good video in here that shows a step by step of how to create a simple terrain material.
It is worth your time, trust me.
After I had my fun with the terrain, I have once again “populated” the area with props and brought it to life:
I made it visible that there was a clear line between the icy area and the new more lush area. I have placed several snowy rocks at the top of the “barrier” and used a snow covered stone gate asset as the entrance to the two tunnels leading to the ice area.
The next step was to do the same for the fire side and I chose to go with a bit of a violent look in the form of volcanic thorns and spikes.
I have replaced the tunnels from the ice side with open corridors for a little diversity and to show that the two side are different from each other story-wise.
To summarize Day 3, although it seemed like there was not much done, the fact that I got to search and learn about terrain and materials was a reward. I want to say that this was the day I have learned the most (even when I drifted away to watch some silly videos on YouTube that had nothing to do with anything in particular).
Days 4 and 5:
I have dedicated these days to create the “Fire” or “Red” side of the map. Several hours into it and I had much of it done:
I also went back and forth between all three areas to add some more details such as different props to enrich the environment.
It was also the moment when I remembered that the Fire and Ice movie showed a distinct difference between the two sides with the ice side more primitive yet holds some incredible magic, while the fire side was more socially advanced also had some machinery and light touches of technology.
I have added pipes to the fire area but had no idea how to work with the ice are just yet.
To summarize days 4 and 5, it was a great experience creating and adding on three visually different areas, yet keeping the simplicity and layout true to the original idea. Also polishing some of the environment by adding props from leaves and pipes, to several large boulders and creating both “Backdoor” corridors on both sides. There were several assets such as walls that I liked but disliked their material, and so I played around with assigning new materials to different objects to better fit the scene.
Day 6:
This day was dedicated to lighting. I have decided to go with a magical approach for the ice area and created icy orbs that glow with bluish light.
With the magic orbs, the ice area gained a unique identity and feel that was so different than the fire area. This made the story that the map was telling that much better.
Also, adding the lights made sure that both sides had a pretty clear understanding of which “base” was where and again, solved the red team – blue team in a unique way.
Day 6 in a nutshell: lights to set the mood.
Day 7:
Particles and sounds! What a wonderful idea! And while I am happy with the results, it took much research, reading and watching tutorials, and playing around with buttons to get everything right.
I wanted to have fog which was easy enough as all you have to do is dragging “Height Fog” from the list of visual effects. You then place it somewhere in the workspace and move it up and down and play with its density and other options.
I will admit that I had some issue with the fire particles and even when I have found that the Infinity Blade package had fire in it, I still dissected it and played around with it until I was satisfied.
With all that, something was missing; the orbs were magic and obviously (obviously right?) should be humming with energy. The fire slowly eating the torches should have a crackling sound, and the lava should sound like it is flowing.
I have located several x_Cue assets which are sound files. As with the rest of the Infinity Blade package, these had a great quality to them and I chose several and placed them around the map.
While performing a simple run around the level I quickly noticed an issue; Not all of the sound nodes that I have placed had sound. I have tried everything from copy and paste and checking the geometry and placing things around in different order.
As I grabbed the screen with the intent of tossing it out the window, my eyes landed on a small little line within the sound editor that said: “Max Count” (images below right after my manly rant).
This line had the number 16 in it. Quickly, my brain connected the dots and 16 sound channels made perfect sense to me. Now, I am not a sound guy or anything but I have changed the 16 to 40… it fixed my sounds throughout the level for all the torches. I have done the same for the orbs.
DISCLAIMER (love this word): I have no clue if that was a good solution to move the count from 16 to 40, but I did not notice any issues with it with performance or sound quality. As far as I can understand, the engine might have several channels at once for the same instance, in that case, the torch. It is probably and possibly there to conserve memory while the player moves from one area to the other, the sounds will load and unload in a fashion. There is probably an option to set this up somewhere but I could not figure it out.
Images in case you have the same issue and decide to take my approach:
Select the actor (the sound in this case that looks like a speaker), and go to “Edit”:
On the left side you will see the “Max Count” line:
Insert a number that is equal or greater than the amount of the sound that you are using. So if you have 40 torches and 40 sound cues, then change it to 40. I guess that this is an easy fix, probably not optimized, but it worked OK for this project.
Day 7 was rough but mostly because I was tackling something that I had no idea about and did not even think of when I first started the project. I am glad that I was able to add sound as another layer that breaths life into the level. Overall, once again I have learned something that I had no clue about before. I am still clueless about sounds within UE4 and barely scratched the surface, but I can go into it some other time as it is not my focus for this project.
Day 8:
I have made some final touches, moved things around a bit from here to there. Also made sure that everything was working.
The following images are the same stairs that lead to the enemy’s base back door:
Exact same space as they are mirrored, yet a very different feeling.
The following images are of the area that leads to the main structure in each base:
Stone bridge, chains, and lava, against the following frozen and snowy bridge with a chasm of crackling lightning bolts.
If you look closely at the bottom of the cliffs, you can see lightning bolts. I have made a panning material (panner node in material editor) that made it look like the lightning was moving across the surface.
It has Time nodes and Texture Coordinate nodes (red ones) that are linked to multiply nodes (green). From there the multiply nodes are connected to Panner node (green) that goes into the desired texture (blue). From there it goes into another Multiply node and then to base color and in this case, also the Emissive Color.
The Panner node has values in it that can dictate the speed of the texture on the X and Y axis and be faster or slower. The multiply will add a sort of a mask and go either slower or faster to give the effect of a moving lightning.
Day 8 was a lot of fun, especially the lightning bolt chasm part. Also see how everything comes together after so much work was, for the lack of better words, incredible.
This post is just for the level design part. I still have to go and look for a way to make the AI work with the idea of CTF. Will take some time as I have no real experience with programming (other than “Hello World”) and need to check and go deeper into the blueprints and find a way to make it happen.
Overall, this was a great project and I had a lot of fun as well as learning new things and patience. There were times that I wanted to get up and come back later but I didn’t because I wanted to spend one more minute to find another answer.
I was able to do all this in eight days and by myself from online documentation and videos. There is so much stuff out there and with the internet serving as our very own private library that is available in the bedroom, bathroom (umm…), living room and even when sitting in the train or waiting for something to happen, I was able to get all this work done.
I do not know how long it actually takes for someone who is working in the game industry to create such a project, especially with learning tools and tricks as you go, but I think that it was pretty fast.
Also, the amount of knowledge I accumulated was rewarding and will help me in the future with other projects. It was a lot of fun, even when I had bad thoughts about the screen.
I hope you enjoyed reading the post as much as I enjoyed writing it. Perhaps you learned something new or had a good laugh or two. Either way, thank you for reading.
Ah! That tingling sensation in the stomach when you write something good: The way the story, characters, and environmental details flow from your mind through your fingers as they hack hack hack on the keyboard. That smile when you realize that you are halfway through the second draft that was not as bad as you thought it was going to be.
Then out of nowhere and before you know it: BAM! Ripples of pain from within your wrist replace the smile with a frown. You sink into a dark place as that pulsing pain ruins your moment. You pay no attention to it, of course, shake your hand, “It’s just a tired muscle you tell yourself” and move on with the draft.
A week goes by and you forget about the pain. The draft is almost done and you want to finish it because you just want it behind you. You sit down and pull the keyboard to you when you feel a sharp pain in your wrist again. This time it feels as if Zeus the mighty himself threw a lightning bolt into the center of your hand. It sends ruffles of pain to your fingers and all the way up to your elbow and you scream in pain.
Fast forward to the next day. The doctor asks you why are you here? “There is something wrong with my wrist,” you say, massaging your hand because somewhere in your head you are sure that it will ease the pain but you have done that since last night and nothing changed so what makes you think it will now? Pfft!
The doctor orders an x-ray “Just to make sure there is no injury.” he tells you with a smile that you feel should not be there and wish you had a frying pan to smack it off his face – you are in pain, what is he so happy about?
The Radiologist pops his head into the room and calls your name, then say follow me with the enthusiasm of a dead crow. You follow him in what seems to be a dungeon of rooms, storage, a cafeteria out of nowhere like an oasis that you did not expect to see and into an old, small, stinky and shady elevator that was there since the great depression.
You walk out of the elevator and into a dark room. This is obviously the cellar where they keep all the prisoners you think to yourself, and when the light turns on you see the top of the line machines that you just want to touch because they look so cool.
“Put your hand here, thank you, don’t move, beautiful, turn it around, beautiful, thank you, you can go.” The entire x-ray session takes about half a minute, and your hand has its very own fashion book – you should consider becoming a hand model.
Back at the room that was assigned to you, you are waiting for the doctor who seems to be taking his sweet time. Finally, a knock on the door and the doctor bursts in. He looks at you for a moment then let out a long “Hmm.” You can see that he ponders to himself as he is looking at you with a look that can only mean that you are probably going to die but he is not telling you about it just yet.
“Have you done any sudden moves?” he asks and you shake your head, then answer “Not that I know of.” You suspect that he already knows what is wrong with you. What stage is it you think to yourself, and how are you going to tell the wife and what about the kids? Did you feed the dog this morning after you took it out to pee? So many questions, too many unknowns.
“Let me see.” The doctor’s voice brings you back to here and now as he snatches your hand and fondles it like it was a potato. It hurts but the doctor knows what he is doing.
“Ok!” he exclaims. “Have you been writing or typing or any sort of movement such as using the mouse more than usual?” The tone of his voice is making you feel guilty as if you have done something bad. “I didn’t do anything unusual other than writing a book,” you say with an enlarged stupid smile as you are very proud of your achievement. The doctor wants to roll his eyes at you but is keeping it to himself (or is he?). “Do you have Arthritis or diabetes?” He asks you, to which you node and say “No.”
“Are you pregnant?” The question comes and you actually think about it for a moment. You then scratch your beard and give the doctor a questioning look. “Do I look like I can be pregnant?” you ask with disbelief that you had to ask that question.
“I always ask that.” he tells you, “It’s funny and helps to break the ice.” His smile is really annoying as you are still in pain, noticing that he is still fondling your hand which now probably borders with sexual harassment.
“You have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.” the words flow out of his mouth like a breeze as they go through one ear and come out through the other. You are trying to understand who has a car with his pal, why are they driving through a tunnel, and what does it have to do with your hand.
“Basically, you have worn a nerve that sits at the base of your wrist.” He tells you with no emotion what so ever in his voice. “It happens to writers, tennis players, umm… and the such.”
“So I don’t have cancer?” you ask with a voice that is full of surprise and mingled with joy. The doctor gives you a questioning look. “Did you diagnosed yourself over the internet before you came here?” He asks and you know you did but you shake your head and with a silly smile say “No, who does that?” you laugh about it for a moment but stop when you notice that the doctor is not amused.
“Put a brace on it and don’t use it for a week,” he tells you and leaves the room. You are still in pain, trying to remember the name of that syndrome that sounds like you are diseased with some mutated strand of Ebola. You are still in pain as nothing was truly fixed and you understand that you can’t write for the next week or so.
Good thing I have two hands which brings you to the realization of how hard it is to type only with my left hand (or right if you are a lefty) as the other one is lying motionless next to me. It hurts, it’s an annoyance, and this is truly the first time ever that I wanted to chop off a part of my body (in hopes that I can glue it back later when it heals?).
I did learn a thing or two about writing though. I guess you never think of that stuff before you manage to injure yourself by doing something as silly as typing a book. The first thing is that I was writing a lot which surprised me. The second thing was that I was typing wrong; the hand should be elevated and the wrist straight and not the other way around – it was more comfortable for me to write but it took my hand out of commission.
Did I say two things? I meant three; give yourself a break every now and then and move the wrists a bit, stretch the fingers and so on to take some pressure off your hands.
And number four (OK perhaps there are more than two things that I wanted to tell you); I should have probably trained on doing simple things with my left hand such as cutting, holding objects and so on. It is highly uncomfortable to brush teeth with your left hand and poke your gums and almost your eye out (don’t ask).
So yes, I injured my wrist by typing which is kind of cool and one day will be something to tell the grandkids. Yes, this post was brought to you using only my left hand. Be smart and learn from my little adventure. And do yourself a favor… don’t self-diagnose yourself over the internet – it might give you a heart attack /wink.
Yakir Garavelas 