Week 1

update

Week one has flown by and I am currently heading into my blueprint stage, but first, let me update you with what has been completed.

Level overview

The purpose of this level design project is to demonstrate proficiency in level building including common pre-production and production practices. 

look and feel

I will be basing my level's look and feel off of our newly formed Capstone Team's current aesthetic intent. While not 100% set in stone, our artistic tone is this:

• "Over the top feel, relying heavily on a simplified style for our environments in order to keep focus on our main protagonist and his interactions."

Our capstone game will take place in a desert- like setting and we hope to utilize strong color theory and lighting in each environment. 

I plan to use world objects that are of medium mesh complexity with solid flat color maps. It is my hopes to use this project to test how we can scope our art pipeline by proving, or disproving, just how much of our assets will fit the aesthetic through how our geometry is lit in the scene.

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level layout

A suggested environment for our upcoming capstone is a "poisoned water hole" and a "mining shaft". While we have no current specifics beyond this, I did want to use these initial locals as the basis of my level design. 

The player will begin outside, just before Cavern 1. This is the 'water hole'. Here I will test outdoor lighting but most of my world will take place within the mine/aquifer. I would like to play with instances within the cave where light comes through holes in the roof.  

I also wanted to display potential clutter that would make the setting more believable, like mining tracks and water pipes. This map also includes the locations of special set pieces within the environment. These will be referenced further when I'm building the logic for a small quest.   

GAME PLAY Considerations

I have a plan about implementing game play logic into my environment but I'll wait till next week, when I've got it built, to go into detail. Here is my plan as of now.

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The WHITE-BOX is done!

With my maps in hand, I have completed my white-box within Unreal Engine 4. I began with BSP materials to block out the environment (I left the roof off for now) and made a few material blueprints to give the BSPs some basic coloring also adding a few static lights to even out the lighting,
Bam! I have my white-box!

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Wrapping it all up

Here is a video blog I put together to sum it all up. Week two will be all about my blueprints and game logic. See y'all then!