Posts by ZZZ

  • Malevolence, my first time trying to break down a level to learn level design

    I've never done a level with a floorplan. I tried before, but neve finished it. I though to myself "Why not pick up an existing level?". The plan is to blockout in UE5 and then run some design analysis about item placement, flow, etc. The idea is to not focus on visuals, env art.

    The purpose of this work it to have a blockout level in my portfolio with comments. I decided to pick up an existing map to skip the "I want an original idea". This is a very small map to make it easier.

    My portfolio already includes levels but none have a blockout and they are all more visually pleasing than focusing on design, which is what I wanted to do.

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    The floorplan

  • What are you playing now?

    Quote from 0kelvin

    On 7/15/2021 at 9:02 PM, 0kelvin said: I'm beginning Bioshock 1 remastered.

    Lol. I dropped it back then when I reached the Smuggler's Hideout. I got to a point where I was stuck with no money. Going back to previous levels to farm was a pain because I`d die and burn all the money buying health and eve all over again. 1.5 years later I finished the game on my new desktop. I just got my head over the mechanics and finally was able to take advantage of the research camera and the constant swapping between skills and weapons. After you find the invent machines the game becomes much easier. Finished the game but found out that I missed a lot of secrets. That's probably a good sign, because the design did a good job in hidding them 😁.

    The level design of Arcadia must be the worst of the game. It has so much vegetation that it became a forest maze. The apartments levels were also confusing. After playing both bioshock infinite and bioshock 1 I can say that they must have faced incredible technical challenges with bioshock 1. There are very few enemies and the last boss is easy compared to the first one. When you face the doctor you don`t have much powers and weapons. When you face Fontaine you have an excess of powers and weapons. Dodging Fontaine attacks is very easy too. Bioshock infinite presented large open spaces, whereas bioshock 1 spaces were always closed and dark. The background in bioshock 1 is also 2D. The scale of Rapture that you see in the beginning was probably impossible to achieve with the hardware of the time and specially with unreal engine 2.5 limits. I have a faint impression that the decision to make the game take place after the civil war, with an environment that is mostly "dead", decaying and broken, with very few enemies was related to UE 2.5 limits.

  • What have you cooked recently

    I've learned something with cooking that rice. Previously I would cook the vegetables with some water because carrots are hard and they need cooking to become soft. But if you do that with onions and belly pepper it ruins the flavour. It's best to use olive oil and start cooking without adding any water. Onions, belly pepper and frozen vegetables already contain lots of water and I cook until all that water evaporates and you start hearing that frying sound.

    That same recipe tastes great with mushrooms, specially shiitake. Pout pepper is great too.

  • What have you cooked recently

    I don't know if anybody ever noticed it. When you cook yourself rather than buying or ordering it, there is some pleasure involved in cooking. And also something related to planning ahead of time, taking care of yourself and having better control of your own time.

  • What have you cooked recently

    [Blocked Image: https://i.postimg.cc/xjZKxHqD/IMG-20221118-171800253-HDR.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: https://i.postimg.cc/yxD066Qb/IMG-20221118-171838782-HDR.jpg]

    I didn't predict that the colored gelatin would be sticky. I thought that the white cream would make the flavoured gelatin float but it didn't.

    The original recipe asks for condensed milk. I replaced it with coconut milk, grated coconut and Xylitol. The grated coconut ended up being a bad idea because the cream ended up too thick and hard to pour and mix.

    It tastes great though.

  • Mental health / rant thread

    After watching a psychiatrist and reading some threads in other forums about insomnia, I have to give these tips:

    • Don't watch movies or series, before going to sleep, where each episode ends in a cliffhanger. It keeps your mind "trapped" in that alternate reality
    • In some cases exercise helps because you need to spend energy and exhaust yourself. In some other cases it may be bad because the exercise may make you even more awake than before
    • I don't know the name for this, but it works. What causes insomnia? Most of the time your mind is thinking about things related to the past or to the future. It's very much related to anxiety. One way to trick your brain is to focus on what is about the present. Look at what is right in front of you. Hear the sound of silence. Hear your heartbeats. Feels your feet touching the ground. Feel the cold or the hot. Sniff leaves or something. Breath in and out. Play with your tongue. Even if just for a minute or so your mind is going to stop the negative thoughts and focus on things that are mostly concrete.
    • I've watched another psychiatrist horrified that some patients were taking dozens and dozens of Zolpidem (Ambien) per day to sleep. Jesus!!! It's insane.
    • Some youtube channels out there have sounds of rain that play for 10 hours. I don't know the relationship between white / brown / pink noises with sleep.
    • There are some channels with ppl walking on streets with go pro cameras. They are relaxing more or less in the same way as the sound of rain.

  • Post interesting talks / presentations / conferences

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    I was watching this and what he says can clearly be applied to life itself. He mentions John Wooden, New Zealand's All blacks, US Navy Seals, Ego is the enemy, Only the paranoid survive (he mentions that all the players from the national volleyball team nicknamed him a Psychopath), Tom Bradley, Simon Sinek, Peter Drucker.

    He talks a lot about taking responsability and not blaming the world, the rules, the adversaries or even God. No, learn from mistakes.

    A powerful quote that he says is "There is only on way to never lose and that way is to never play in the first place". He mentioned this https://www.thisiswhywestand.net/single-post/20…rom-a-navy-sealIt made me think back on how many bells I have ringed in the past.

    So many things intersect with what I read about narcissism and mental health in general. It made me see that the way I'm trying to get into the industry is wrong. I have to change my perspective. He mentions that the country lacks a strong leader and that really applies to many many countries all over the world. If the country's leader is giving bad examples what are you going to expect from the average person? More often than not you need to do the right thing and right thing is not comfortable or pleasant. Here is where I'm going wrong: I'm avoiding what is right because it's uncomfortable or unpleasant.

    Sports in general are great in teaching life long lessons.

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    I think her whole talk can be summarized in "Is it worth it? What do you have to sacrifice or abandon to win? Is it going to be worth the cost?"