Tempe Games

 Yo! Not much news to talk about in my level design life, so I figured I'd talk about my metrics gym methodology. A metrics gym is basically a tool for level designers to understand the mechanics and the player controller they're working with before they get into level designing. I can definitely see the use of it, if only for designating a uniform doorway size. Still, I'm not sure I went quite as far as I should have.  To be fair, my mechanics aren't particularly intricate. Maybe in the future, I'll realize I was missing a bunch of measurements that would be key, but for now I feel like this serves my purpose just fine. Blueprinting mechanics ahead of time is pretty useful. For my FPS level, I remade a pretty classic puzzle we see in lots of games, with a raising water level and some crates and wooden debris that floats. Classic, huh? There's not much to it in terms of blueprints, but it gets the idea of the level across. Of course, when it comes to actual impl...

 Yo! I don't have much to say this week, but I wanted to show my progress turning an LDD into a blockmesh, and then, into a shooter level. I definitely didn't need to draw this from the side, but I was worried it'd be too hard to show the differences in height and the curvature of the sides of the level from a top-down perspective. Maybe this looks neat but it'd be hard to iterate on as it is! Here's the physical layout. Pretty confusing, I'm sure! Maybe this is a bit more to your liking, hmm??? The other problem with whiteboxing this level is the curves on the side. If they're going to impact the gameplay, wouldn't you want to be able to test them? What if the player is able to use the curves to jump up and skip parts of the level? Maybe I don't need to be testing that specific issue so early. I decided to play it safe here. Either way, I've got plenty of work left to do. The water raises correctly using the valve, but I don't have enemies y...

 Yo! Today I wanted to talk about some level projects I worked on before I got into FIEA. After I graduated UCF undergrad and didn't get a job, I started working on some indie-type game work. I figured, if I published a game, that'd look good on my resume. If I didn't, I'd still learn a lot and get some good portfolio work out of it. Now that I'm a bit wiser, I feel like the latter was more true than the former.  The game I decided I wanted to work on was a sequel to my undergrad Game-Art project, Tempe Goes to Wawa . That game was only focused on art and atmosphere, and to be completely honest, I came up with the pitch document mere minutes before it was due. It's obviously a pretty silly idea, but the 'autobiographical' nature of it meant I could add references to my friends and stuff in my life, which made it more fun to work on. That's important when you're doing solo-dev work- finding ways to stay motivated is key! Ask anyone! That being sai...