Building buildings

Unfortunately no in-game shots today. I took Thursday off from mapping, but got quite a bit accomplished today. I replaced all of the copy and paste houses from Valve's map with placeholder buildings of my own. Also got a couple of buildings placed. You may notice the open field is no longer present next to the apartments. I decided there was a great deal visible in this space and came up with a bus yard to keep the engine from rendering too much. This area is obviously a dividing line between commercial and residential zones and I'm trying to make it fit without seeming to be too jarring of a transition.

Going out of doors...

I kept my word and pulled myself away from the spawn area after a week's effort. Really could have spent more time on it, but the rest of the level desperately needs some TLC. Was able to work my way forward in the level a good bit. Trying to leave myself spots where I could extend the level or shorten it if need be depending on how testing goes. Hoping to have the first test for this level by the end of the month. No promises, but I would like to keep my present pace if possible.

The only screens I have for you today are in-editor. Not far enough along to start compiling without seeing a large amount of developer textures, but I may have a few in-game shots for you by Friday. Without further ado:

(Yes, those houses are copied and pasted direct from Death Toll. No, I'm not using them for anything more than a placeholder.)

Took my level work outdoors yesterday. Walked around an older part of Knoxville to snap some reference images, looking specifically for places that could pass for abandoned warehouses and alleyways. Came away with some good pics and definitely got what I came for. Thinking about visiting the riverside area for some more ideas (the level I am working on contains an area close to the ocean and has a dock).




All in all, I feel the level is progressing nicely. This is the furthest along I've ever come on a project and my confidence in being able to actually see it through to the end is higher than it's ever been.

Van out.

More images...

Finally solved the issue I had getting fire to work in-game. It took having a fog_controller entity present and hitting the right flag options on env_fire. You may notice I changed the spawn a little further...the rescue vehicle is no longer wrecked. I got to thinking I needed something behind the survivors to block off the level. While I enjoyed the idea of having the survivors wreck to start the level, it gradually occurred to me they couldn't drive through whatever I put behind them. I can't exactly have an open road back there. Maybe I can come up with a way for it to make sense later, but I think that's all the tinkering I'll do for now with the spawn area.

The next images you see will be of the entire level and I'm really excited to connect this part with the rest of it all. I'm working hard to make the level tell a story to the player about what happened before they came along. Forcing myself to consider the landscape I am creating as a place that could exist in the real world (sans zombies) has stepped my work up a notch. Let me know what you think of what I am doing. Would love to hear your opinions and ideas!

V out.

Work continues...

First, a small image dump:

Got a lot more work done on the reworked spawn area. Having trouble getting fire to function properly. I'm missing a step somewhere and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I spent too much time trying to solve this problem or would have been able to get much more done on this. Despite the delay today, I'm very pleased with how my work is progressing. Looking forward to connecting this up with the rest of the map and getting back to work on the campaign as a whole.

Working on the spawn 'room'.

On a whim I cracked open the Left 4 Dead campaign me and some friends had been working on. After playing Crash Course I really started thinking about how the campaigns can link to one another and a thought occurred to me: the first level of a campaign always has an open spawn area. None of the spawn locations are enclosed. Ours was...

Not anymore! Be aware this is only a view from the level editor program and is very much a work in progress.

Prevarications

By now it's safe to assume none of you believe a damn thing I say. Making a gaming blog he says. Gonna create a Left 4 Dead campaign he claims. It's not news to me. I know I'm full of crap. See, my problem is spending more time playing games than making/writing about them. Being a gamer is somehow written into my DNA. It's not my fault. Really.

On that note, I finally managed to pull myself away from Lord of the Rings Online for a break. I rediscovered Team Fortress 2 and of course the new content for L4D has me killing zombies again every night. Also, as weird as it sounds I played and finished Jak and Daxter for the PS2. Not sure how it happened, but it was a very enjoyable game all the same. Additionally, I'm pretty deep into Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker and just wrapped up Crysis.

I managed to find time to sketch out a TF2 map and am pretty happy with how it is turning out. It's for the new King-of-the-Hill gametype and looks to be something I can actually finish.

Have a look (click to enlarge):

This doesn't mean the L4D campaign is shelved by any means. It's just been hard to stay motivated to work on it while not playing the game for such a long while. Now that I'm back to playing nightly and with L4D2 just around the corner, I'm sure my work on it will pick up.

You believe me, right?

Not goodbye.

It has become increasingly easy to ration a larger portion of my gaming time to The Lord of the Rings Online. By "larger" what I really mean to say is "the entire". I never reckoned to think I would ever install an MMO, let alone play one to the exclusion of all other games! It happened though. Bit by bit, LotRO has surpassed Left 4 Dead and become my game of choice.

The idea of paying a monthly fee no longer rankles as it once did. At $9.99/month LotRO is obviously one of the better bargains in the MMO-verse, but I would happily pay more. Much more.


I should note that this will be the last blog from me for awhile. The future of Vanderblog is up in the air right now. A friend and I are looking to start a gaming blog of our own and it is likely I won't have time for this blog (even more likely that any material I would normally write about in Vanderblog will end up in the new blog anyway).

I'll post a link and more info when it becomes available.

Van out!

p.s. check out the Batman Arkham Asylum demo (yes, it's on Steam). Good stuff.