LD Metrics Gym

 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 implementation for a final game, programmers and tech artists would have more ownership over the actual effect. This is just to test the design of the level. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quick and Easy Top-Down-Maps using Blender!

Image
 Yo! Today I want to share a super useful trick I found out about recently. As you may know, if you've gone through even just one of my blog posts, I tend to use Blender to block out my levels and import those into Unreal. It's very quick, and I'm super used to the program, so it lets me iterate on level ideas extremely quickly. As it turns out, you can also use Blender to make quick, ultra-accurate Top-Down maps. Top down maps usually take a TON of time, especially if you want 'em to be good. It's one of the most arduous parts of level design, in my opinion, and that's saying something! This job is time-consuming as is! So, the good news is, Blender can help! Now, this mostly works with levels made in Blender, or Maya, theoretically, because they need to be meshes . In theory, you can get stuff modelled in Unreal exported as an FBX, which can then be imported into Blender, no problem, but if you have a ton of models and a landscape, I'm not entirely sure ho...
Read more

Immersive Sim - Tram Station Blockout using Blender

Image
 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 ...
Read more

Admission Project

Image
Yo!  I'm Tempe! I used to be a drifter, but now I'm a student at FIEA. Here's where I'll leave my lessons about level design as I learn 'em. To start, I want to talk about my FIEA Examination Project. I was expecting a lot of requirements from a project like this, but was actually very open ended. I had 2 weeks to make a some kind of level  and make a video showing it off. Since I didn't have a theme to follow, I brainstormed for almost a half second before I thought about making a 2.5D platformer. I'd finished Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie Collection on PC and loved it. I hadn't stopped thinking about the game and its levels, so I ended up thinking up a 2.5D platformer level for my project pretty quickly.  My original brainstorming drawing. I always give myself a strict one hour for brainstorming- no less! Originally I had the idea of an island with town a windmill, which the player would move through in 2.5D action platforming, but as soon as I got into en...
Read more