Thursday 29 January 2009

Possibilities

Thought I'd make a post about what could in theory be done with the project. i.e, what could be done once all my mapping work is finished. So I'm looking quite a bit into the future here. But its nice to write down thoughts about the possibilities of a project. I'm used to writing in evaluation documents from university about what I "could have done" or what would make it better.

With Left4Dead campaigns you are given more things to do than before, normally when making a map for a source game like Counter-Strike you have the models and textures used in the original game, and you have to make a map with them. Adding custom textures, sounds etc are problematic as the server hosting the map also has to host all the new content and make the player download them when connecting to the server. With left4dead you can release maps as a zip file containing contents for multiple folders (maps,models,sounds etc) which you download and extract into the right folders. One example of a team of folks doing this for their campaign is the Dead before Dawn guys (search www.l4dmods.com). They have a huge amount of custom models, textures and now even their own music being made. (check http://www.l4dpodcast.net/blog/) for the link. So, these guys are a team, rather than just me on my own. But it certainly gives me ideas.

Possible Pipe Dream Ideas:
Ask a composer to make some music for the campaign.
Recruit an environmental artist or spend more time myself to make custom props.
Make myself or recruit a texture artist.

I particularly like getting my own music into the campaign. I will be watching the Dead before Dawn team closely to see how they pull it off.

Right, sorry about such impractical post, but its good to share my thoughts, even if none of them will be implemented.

Sunday 25 January 2009

Quiet?....Nope!

Thought i'd just write a small update. This week has indeed been quiet, I was really expecting the SDK to be released at some point this week. Looks like we're in a for a much bigger wait. I hope Im wrong though. So what now?

Well now I plan on getting all the brush work (if you're into unreal, that means bsp work)done. I plan on having all the roads done pretty soon, covered in nice orange dev textures so i can run them in HL2 multiplayer so i can at least play through it for testing. Then after the roads its placing houses and other brush work. I dont want to place too many L4D props into the level because I am very worried that when the SDK is released all the directories for the models will change and my map will be full of props that cant be found and would have to be placed again.

One thing im going to avoid is setting a timetable because this is a project that I cant really set one for, its a massive undertaking and although I plan on working solidly on it there are too many things that I dont know how long will take. So, the plan is. Get all the brush work done for level 1, starting with the roads then working up from there. Hopefully the SDK will be released once that is all done, if not, then I will probably spend extra time play testing the level and making sure the brush work is totaly polished. After that, possibly I can make a start on level 2.

Wednesday 21 January 2009

Building - A small peek

Ok, so short of posting in game stills I thought i'd put up just a few pictures of the houses I've made. Below are 4 different designs taken straight from the houses in the immediate area around the starting zone. I took them from inside the editor in a flat view as any textures used at this time are just place holders/closest quick match.
This should give you a small idea what things will start to look like from a purely architectural side.

From Deadford Designs


From Deadford Designs


From Deadford Designs


From Deadford Designs

Monday 19 January 2009

Suburban planning

So a small status update of whats happening with the project. Right now I have my head in Hammer (the source level editor) making houses. More specificly the semi-detached starting house that serves as the starting point for the map, i.e my house.

I have been carefully crafting the house, driveway, border walls, trying to follow a simple scale. Working in hammer units I have used the size of the player model in comparison to average human size. I am now happy with the scale I have created of the house and surrounding area.

I have a basic template of the semi-detached house, it still needs a few touches but once complete I will have the starting point for creating my suburbia. Using the finished starting house I can then comparitively easily make different versions, I aim to have about 4 different semi-detached buildings to make the first street with. Most houses in the area it is based on are all built from the same design and any differences are from extensions. So I can add/remove parts from my template I have in hammer to make many matching designs. Having an exact match for every single house in the town obviously is not an option, but the fact that the campaign is set in a suburban setting means all the houses look similar so I can use a few different templates and change them and still come up with a close match to the area.

Soon I should have shots of the buildings to show. Although currently because I'm using extracted game files and a custom mod to make the levels I cant at the moment get them to run inside Left 4 Dead. That will all be fixed soon, hopefully by the SDK.

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Part 1 of 5 Version 2

Ok, before I start posting any game stuff, I thought i'd just show that I have changed the ending to the first level. Now the players have to reach a safe house in the park. This adds a small amount of distance to travel but should be much more interesting to play, with an open space zombies can come at all directions while the players sprint for the safe house and possibly hold them off until they can enter.
Below is another satellite picture that should make it clear.

From Deadford Designs


I've also added new reference pictures that show the rest of the starting road and the row of shops. Just imagine what carnage could happen here...

Saturday 10 January 2009

Part 1 of 5

Ok, thought i'd get a basic plan up for the first level. Remember that a campaign is infact 5 levels. Below are a basic plan of the playable area, most of it is from a road map, this is helpful for me to see what sort of size i have to aim for. I have also done one based from a satellite map of the area, this is probably better to get a better idea of what it will look like. You will have to look closely to see exactly is in there, like a row of shops with parking and a dirt path behind some houses. The blue lines mark the road blocks, i.e. the players cant go any further in that direction.

Remember this is very early. It may totaly change, depending on how big I have to make the level after I find out the scaling etc of the campaign I might take a totaly different route. For example there is a park I could choose to go through which i like the idea of.

From Deadford Designs


From Deadford Designs

The run down

Ok, so day one into the project. I went outside to take photo's of the area, although it was so cold I decided only to take pictures of the opening area. Im going to be uploading them to an album that will be a slideshow on the right. All reference photo's will go into that slideshow. I will probably make another slideshow for images of designs, and eventually one for in-game screenshots.

This is for showing what the area in real life looks like so you can compare how closely I was able to redo it. That being said, using custom textures and making replicas of each house wont be possible as that would require too much downloading by the player, although we'll see about this situation once I get to that point. Instead I'll be building approximations inside Hammer (the level editor) using existing assests from the game. So these pictures can be taken as a rough guide more than something I can carbon copy into the game.

The next stages will be me making photoshop versions of my designs for the campaign, as at the moment its all on paper ontop of maps from the area. Also I have to make part of a level to see how well it scales, i.e. how long it takes a player to cover the amount of ground I plan for them to reach the end of each level, this will effect how long the campaign will be and where my planned finale point will be. At the moment I have two possible locations, I really like the second, longer version, as the area is perfect for it. You'll find out more when I upload the plans.

Deadford

Deadford is or will be a custom campaign for the game Left 4 Dead. It is based on my home town. It is entirely designed from maps of the area, every street, every house is where it is in real life. Although after an appocalypse some things do change.

Expect an adventure of survival through the suburbian wilderness of a British market town.

This blog will serve as a record of my progress through planning and implementation. Feel free to leave any comments or questions about any part of the project.