Week 3, Day 4: Free Play

After finishing up the "Simple Level" tutorial set, the tutorials move on to more conceptual topics.  I was still itching to play around with the physical level editor though, so I started to make a new map from the ground up without tutorial guidance.  Needless to say, it's been significantly slower without someone to tell me exact dimensions to put in.  I had to mess around with the dimensions of my level's base for a bout forty minutes before finding one that was both the right scale and fit into the work grid nicely.

The level will be made for any generic arena FPS, as I figure that will be the easiest first game to make.  The actual concept of the level is stolen from an abandoned project of mine on Halo 3's forge mode.  There are three basic elevations: scaffolding running along the upper edge, the ground floor, and a basement.  My idea was to attempt to create claustrophobic close-range interactions within each floor, but more open spaces that allowed long ranges between each floor.  If I'll be able to pull this off (and if it'd even be fun if it worked) is another matter entirely.

In the time I've spent on it, all I've really gotten done is the walls, roof, and floor of the tower, as well as the start of two bunkers.

Brush wire-frame of the tower.  The yellow box is just an
indicator to tell UDK where to focus calculations of
lightmass, the program's lighting system.

The main floor of the interior.  The box on the left is the start of
one team's spawn point, and the box-ish thing in the center will
be the main focus of this floor's fighting.  Obviously still lacking
proper lighting and textures (and the rest of the structure).