Map Battle37 Final Screens

Space Cannon

Close up


Overhead


Far away

Abandon Factory

Inside

Outside

WIP screens. Probably add more decay to it(broken windows was suggested).

New Screens

Worked a bit more on MOE.

Steelworks




Beach House

Margin of Error

This is my first project under this blog. Right now I'm calling it Margin of Error, but I'm not sure how much that will tie into it later. So I've got three sections planned out, collected reference materials, designed various puzzles to be used, and now I'm ready to begin. The first part I decided to try and tackle is a coast sequence that has you riding alongside the coast with Alyx headed for a resistance outpost. This is actually the second area you go through. Unfortunately, the combine, antlions, and various barricades are blocking your path so it's not going to be easy. An important element here is getting the player to feel as if they are actually crusing next to the ocean. Mist from the ocean, sound of the waves, coastal highway, wrecked ships, lighthouses, sea port, power plants, seagulls, hot beach sun above, and of course a beach house(also a barricade) all help to pull off a coast atmosphere. Once I feel I've nailed the atmosphere I'll begin on the scripted sequence that takes place in the small garage before you leave, which is what the screen shot shows.

Random Screens

To finish things for today and to start things off I'll post screens of some past maps. Rather than full this with larger screen shots I'll just leave a link to them.

Interlopers - map battle 37 competition
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x247/linkup90/battle370007.jpg

TWHL - map from layout competition 27
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x247/linkup90/imuscompo270021.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x247/linkup90/imuscompo270032.jpg

Church
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x247/linkup90/tf_pub_damage20006.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x247/linkup90/tf_pub_damage20001.jpg

Forest train wreck
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x247/linkup90/threefeetunder0009.jpg

small CSS map(outside)
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x247/linkup9/balconyandgardens0010.jpg
(inside)
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x247/linkup90/balconyandgardens0004-1.jpg

Going Forward

So I've found I really enjoy doing this and now I need to start building a portfolio of work. So a little bit about my experience. I've used the Unreal Editor, Doom3 Editor, and both Gold Source/Source. Right now I'm mostly using Valve's Source Engine. I've got three goals to reach one being to pull off some impressive outdoor maps and two to improve architectural work. The last goal is to continue to improve my design abilities as far as enjoyable/interesting gameplay is concerned. I've built quite a few houses etc before with the source engine, but I really want to push the architectural side of things. I've done some work with AUTOCAD and have been thinking about pulling off some accurate/believable buildings using what I've learned.

Okay, so the plan to actually pull this off includes a variety of things. One is to enter more competitions to farther my skill. Another is to continue my interest in architectural design building various houses etc into the maps I build. Working on a mod team is another. Another important one is to explain my level design decisions and why they work/make sense, this blog being a great place to do that. I'm pretty sure there is more I need to do and hopefully I'll find out as I go along.

First post