Tempe Games

 Yo! While I was at GDC, I helped a fellow FIEAn, Mr. Elon Grant, make a map for their Tech Design project, Ruiner's Arena. Working on a level for a work-in-progress game is always fun, but you've got to be quick willing to iterate. Fortunately for me, rapid-iteration is my middle name! In our San Francisco Hotel, Me and Elon worked through some details for the map. Ruiner's Arena is a first-person hero shooter with a focus on comboing abilities together. There were some notable details for the level I needed to keep in mind- Firstly, all the heroes had, by default, a wall-run and a wall-climb, so gaining elevation would not be a problem for anyone. At the same time, high-mobility was expected, but cover was crucial.  Although there were future plans to build a unique gamemode, we started with simple deathmatch. In order to get something usable for testing quick, I built the level in Blender (as I tend to do) and sent it off. Here's what the first draft looked like. We ...

 Yo! Now that Chrono Detective is wrapped up (for now) I wanted to share some of the thought process behind the finishing touches I put into the level. First things first, take a gander at my updated LDD!  I wanted to have a more dedicated finale event, but I ran out of time to script it properly. As it is, there's a placeholder for it, but I don't think it gets the vibes or intensity right. That's one of the things I definitely want to get back to if I have time. I have here marked all the points of interest where the player can examine the environment to get clues. I think these ended up cool- the story is well paced, I feel, and for an detective game, it's important that the clues are distributed to weave the tale correctly. I think this was a success, and I learned a bit about structuring a player-first narrative like this. I thought there was a lack of puzzles in my level, so I drew out the cave sequence here and extended the player's escape. Opening the level ...

 Yo! I had to pivot away from my immersive sim project, tragically! Originally, the intent for this game was to condense my favorite aspects of immersive sims into a standalone level. After close examination, I decided to try and replicate it by investigating the environment to piece together stories and using weapons to solve physics puzzles . With that in mind, I decided to be less of an immersive sim and more of a straight puzzler for this level. For this level, I ended up doing a ton of blueprinting. I couldn't find an asset pack for what I was plotting, so I made all the mechanics myself. Mechanics include shooting, multiple destructible physics objects (chains, wood, crates, glass), rewinding time, a checkpoint system, dialogue UI, a journal to check clues which updates in game, and others. This was honestly a lot of work, especially for restarting my entire project, but I still think it was worth it. I learned a lot!  The way the story is told is via writing on the wal...

Hey yo! I've been working on blocking out the playable forts for our capstone game, Dillo's Dilemma. Forts are an interesting challenge, because they need to be open and completable in many different ways. In addition, they should encourage creative use of PINGAS, our game's placeable objects. It's been difficult, but I think I finally have a fort that accomplishes this but isn't too small. It MIGHT still be a BIT small... But not too bad! The breakable structures here give a lot of leeway, but I think that's okay. I think there could still be more obstacles for the player to avoid, it feels too free at the moment. The bowl in the center is interesting, I feel, because it serves as both an obstacle and a potential boon. If the player falls inside, it could be very difficult to escape. Alternatively, if the player was to place a bumper inside, the bowl could then be used as a ramp in every angle. It turns an obstacle into a useful tool, and to this end, represent...

 Yo! Today I'd like to talk about how I used Blender in level design. Unreal's in-engine modelling tools are great, but there's just no beating the speed of a dedicated 3D-Modelling program. Blender is the modelling program I'm most familiar with, since it's free and open-source. I've been using Blender for Level Design for a bit now, as it feels very quick to iterate on complex designs. A lot of LD's start with very boxy rooms, which is okay, but it feels like in real life, rooms always feel more complex. That, and square rooms can definitely get boring.  Here I have the level for the game. I have one main mesh which contains the walls and floors of the level. I'm not sure if this is a "smart" or "professional" way to do it, but it's what I usually do. For me, it makes creating doorways, very easy, and allows me to be sure that there aren't "Cracks" in the level geometry. Not to mention, it is SO fast and extremely ...

 Yo!  This week I wanted to talk about my thought process doing a top-down LDD for my upcoming immersive sim level. In the past, I've always done perspective maps for levels, I think because elevation is something I always like to emphasize. It can be harder to show elevation using a top-down map, especially if there's content on both floors. That being said, after my last project, I got the feedback that a top-down LDD is much better, because it's faster to iterate and overall less time consuming. So, I tried making a top down map.  This level doesn't have too much overlapping play area, so that's good. The level is split into two main halves- the first is a clean public area, and the second is a dirtier backroom. The goal of the first area is to get to the backroom, and from there, the player needs to escort a tram to the levels exit, which will require manipulating a variety of switches.  In this situation, I'm designing a level for a game I didn't  desig...