I’m almost finished with this level. I still have two CTF levels in the works, and a third that I’m co-authoring with Nova (he’s doing the visuals, and so far they’re amazing). I’m also planning to write an article on multiplayer level design in the next few days. So hopefully that will turn out.

“Babe, I’m gonna leave you”

“Leave you when the summer comes along”

“I can hear it callin’ me back home”

“You make me happy every single day”

“But now, I’ve got to go away!”
[guitar solo]

Note: the first two images are from the same level. The other two are separate levels.

I’ve been putting together a short game about exploring a house and collecting keys. I’ll have more to say about it later. For now, here are some screenshots.

Remember a few posts back when I showed two shelled layouts and said they would be best left at that stage? Well, right now I’m working on the textures and lighting for the DM map. (Thank / blame Jos.)

A little darker and it might feel like a Thief 3 level.

The palette I’m sticking with.

At least while I build these levels for UT3’s small community I have other projects in development too.

The Singularity reached something of a landmark this week. I’ve recorded myself as a placeholder for the narration, and I’ve addressed the issues discovered in the playtest. With that momentarily aside, I’ve been exploring other ideas.

Foremost among those ideas is Reset, which I began two days ago as an exploration in eastern european level design and atmosphere. The result so far is pictured above. It’s diverged from that inspiration, taking on the gameplay of system-exploration puzzles, but I think there’s still some similarity in the tone, particularly in motion.

All the remaining work is some audio, maybe more visuals (pillar trims?), a basic UI, and then packaging it. I’m hoping to finish—or at least reach content completion—in time to participate in 7dfps. That’s the plan, anyway.

This morning I sketched a floorplan for a one-on-one unreal tournament level. One of my goals with the level is to make a visually interesting unlit level. With today’s results, I think it will be possible, but there’s quite a bit of detail work left to do.

UPDATE: I added lighting and released the level as DM-Galsteen. There are new screenshots of it on my portfolio.

Dead week is over and finals are about to start. Between the two, I’ve found some time to work more on The Singularity and a few other silly things (Friday’s sketch, for example). Mainly I’ve been trimming, fine tuning the kismet (interaction is now on touch rather than ‘Use’), and blocking.

I’m not sure how I feel about the tiles in this second shot. The idea is for them to chime when you walk on them, adding a little amusement unrelated to the main interaction, and also directing the player in some areas. They might just be confusing, though, and in this specific location, they distract from the cube pickup.

Despite the progress, I still feel like there’s a long way to go and a lot of design problems to overcome. Hopefully I’ll have more to show soon.