[Crysis] - Mandate of Heaven

I'm glad to officially announce the Crysis singleplayer level I've been working on for close to a year: Mandate of Heaven

It is set in a Chinese public park, and mostly based on reference pictures I took during a trip there.

The modelling and texturing aspects are pretty basic, but since I define myself as a level designer, not an env artist, I don't want to spend all my time improving my modelling skills when I could be working on a new gameplay project.

I'm reaching the final stages of creation, namely polishing the cutscenes, balancing gameplay and pickups, and generally preparing it for testing.

If any of you would like to help test it, I'd be happy to send you the link when it's online, probably within a week or two.

[Blocked Image: http://www.clement-melendez.com/portfolio/pictures/mandate/00001m.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://www.clement-melendez.com/portfolio/pictures/mandate/00012m.jpg]

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Quote from 2d-chris

Nice! Lighting needs more contrast though and the map looks like it's inside a giant shadow If you're not disabling the shadows they will cost you the same as seeing all of them using standard lunchtime lighting.

I'm still undecided when it comes to the lighting/ToD. The map was designed to begin at night and slowly get the sun to rise as the players progress towards the sea, but not to go beyond 7am. I gotta admit though, it does look a tad too dark on these shots, but I've been playing with the ToD settings for a few hours and I can't seem to find a good fit for the level. All the objects and terrain's colors were picked for that early-morning ambient lighting, it doesn't look as well when the level gets brighter, and toning them all down would take me weeks. I'll keep playing with the ToD and rely on the testers to tell me wether they like it or not.

Here's a short video showing the evolution of the level over time:

Quote from e-freak

yeah. all-in for testing here!

Cool! I'll send you the link when I get the test version ready, probably early next week.

Quote

":hyopkrbv]yes, it's definitely nice. Trow me a download link as well man, I'm sure I can give you at least a few art tips. Cos I'm sure you've got the design part pretty much covered! Btw, i've been reading some of your articles, and I must say that everyone here at the core should give them a go, really good reading.

http://www.clement-melendez.com/portfolio/articles.html

Cheers man! I sent you the link by PM. Thanks!

Mandate of Heaven has been released!

MEDIA:

[Blocked Image: http://moh.clement-melendez.com/pics/gameplay01m.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://moh.clement-melendez.com/pics/00012s.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://moh.clement-melendez.com/pics/gameplay03s.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://moh.clement-melendez.com/pics/00037s.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://moh.clement-melendez.com/pics/00047s.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://moh.clement-melendez.com/pics/00051s.jpg]

DOWNLOAD:

Mirrors are available on the official website

If you try it out, please let me know what you thought of it!

Special thanks to e-freak and HP for testing out the level, you were a great help!