Level creation began with a simple scale test of the game areas along with level transitions and suitable door movers. The playable areas were constructed first with the scripted sequence areas being constructed in separate levels and would be copied over once complete, this was to improve efficiency within the toolset.
I’ve had hardly any problems with the toolset and believe to be fairly competent within the realms of aesthetically pleasing level creation using Unreal. Certain movers and emitters perhaps took awhile to configure but on the whole, I delivered every environment seen in the final piece.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of progress in the matinee department and the deadline looming my responsibilities had to be divided between level design and matinee, otherwise there was a distinct possibility that the project would not be completed.
As my previous matinee endeavours had been moderately successful it didn’t take long to reacquaint myself with the procedures. Most of the sequencing was done in isolated environments, easy for merging with the master levels. Sadly all the camera sequencing had to be done in the master levels, as those components do not copy from one map to another.
I ended up creating all the scenes with the exception of one: The dock scene that gives the player the illusion that they trigger a crane to release its cargo, atop of one of the invading pirates. That’s not to say that the other team member involved with the matinee did nothing, his work was simply just not of the same standard and would have taken more time to implement.
On top of the levels and matinee it was necessary to create new textures to use as overlays, titles, credits and holographic instrumentation within the control room.
On reflection I’m pleased with the final outcome, if the team had planned accordingly and all members contributed equally, the outcome could have been that much better but form an individual standpoint, I believe my work to be of a good quality and standard within this project.
There is also a team blog that was created to showcase the progress of the project. That can be found here: http://halfbytegame.blogspot.com/
Below is the final feature and "making of" video.
