Posts by Mclogenog

Quote from Froyok

Ok, I was curious. You choose UT3 for the gameplay then ?

Yep! If you're interested (and have UT3), I released it over Here.

Quote from Froyok

UT3 or UDK ?

UT3. The lighting would look much better if it was UDK.

Another UT3 level I'm working on. Started it yesterday, so I'm feeling pretty good about it so far.

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[Blocked Image: http://mclogeblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/untoldstorage_03.jpg?w=368]

EDIT: It's not clear from the image, the black pillar is a floating monolith.

I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. The current portfolio's fine, and unless you're trying to get a job designing websites, there are more valuable uses for your time. *shrug*

holiestcows how the player views that scene will make a big difference, but right now that far wall's a little bland. It might be good to break up the geometry, or maybe add a light? You might also try pushing the green light into the green-blue tones and desaturate it a little (it feels christmasy with that red light).

Quote from sixbyseven

Gameplay and visual, in ways. More related to the "orange" levels. Simple, geometrical, laid out solely for the best play and not exactly to be a realistic location.

Gameplay-wise, it would be pretty weird for a TF2 level to let you run a complete circle around the map without passing through the center. I suggest making the bases more distinct, and doing more to funnel the players. Even so, it's a nice space for a speed-build!

For my own part, I'm working on another UT3 level. Today I decided to drop the csg into UDK because UT3's old and ugly lighting was frustrating me:

[Blocked Image: http://mclogeblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/iwish.jpg]

Shame I can't make it look like this in UT3

Quote from sixbyseven

DM-Warren: TF2-style map, built in entirely in Unity. Still just flat colors and tweaking the lighting/style.

Do you mean visual style, or gameplay style? The layout would be neat for something like Quake or UT, but it doesn't yet feel like TF2 to me.

I'd also watch out for 45 degree slopes. They aren't much fun to walk on.

It'd really help if people didn't need to dig for screenshots. Screenshots up front are essential. Goofy pictures are much lower priority

It would also be nice to have a little more information per level (inspiration, process, goals, whatever).

Been a while since I posted anything. Working on another UT3 map while I'm letting some bigger projects ferment. Aesthetics are still pretty early.

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Quote from JeanPaul

I got some more done to the layout, namely the spawn areas and the factory type area (a side route with no influence from the main area)

Looks nice! My only concern is the stair steepness. 45 degree stairs make me cringe, but that might just be me.

Jangalomph a little more color variety (subtle blue, green, or pink shadow tones maybe?) would really bring this to life. I like the light shafts a lot too, but I think the air would need to be a little denser (more fog or some particle effects?) for it to be so sharp.

AlexM I'm not sure what the game is, but for vertical combat you might want to stagger the floors (kind of like a pyramid). That way if players fall, they might land on the next floor down, rather than all of the way on the ground, which I assume would mean death. It might also be nice to give those stairways more cover; nobody like fighting on stairways (they're one of the most difficult kinds of choke-points), and you probably won't want to isolate flow to each floor. It really depends on the game, though.

I hope that helps!

@Al Anselmo I'd avoid dutch tilt in the future. I think it's one reason behind the feeling of over-complexity. Another reason would be the number of moving parts in each image. One shot has five cubes in it, which is a lot more than in most portal maps.

I didn't notice it at a lower resolution, but here the pattern on the trees look like faces. I'm not sure if that's intentional, but it's wonderfully strange.

My argument was just that it's absurd for triple-A studios to make the risks that the studios behind Dear Esther or Journey have; their productions are small enough that they don't require a blockbuster to succeed. All the same, I hope their success paves the way for the mainstream, validating moments of slower pace especially (as an example specific to those two games). Richard Lemarchand of Naughty Dog gave a great talk on this (

Quote from Taylor

I would like to see this point made with examples.

Four that come to mind (and why):

Dear Esther explored the gameplay-narrative limits of the medium and it provokes a different set of emotions than are typical to mainstream games.

Limbo avoids the platformer and adventure game trends of whimsy and explores nihilism. The tendency to die is the only real gameplay support of this theme, though.

Bastion's narrative is based in regret and questions of dealing with it. This tends to be irrelevant to the hack-slash gameplay, though.

The Marriage explores the complexity of relationships, and how they change over time. This only relies on gameplay, not narrative, to express its point.

None of these examples are perfect, but they are trying (and sometimes succeeding) to explore the wider emotions and ideas than most mainstream games. I mentioned some exceptions in a previous post, but it's worth mentioning them again with explanations. Valve games are some of the industry's best at portraying female characters. The Mass Effect games have more character depth than most games, including many of Valve's, but are lacking for being one-sided, responsive, and number-based rather than actual social skill. In both cases, most of the gameplay (the shooting, or puzzle solving in Portal) is irrelevant to the meaning because fun is an essential priority for the game to sell.

More often when mainstream developers try to make something meaningful beyond shooting (and there is a place for shooters), there's some dissonance. In the latest Max Payne, to effectively tell its narrative of a drunken sociopath's redemption, gameplay should have been affected. But as soon as gameplay reflects something unpleasant, or requires delving into untested mechanics, there's a risk. That's what it takes to make something meaningful through this medium, and its something indie games have more flexibility to do.

Psychonauts is a particularly good example. Its gameplay and level design are used to address the complex issues of repression, self-criticism, facing inner demons, and coming-of-age. As a mainstream game it was unsuccessful, and it's hard to judge exactly why. But it was a big risk. Many of the individual levels in Psychonauts could be an indie game of smaller scale than many of those I already listed, and for the development costs it would have been a more acceptable risk. For example, Costume Quest, as a smaller (low-risk) project with some thematic overlap from Psychonauts, was a commercial success.

There is a place for the mainstream shooter. I've designed community levels for them and enjoy playing some of them, after all. But when the selling point on the majority of mainstream games is the number of weapons or the improved dismemberment technology, rather than the quality of characters, stories, and emotions, I think it's good that there are also indie games that can afford the risk to try something different.

Quote from Taylor

I hope it's a platformer where you cannot lose.

The inability to lose in Super Meat Boy (as defined by running out of lives and having to restart the entire world or game) is distinct from the challenge of winning. Most interesting gameplay occurs in the space between win and lose conditions. Besides, there are zones where traditional life systems are applied.

Quote from Erratic

Pushing the industry ahead. In leaps.

Assuming this is sarcasm, I agree that Super Meat Boy and Fez aren't the indie games pushing the industry ahead. By design, they're "retro." But as a whole, indie games are capable of taking risks that would be too great to justify in the mainstream.

Quote from 2d-chris

Yeah, kinda the point about small teams, if you don't want the game to be a huge collection of everyone's ideas and dreams then it's all good. There is absolutely nothing wrong with people making something completely different and exciting. My problem, like MIno is the activist type who truly believe the industry is a corrupt mess

The mainstream industry is capable of some great things (e.g. Psychonauts, HL2, Mass Effect) and the indie games that stand out are those which, somehow or other, have AAA level of polish. But there are definitely unacknowledged problems in mainstream games that indie games are trying (with varying success) to fix. This isn't apparently the purpose of Fez or Super Meat Boy (though it is a purpose in McMillen's Aether and Blow's Braid), and that might be related to their wider reception.

In short, I wish more indie games were AAA quality and/or mainstream games appealed to wider audiences with deeper ideas.

Quote from 2d-chris

The only thing I dislike about Indy development and attitudes, is the belief they have, that you can't make the game you want with an AAA developer. I'm sure quite allot of the time that's the case, but you can move to other developer. If you don't like making games with big teams that's fine though, at least I can understand it

It's not just the studio or developer though. "Weird" games like Dear Esther or Journey aren't going to be made by large teams unless commercial viability is guaranteed. With the dev costs for AAA games, it's no wonder that progress is in steps (e.g. adding and removing weapons and levels in each CoD), but it's frustrating for people who want to progress in leaps instead.

Agh, those angles in that second shot! Beautiful work. (I should really play through the previous two entries.)

Hey folks. I know this community's not so big on UT3, but I figured I'd post this here anyway, because I'm pretty pleased with how it looks and feels. I also made the textures, which is something I don't usually do. Let me know what you think!

Here's the link to download it: http://%7boption%7d

And here are some screenshots:

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Any feedback's appreciated