Posts by Hourences

I presented Unreal Engine 4 and Blueprint scripting at the Swedish Game Awards earlier this month, on behalf of Epic Games. The hour long presentation focuses on the new visual scripting system Blueprint and how it impacts the way we build games and levels. During the presentation I set up a lightning strike script, followed by taking a look at how Blueprint impacts the development of Solus.

The quality of the projector recording isn’t always superb but it will give you an idea of how scripting in UE4 works.

A long and in-depth interview with me can be found on onlysp.com about the gameplay and vision of Solus, with lots of new info on what the game is about: http://www.onlysp.com/solus-unreal-e…sive-interview/

Also here is a quick in-game shot showing our PDA pocket computer that acts as our hud (ignore the huge crosshair dot). Gameplay wise the game is working out fine, we got most functonality fully working now. When the time is right I will release a gameplay video.

[Blocked Image: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2300830/solus_ingame03.jpg]

Hi all, position has been filled. Thanks for your interest!

I am looking for one, possibly two, people to assist me with level creation for one of my clients. The client I work for wants me to take on a large amount of work concerning the game's levels, for which I require additional help. I am looking for someone who can take some weight off me and assist me on everything I do concerning this project. Ranging from level design (gameplay design, floorplan, balancing) to level art (placement of meshes, lighting, effects), to level scripting (visual scripting of all that happens in the game).

High level of understanding and skill in visual level scripting (Kismet or similar) required. A lot of the work will be level scripting related.

Strong level art skills is a definite bonus.

Extensive experience with any of the Unreal Engines is strongly preferred.

A high level of skill can compensate for a lack of previous commercial experience.

Portfolio must show a strong interest for level design/art/scripting, preferably FPS/action levels, with a preference for indoor/close combat levels.

You need to be a self starter and able to work independently.

Next gen action game based on an existing IP. 7 or 8 month long contract. Preferably on location (Uppsala Sweden) but if skilled remote work is an option. Start February or March. Salary discussable. Full time.

We will make a decision within one to two weeks from now so please apply asap if you are interested.

Apply: [email protected] - You will only be considered if you include a portfolio.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3…fqHe2t62bd5&s=1 - http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3…1kpvcUJKPkU&s=1

Epic posted a showcase and interview - http://www.unrealengine.com/en/showcase/solus/

Things are shaping up nicely. Especially level and script wise. We are close to having the first 30 or so minutes of the game properly playable now. I managed to find a great cave style as well (more info on that later), and we got tornadoes in. Which are mightily impressive to see. The world also transformed into an archipelago for various design reasons. Once things are more final, I will begin showing the next batch of Solus media and talk some about why certain design decisions were taken.

Thanks again people!

I posted a quick update on my site with what has happened over the past week + some design choices that were made: http://www.hourences.com/update-on-solus/

Will hopefully have some pictures or such to show next week. I am full time on scripting at the moment, so hard to show much on pics.

Quote from Sentura

Wouldn't it be a question of simply shading it differently rather than attempting to put it at a far distance? It definitely sounds like there's a tech hack buried somewhere that could help out with that...

If you put it closer, then you'd see it move when you strafe. The horizon shouldn't move, so it needs to far enough away for it to create the illusion of depth.

I could have possibly colored the cloud layer in order to make the planet appear behind the atmosphere, or just color the actual planets, but the look I have here is part of what I am after.

Fps yes of course

Would love to get it going with Oculus also. Ordered one, lets hope it works out well.

Thanks again people!

Thanks people.

Player will wander around, scavenging for items while trying to not die from one of the many dangers in the environment. Think Cast Away with a touch of Minecraft (caves, gathering things), and some of the mystery from Lost.

I will post some updates as I go along, though I will be focusing on gameplay next and that will be harder to show in pics and such.

No idea if their DX11 rendering does that.

It is partially inside as I see no other way of doing this. The planets are gigantic in size. One planet is the size of the entire available building space in UE3, and orbits the middle of the level. The space beyond that is even larger. There are no skybox'es or such.

I am proud to announce my new game Solus.

Solus is a single player exploration and survival game, experienced in first person and developed in Unreal Engine 4. It is set on a mysterious and uninhabited alien planet - http://www.solusthegame.com.

http://www.hourences.com/my-new-game-so…ploration-game/

It is meant as the spiritual successor to The Ball. Same universe, different planet. Like with The Ball it is a big new game early on in the Unreal Engine cycle. It is atmosphere driven and level design heavy just like The Ball. And like with The Ball I being the one man army doing loads of work on this all on my own. It is my vision, concept, and style. The whole sky and weather system is mine, the color pallet and atmosphere, a lot of the models, all of the scripting, many of the particle effects, etc. And I did all of that in just 4 months time, part time. Additional help was received from Wiktor Öhman, who took care of all the space ship debris, some texturing, and website/logo, and Daniel Kopp who took care of most foliage, some various random help, and some of the particle effects.

Also credits to Gametextures.com for various nice tiling textures.

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/soluscontent/solusscreen5.jpg]

The idea is to make a living and breathing planet, so you really feel like you are trapped on this beautiful but dangerously active alien planet. I took it far. I got tide, temperature, wind, and so on. They change dependent on the environment. If it is clear skies nights are colder but days are warmer. If there is a lot of wind, nights are colder. You can be hit by lightning and die. If it rains the temperature goes down. Flowers close during the night. The environment actually reflects everything when it begins to rain. And so on.

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/soluscontent/solusscreen15.jpg]

For me this wasn't just a challenge to learn the new tools and features, and to get the style right, it was also all about making it not just work and look good, but doing those two things in a way that I can reproduce and extend it further rapidly. On the beach scene, spaceship parts aside, the only things that were actually modeled were the foliage meshes and one single hexagon pillar. Everything else you see is generated through clever tricks.
Everything is highly modular. I designed a giant box of legos that I can now give to level designers and have them make whatever they want using the same pieces over and over again. The thing takes less than 1 GB memory while running, while using 4096 and 2048 textures for nearly everything you see.

The game is far from completion, this is just an early sneak peak and teaser. Nothing in the pictures is representative of the final quality.

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/soluscontent/solusscreen11.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/soluscontent/solusscreen14.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://www.hourences.com/soluscontent/solusscreen22.jpg]

Thanks people!

I got a lot more coming up, though no details or dates on it for now.

And I seriously need to update my level design book also. Got a lot of new content and ideas for that, just need to find the time (meaning probably in a year or so). Technical tutorials/videos are getting priority at the moment.

Hi, sorry been a while since I posted here, way too much to do, but I just wrapped up on 16 hours of UDK tutorials:

[url='']http://www.hourences...utorial-videos/[/url]

I am aware it is late into this generation/engine cycle, but for one I did not want to let all the knowledge that I’ve gained working with UE3 for so many years, to get lost. I wanted to store it somehow, and make sure that other people are able to make use of it as well, as I am moving on. For example for mobile development in particular, a lot of the knowledge required to pull off a mobile Unreal Engine 3 game simply cannot be found anywhere. I learned everything by doing, and want to share that with everyone now. Late into the cycle also means that I have more knowledge to share, more examples to show.

Features

• Each video is around 4 hours long, and universal (MP4, standard codec, fit for all computers/mobile devices).
• In-depth, very detailed and thorough.
• I do not just explain how to do things, I also show how they were applied in real life examples: The Ball, Unmechanical, and Rekoil.
• Everything I learned from working in UE3 for six years, and having worked on/for 11 Unreal Engine 3/UDK commercial games/clients.
• I am supporting standard European bank payments for people in the EU, as well as international credit card payments.
• And last but not least, unique to my videos are the Assignments and Certificates!

Included in every video is an assignment. These all new assignment levels or models are based on what was explained in the video, and are meant for you to demonstrate what you’ve learned in the video.

Upon completion of the assignment, you can send it back to me and I will verify that you’ve done everything correctly. If all was done correctly, I will issue you a Certificate of Completion, as proof that in my opinion, you’ve shown sound understanding of this subject in UDK.

The Expert Classes: UDK Lighting - [url='']http://www.hourences...s-udk-lighting/[/url]

[url='']The Expert Classes: UDK Lighting - YouTube[/url]

The Expert Classes: UDK Asset Development - Part 1 - [url='']http://www.hourences...etdevelopment1/[/url]

[url='']The Expert Classes: UDK Asset Development -- Part 1 - YouTube[/url]

The Expert Classes: UDK Asset Development - Part 2 - [url='']http://www.hourences...etdevelopment2/[/url]

[url='']The Expert Classes: UDK Asset Development -- Part 2 - YouTube[/url]

The Expert Classes: UDK Mobile Content Development - [url='']http://www.hourences...nt-development/[/url]

[url='']The Expert Classes: UDK Mobile Content Development - YouTube[/url]

Thanks!

Hi,

Maybe been discussed here before, but I am looking for level design/level art/scripting/game design job tests. Does anyone happen to know of any site where you can find these, or would be willing to send me tests you've received yourself throughout your careers? I am talking about the kind of tests companies give you when you apply for a level related position. Looking for the descriptions/requests only, not what you made out of the test.

Thanks!

Doesn't tell me much, the differences between pay even between countries within Europe like Poland vs Sweden are huge, let alone also including the USA/Canada.

They are totally left hanging, and this whole take over is a lot more shady than it might appear from what I am hearing. This move allows them to retain the tech and ip and such, while getting rid of employees stock options and so on. Or at least that is what I am picking up here and there.

Long time no post.

I have worked almost more remote than on-site now, as well as hybrid setups with half the week on-site half the week remote. I worked remote for small startup teams, large established developers, as well as for my own products and company. Both working remotely and working on-site obviously have clear advantages and disadvantages, and there is no definite way to go imo. I have seen entirely on-site projects fail spectacularly (and often due to lack of communication even), and I have seen entirely remote projects succeed spectacularly. It really comes down to the people you work with and yourself. A lot of people see working remotely as an easy way out (when they live in places where there are no jobs or they cannot find work) but it really isn't that easy at all (doing it and finding it). You need to take the right approach to it as well on a personal level. It took me years to get to a point where I felt I was handling remote work correctly and efficient, before that time I too lost a lot of time on distractions (easy at home) or bad working habits (working at 3 am and getting entirely messed up). Communication is also key, it took me years also to get to a point where I began communicating in a very clear and structured way towards whoever was above me, when sitting at home, another thing most people really do not get right at all when they begin with working remotely.

There are also things that can help the work tremendously. Having a locked down fully functional standard engine to begin with helps enormously, so you are able to work more independently of the tech team. There must be a greater degree of personal freedom in the work you do than usual, as else you will get stuck all the time, waiting for feedback. When I work, I ensure that I am largely in charge so that I can do as I wish without having to acquire constant feedback and approval from other people, as that can quickly take hours if not days to get when remote. Too much hierarchy or too many people involved is also lethal. I ensure that either the teams I work with have a very flat hierarchy or I deal with a very select group of people, or both ideally. You cannot have meetings easily, and feedback takes a long time to get, I cannot have to deal with 4 departments and 6 leads or such, that really won't work remotely. One or max two guys.

Yes Mike Capps also said that Froyok, really bad. I don't care how they handle their development, and they do pay really well, but the real problem is that lots of smaller studios will now use this as justification to convince their people to crunch, except they conveniently forget the Epic salaries, bonuses, and blockbuster games...

A studio's approach to crunch is one of the deciding factors for me when looking around for work. If they cannot manage their time or take care of their people, there usually is a whole lot more messed up within the company. Stay far away.

I have never ever in my entire career met a single developer who came out of crunch as a better person (be it personally or financially) than he went in! It is a battle you cannot possibly win! If a company imposes crunch and especially excessive crunch it is usually a sign there are far greater problems within development, problems that won't be overcome by cruncing as those problems likely caused crunch in the first place. There is a very high probability those problems will continue to exist and eventually lead to the cancelation of the game or lead to a sub-par quality title at the day of release, which in turn leads to you losing your job. Even if that does not happen and the game turns out totally awesome, unless it brings in billions (and even then) you are very unlikely to ever see any of that money flow on to you. You are basically taking a tremendous risk for very little chance of any return at all. In fact playing the lottery probably gives you more chance of getting money! And compensation days are nice, but I have yet to see an employer who gives their employees 3 months off really, even if they have crunched for many months. You'd be happy if you got a week, or maybe two...

The 1999 - 2003 age was a fantastic time for all the major communities, after that it all went downhill

I remember we had planetunreal (the planet sites!) with like 200 hosted mod and mapping websites, with an avalanche of community news and new releases every day. And you could actually cook up something outstanding all on your own without spending 40 months in 20 different programs. And if you did well you'd really be noticed, you'd get a set of reviews, map of the week/month/whatever awards, pop up on the news sites and so on... Nowadays the most you can get for making something cool is maybe a Like on Facebook...

Not much left of all of it... Instead the whole thing expanded like crazy and then split up in a bilion small sub communities, dropped modding and got into indie games, and subsequently lost its original level design focus.

It is a steamed potato.

People found this by the way http://www.aperturescience.com/a/b/c/d/g/h/abcdgh/

Wonder what it counts down to

Quote from e-freak

Man, this trailer is so awesome!!!Also: Could you provide some info on the colab with Valve?

I think there will be some post mortems and such after the event is over, so I will retain from saying too much other than that they came up with the general idea and setup, and that all indie devs pretty much implemented that idea into their games as they (the indies) saw suited. Valve supplied us with content, and they flew us over a couple of times (two or three times it was I think) for meetings and presentations. In general there has been a lot of trust and creative freedom so has been really fantastic to work on this. Everything went very smooth and fluent.