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After several months of prototyping different puzzle ideas and plenty of broken
engine limits later, the first beta version of the level was ready for testing.
The map was based on existing id textures and had five puzzles and ten
secrets that could be completed. There was no introduction or ending to the
level and only a small amount of final detail had been added to the level.
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Within hours of releasing the first beta version, a bug was found with
the creation of dynamic entities. When the player received damaged from
environmental hazards (the electric coils) the engine would generate
dynamic entities called 'gibs'. This caused the game to crash without
warning.
The total amount of entities used in the map was lowered and another
beta version was released to address the entity problem.
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Some of the secret skull locations required the player to use a personal
teleporter to escape and this was not obvious. This feature was removed
and additional steps were added to allow the player to escape normally.
The early versions of the map suffered from poor lighting and due to me
living in a dark room it only looked amazing on my screen. The overall gamma
level and brightness of point lights were increased.
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This was the first stable beta version with improved lighting
and less complicated secret locations. The map was lightly sprinkled with
various Q3 items and was then ready for some testing.
The secret at the top of the generator could only be accessed at a certain
time and most people found it difficult to get, so it was made optional.
This allowed the player to skip one secret and complete the map in different ways.
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The map was using Q3 textures to reduce the amount of effort spent on
artwork tasks and increase the time with the puzzles. This was having
a negative effect on the style and the level looked dated and low resolution.
This beta version was the start of new
photo source
textures being used
and was a test to see if they were liked or not. The skybox was changed
to make the skylight and window views more interesting with extra
fluffy clouds.
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The central lift shaft was rotated around and the lower teleporter
room was moved up to the top floor. The 'drop down' space below puzzle 3
was sealed off and the layout was changed to highlight the
locking mechanism.
This was a big update to the game play and visuals and was mostly based
on feedback from beta 4. The progression through the level was more fluid
and the visual clues for the puzzles were more intuitive.
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A huge visual update after a long time of building was the new Guardian chamber,
giant portal showing the outside of the building and the skull-o-meter to
track the progress of the second objective.
With the majority of the new textures in-place and the extra detail
of books and specially designed claw lights, the map was finally beginning
to taking shape and looking close to being finished.
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The exit cave was originally from another
map
and the brushwork had to be changed
to suit the new style. Crystal lights were added to the walls
and a large amount of rock debris was scattered across the floor.
A final detail pass was done on the outside of the building with
terrain blends and additional wall structures to
give the impression that the building was part of a something
larger.
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It was possible to break puzzles 3 and 5 by running around hitting all
the buttons and ending up with the chains or coils in the wrong position when
finished. This was awkward to fix because it was close to the end and
there was a chance it might break other things.
All of the Q3 items were removed and the problem of re-suppling the
player was solved with a regeneration pool that nicely fitted into the old
lift doorway at the start of the level.
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After constantly watching video clips of the
Orrery
in the film
Dark Crystal
and days of working out the best way to create the planet shaders,
the orrery finally took shape.
The Guardians voice was originally a
hodgepodge
of lines from a
Star Trek
episode trying to explain what was going on. Luckily at the last minute a friend offered
to re-record the lines and this eventually allowed the story to be told, how I wanted it.
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