Posts by Eric_Chocholacek

Congrats on getting a spot on the Epic Games Spotlight

Quote from Corvus

1 hour ago, Corvus said: I can barely see anything add some light to the scene.

But it's gotta be mysterious, haha.

I also really need to work on my lighting skills x_x I always save it for last which sucks when so many projects get abandoned Definitely something I'll be working on with this.

Sooooooooo damn good to be back in the editor after the holidays x]

Bit of background on this piece:

I've always wanted to make a level that utilizes verticality in a setting such as a clock tower or something, but decided to go with a space station instead. Players, trapped within the space station will need to escape by ascending an assembly station and powering-up this large mech in the center of the area. Each time a different piece of the mech/robot is powered, it will move and reveal a new path either by force (ex. punching holes in the wall and opening a new pathway) or by moving a limb to create a bridge to a previously unreachable area.

Goal for this piece is to further develop my design skills in providing good player feedback, vertical level design, and practice building for "over-the-shoulder" shooter games and genres.

Oooooh. Layers of Fear is free on Humble currently. Looks like I can finally give this a play. Seems to come with the soundtrack as well if anyone is interested in that :]

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/layers-o…-and-soundtrack

Been bored at work lately and decided to play around and get some practice in with sci-fi environments during my downtime Here's a small look at one room:

Looking good! I feel like the rectangular shape is pretty boring, perhaps if you made it more circular or even just a bit more of a wavy shape to make your eyes move around the area more could help.

The vegetation you've added definitely helps, but I think the objects could be placed in some more interesting ways, such as a large group of plants against the wall or around the center of the fountain itself. Ooooh, Or if you could add some sort of statue against/in the wall there and surround it with some vegetation could be pretty cool!

If possible, I personally enjoy when fountains are shooting out multiple streams of water in interesting directions/patterns.

Looks like Homefront is free for the next little bit!

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/homefront

1. Finish up my horror-themed game so I can finally update my portfolio after 3 years of nothing.
2. Update my portfolio website with more development process screenshots and information.
3. Create an amazing game (and levels) for another project I'm working on with a great group of people.
4. Solidify/enhance my skills and practices as a level designer.
5. Create lots, fail often, learn more.
6. Get the fuck out of QA and into a designer role.
7. Hopefully get a little pupper of my own

Quote from Corvus

51 minutes ago, Corvus said: Still haven't figured a good lighting scenario.

I think you're definitely on the right track for lighting. The exterior light coming in from the windows certainly helps brighten things up and add another color to the scene, I'm sure things will look much better once you've got those chandeliers giving off their own light. Could be cool to have a fallen/slightly broken chandelier on the floor to try and brighten up the lower sections of the models. Depends how pristine you're trying to make the environment though, I personally find a bit of destruction provides a good bit of character to the scene. Or at least breaks up the geometric repetition and draws the player's eye.

I'm a little confused by your setting, is it supposed to be more medieval? Almost looks like you've got a string of light bulbs on the arch in your second screenshot.

Quote from PlattenG

1 hour ago, PlattenG said: thank you very much currently where in beta testing atm for our project and once the game is done in three weeks will post gameplay and trailer thank you again for the kind words

No problem! If you're looking for some additional people for playtests or just general feedback, let me know

Looking forward to the new trailer, really interested in how everything flows gameplay-wise!

Yesss. Very excited to have another "hardcore" skateboarding game, it's been a long time since I last played one, but I definitely remember enjoying the earlier Tony Hawk games and Skate.

I found out about this weird one called DeckSplash (warning: Trailer contains a lot of streamers screaming, haha), created by the developers of Surgeon Simulator and such. It looks like Splatoon x Tony Hawk's Graffiti mode and could've been super fun, but sadly development ended as they didn't reach the numbers they wanted during their "Free Week" test.

Awesome stuff. It's looking like it's almost ready to release.

Really enjoying the lighting of the level, especially what you've got going on in the 5th and 6th screenshots. One comment I'd make is that there's too much white light in the interior, which is making a lot of the areas look the same to me, and could possibly be a little disorienting to a lost player. I'd try adding some more yellow like you've got going on in the hallway (Note: it almost looks like only the right side of ceiling lights are projecting enough to show on the floor) to make the eyes move around or possibly a bit more of a blueish tone in that lobby area to make the screens pop some more, the yellow coming off of the hanging lights is a nice addition. On the topic of that lobby area, does the screen on the pillar in the center animate at all? The giant 'A' on it makes me think it's the A bombsite. (Note: I don't really play CS, so this comment may be moot xP)

I keep picturing this map in a night time setting, I think the office-style fluorescent lights and the odd construction lamp you've added could really make some areas stand out and be a fun set up to lead players around.

Looking forward to seeing it all polished up! Keep up the good work :]

Yesss! More Suda 51 stylish, crazy goodness!

Awesome! I'm a huge fan of horror games and Kholat looks pretty intriguing! Thanks for the gift, Bastion

I've got a couple of extra keys myself if anyone's interested:

Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition

https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=VMRxduFZ8BWSThWz

Wurm Unlimited

https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=vuvzAM6PFsPbpbNZ

Quote from PogoP

4 hours ago, PogoP said: I thought people were more pissed off with the fact that gameplay changing items are found in lootboxes? Ie, extra damage etc. Maybe I'm wrong. Is it just visual stuff in lootboxes? I don't mind that so much.

I'm really interested in this game but I'm going to wait for the dust to settle on all this before I think about buying. My mates are going to do the same I think.

People were upset that players could buy loot boxes with crystals (real-money game currency) to gain an unfair advantage in multiplayer, thus the whole "pay to win" fiasco, the loot boxes themselves contained ability cards. Additionally, players could sell any duplicate or unwanted items gained from the boxes for credits, then use the credits to unlock high-level heroes that would take the average player 40-60 hours to legitimately earn. They also reduced the amount of credits earned from completing the campaign by 75%, making the grind for a desired hero even more tedious (and that was after the first round of complaints from the community), haha. It was quite the ordeal.

I think DICE just missed the mark with their design. Tried to see how far they could push loot box systems and found the line (don't base your progression systems around RNG). I doubt the micro transactions will be gone forever, they're just too good of a source for sustainable income. But they're gone for now so they can properly fix the broken system, possibly throw some free dlc at everyone, then sneak them back in.

On a more positive note, at least EA seems to be taking their "player first" stance seriously and showing that they're listening and willing to make the necessary changes. Sucks that it had to get so messy first.

Hey @ItzOmega, I had a similar problem after being in QA for a few years, but remembered a website my level design instructor constantly referred to throughout the course: http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/

Some of the content is a little old now, but a lot of the design theory stuff in the Level Design tutorial topics will certainly help you hit the ground running. I highly recommend going through the content under the "Preproduction: Planning and beginning you Map/Level" and "Level Design Workflows" sections as they show off a good workflow you can initially follow and eventually morph into your own.

I find a lot of experience will come from practice and repetition, so create lots, fail often, learn from those failures, and adapt a solid workflow. One thing I stress to a lot of friends and colleagues is to create a bit of a schedule of deliberate practice for yourself. Map out what you want to create/learn, then force yourself to work on that each day, even if it's just for 30 minutes. By doing this, you create a habit out of working on your levels that you'll constantly return to each day. This may feel tedious and demanding at first (because it is), but after doing it for a couple of weeks, I found myself rushing to get home from work just so I could get back into the editor.

@PlattenG This look awesome!! Reminds me of Jensen's apartment from the more recent Deus Ex games. Love the audio coming from the other apartments, really creates an intriguing environment and sets the mood for the build up to kicking the door down (which was also an awesome moment, great time for the music to kick in). Looking forward to seeing more!

I've been following the dev diaries since they first started posting them and was really excited for it's release! If you've got the money to spare, I definitely say it's worth it. I don't think I've ever experienced as much emotion in a game as I did during the first 45 minutes of Hellblade, I actually had to put my controller down and take a bit of a breather. Very very very impressed with what Ninja Theory has been able to pull off with this (especially with such a small team) and can't wait to see how their attempt to revitalize the AA standard of games impacts the rest of the industry.

Really excited to see what Suda does with this! Hopefully they move away from what was done in the second game and return to the elements from the first. As clunky as it was, I had a lot more fun exploring the small, open world on that crazy bike than I did flipping through menus to select new missions.

It's pretty old now, but there's been a newish trailer released showing some gameplay! I'm mostly intrigued for the art and how almost everything shown makes me go "WTF!", but that's just me, I love weird shit.