Unreal Engine Logos

I couldn't find any good transparent Unreal Engine logos online when I was doing some updating on my portfolio, so I cleaned up a non-transparent version of it. Here is the one I cleaned up, feel free to use them.

Koth_Blackwater_a2

 Started working on this a few days ago and just got it playtested for the first time today. Currently it's issues are:

1. Point Building needs to be widened. It's also very easy for engineers to set up and hold.

2. Rotation to get to the high ground feels tedious, streamline the way to get up there.

3. Staging area before the point isn't built up well, it doesn't feel like a place where fights are supposed to happen.

4. It feels too easy to walk into the enemy team's spawn on accident. The staging area needs to be separated from the spawn better.

Currently still trying to figure out how to fix these issues, I have a few ideas but most of them require major layout changes to the spawn sections and side routes.

The next post I make on this project will probably go over what's changed and whatever issues it may have then. Here's a few screenshots of the current version below. Also, this version and any future version can be found here for download.

Railway Ported

 Finished porting Railway to Trouble in Terrorist Town on Gmod. Check it out here if you'd like and please give it an upvote.

Here are a few screenshots from it.

HL2DM WIP 2

 Did some more fleshing out of this court yard area and have begun creating the interior spaces. Despite everything being so early on I think I've made it connected in a way that doesn't feel weird or forced. It doesn't feel like something exist just to lead to somewhere else.

HL2DM WIP 1

 New wip I've been working on inspired partly from playing Deathloop. Want to have a bunch of natural verticality in this with players running across rooftops and pipes and stuff. Currently working on fleshing out some of these outside spaces before I do the interiors.

Monkey Trouble

 I kinda forgot about this, but for Realm's Deep 2021 I created a Super Noah's Ark 3D level pack called Monkey Trouble. It totals 6 levels in all with 2 being secret levels and a custom soundtrack from the game Prodeus. I also created a download page for it which can be found here.

Here are also a few screenshots from it. 

Creating this was pretty fun and I'd like to go back and create something more extensive. Maybe a Christmas mod where you plays as Santa? Not sure yet.

Prodeus Map WIP 1

No name for this yet, still figuring out the arenas and how the map will flow together. It's going good so far, I'm really enjoying the editor.

Prodeus

I've found this still fairly recent revival of fast paced, arena styled fps games (aka boomer shooters) to all feel a bit same-y. Nothing has really managed to grab my full attention since Dusk came out, that is, until I played Prodeus. I put off trying it for awhile as I thought it looked too much like other games coming out to warrant the price. But, being very bored one day I decided to give it a try and found it to be one of the most promising and fun indie fps games currently being made.

Prodeus is what I would describe as being a Doom 2016 clone wearing and OG Doom costume. Enemies and weapons and sprite based with the world bein crafted out of simple BSP. Levels consist of you fighting through hordes of enemies, grabbing keys, and finding the level exit. Pretty simple sounding, however the way that levels intertwine on themselves creates a flow that feels amazing to play through. It's all crafted in a way that the player never feels lost or is left wondering what to do. The campaign is masterfully created and is one of the best out of the boomer shooter revival, all while not even being done yet.

The weapons all feel and sound punchy and powerful, every weapon feels like it has a context in which it excels. Enemies explode into a dazzling array of pixelated viscera and leave behind trails of red splat when shot. The amount of blood particles can feel a little overwhelming at times but it never becomes an issue, enemies are still pretty definable behind all the red mist.

There's also a level editor and built in level sharing system all very similar to Mario maker. A lot of the user levels are really good and they regular pluck out the best under a search category called staff picks. I'm not sure how I feel about having the levels be in such an enclosed system considering a minor server issue could result in not being able to play levels, but I'm glad there is an editor and a possible near limitless amount of content to play. 

VERY fun, worth the money.

A Few Level Layouts

 Here are a few layouts I made which didn't pan out. 

This one was going to be a quick CTF level. Felt too small and had sightline issues. Pretty boring overall.

This was going to be the start of a HL2 EP2 level in which a player navigates through a cave to find an underground Combine base. I never really sat down the actually make the map. Might still make it?

CS:GO style map for Pavlov. I hate Unreal BSP so I only made about half of it before I decided to stop. May try and make a CS:GO map with it? Not sure yet.

Another Pavlov map that died because the tools suck. Was going to be a western style level overlooking a cliff face. 

A CTF level that I made today. The middle section felt bad and I don't really feel like fixing it.

Intsakill Arena Writeup

Instakill Arena was created for a gamemode I made modeled after Quake's Instagib. In this gamemode players are given weapons that can eliminate other players with a single shot. I wanted to create a level that allowed players to maneuver around the map quickly and gain advantage over other players though quick thinking. I decided that a level taking elements from Quake's Longest Yard, as seen below, would work the best.

My level from a similar angle.

What I ended creating is Instakill Arena, a 4 player symmetrical layout split between 5 floating islands. Players have to use an array of teleports and jump pads to navigate around, below is an image denoting the destinations that they take you too.

The Red dotted lines are jump pads with the X's being their landing locations.

Solid lines are teleports, with the circles being the entrances and arrows being where they exit too.

 The use of jumppads and teleporters offer players high maneuverability at a risk. Each has a set destination, meaning that a player with a familiarity of the level will have some idea of how to counter someone using one to try and gain an advantage. 

For example, if a player where to take the orange teleport in the screenshot above they'd be sent to the jump pad sending them to the smaller mid island. A player seeing this on the lower island could then take one of the yellow teleporters to gain a sightline on the landing player.

Can be played on Core

DM_Roundabout WIP 3

 I've added a middle route that connect the two outside areas, I think this makes the level feel overall more of a place rather than just a collection of rooms. I think that I may port this over to CS:GO rather than keep it a hl2:dm map. With enough tweaking I could perhaps even make it a bomb defusal map.

UPDATE, I ran around it with bots a bit in CS and it was fun. If I'm serious thought about turning into a bomb defusal map It's going to need a lot of tweaks to layout. I have a rough idea where bomb sites could be but no idea where'd I fit in team spawns.

DM_Runabout WIP 2

 In this version I've fleshed out some of the interior spaces a bit more and added a new route to try and increase the amount of players that the level can comfortably support. I need to try and figure out how to make it feel more interconnected, at the moment I think it feels strange to traverse between the two outside areas.

Besides that it feels way better to run around than it did before. Next version of this will probably be playable with spawns and weapon pickups if all goes well.

Current level overview

Lumberyard Writeup

Lumberyard was a level done for the Core: Arenas of Combat level design contest. The contest had a time constraint of one month; during this time I designed, iterated, playtested, and artpassed a fully playable level. Below was my first iteration of the layout.

This first layout didn't go through many iterations while I was working on it. The also blockout stayed very faithful to the original design, as seen below.

This first blockout was very simple, at his point I was still figuring out sightlines and seeing how everything felt in a 3D environment. After a bit playtesting I began experimenting with slight art passing to try and figure out what kind of space I wanted to create.

At this point the only theming I had in mind was that the bottom section would be a cliff. That choice alone though led me into a more nature-esque lumberyard theme. With this in mind I focused mainly on terrain editing.

This initial basic theming did help me realize the space more. In the screenshots above I added slight height to the back area with an elevated platform and mitigated a slightline through the mid section by making the bridges inclined.

I also created a new interior space in the back that connected the two buildings and also helped to add a more varied gameplay space. The window helps to add a vantage point that players can try and snipe from while the interior makes sure that the window isn't too powerful by being easily flankable and option limited. The railing on the inside also helps to make sure a player standing has to commit to being there, they simply can't strafe to cover if a player outside spots them.  

At this point the contest only had about a week left. I decided that layout wise the map was feeling pretty final and began seriously artpassing. Below is a  gif I created of the different versions, from a1 to final.

Can be played on Core

DM_Runabout WIP

Current issues that I have with it are mostly scale related. I need to make the outside areas more open and large. Also, some of the interior spaces don't feel very fun to travel though right now; need to figure out ways to incorporate the rooms into each other more rather than just having doorways everywhere.

Here the current layout compared to the layout I started with.