Lunaro Reflection
This will serve as a reflection on the last 11 weeks spent creating the level known as Lunaro. There were plenty of hurdles to overcome and unforeseen setbacks but in the end I believe that it was a success. I will start at the beginning with the source of inspiration and how it came to end up the way it did.
It started with a book called Invisible Cities. As I read this book every time a new location was portrayed I was able to see new lands and people but for some reason the story Zobodie caught my attention the most. It is a story about dreamers that are chasing this lady but they can never catch her. So these people gathered and created this city blocking of the areas where this mysterious lady would escape. That is where I got my inspiration to create Lunaro. So I figured that I would make a labyrinth type area where the player would start and navigate their way out of this place that was built to keep the mysterious lady from escaping. The player plays the role of the mysterious lady trying to escape. Of course something like this takes plenty of steps to achieve a completely functioning level.
Step 1. Creating a Design Document. This is where I got to flesh out the design document. The design document is where I get to organize everything that needs to be addressed on paper. These things include history of the area, the emotion to be emulated, target audience and art style. This is an important step because everything needs a foundation and while someone may have an idea it isn’t solid until it’s down on paper.
Step 2. Paper Prototype. I enjoyed this part very much because this is where creativity and a person’s architecture side gets to come into play. Before creating something in 3d a person need to have a blueprint so a Paper Prototype gets created. I had fun with this and felt it was completely essential in creating the final product.
Step3. Post-Paper Prototype. Well after creating the first prototype and having some people test it I got some good feedback and made the appropriate changes. After this I converted the paper prototype into a digital version. I really feel that Prototyping and getting feedback is extremely important in having a successful product and in this case a successful level.
Step 4. Map and Flow Chart. Modularity is my best friend. Especially, when it comes to making a level and I get to play all of this in my digital map. Another thing that is important is the levels flow chart. This directs the players experience and is really important so that I could know how this game was even going to play out.
Step 5. Placeholders. Time to play in UDK. This was probably my favorite part of the level creating experience because I got to explore and learn UDK which is an engine used to create games. So here using my map as a blueprint I put in the placeholders to where my future meshes would be placed.
Step 6. Concepting and Creating. After making sure that my game was functioning correctly it was time to get rid of all the ugly placeholders and concept out the look and feel of this level. After that I got to go into familiar ground in 3ds max and make my meshes and apply my textures. With this all done it just become a matter of importing my things into UDK and replacing the placeholders.
The end result after taking these steps was a successful fully functional map. Even though these steps took a good amount of time I feel that they were essential to a successful map. Looking back the overall experience was a good one and I will continue to create and use UDK.
