UDK: Pirate Island Level

HTivey

Hello!

My latest assignment is to create a playable level in UDK. Over the past 3ish weeks I've been doodling ideas and research and now I've started to put things into UDK to try and make the level function properly before adding any textures.

Here's a very blocky version of what I have so far. The level is set on a very small island with sandy and earthy terrain. On it are going to be a few buildings including a pub, with is already on there, a sword shop, a fish stall, a lookout and a shed. The player's objective is to collect items required for the voyage, including buried treasure which is located underground somewhere. I've managed to sort out the collisions on the ship so the player can now walk on it, including the downstairs area. I've yet to make a rope ladder for the player to get on and off the ship. Stay tuned!

HTivey

MikeGalli

Looks like a good start so far. One thing that kind of stuck out to me initially was that the ship was beached. It might be kind of cool (since the player is going on a voyage) if the ship were maybe anchored out a little bit, or since it is an inhabited island, maybe a small port/dock to fit a ship or two. Otherwise it would be a bit hard to get such a large, beached ship back into the water.

edit: This is kind of what I had in mind:

HTivey

An update... an actual map o.o! I got off my ass and did a concept... progress!

This looks waay better than what I was playing with earlier. I'm still playing with the terrain and blocking out the buildings in Maya.

I'm going to park the ship further out thanks to the advice from MikeGalli

MikeGalli

Very cool update! The terrain already looks a lot better. I look forward to seeing more progress.

HTivey

Hi I'm back! A few days off with the most horrendous toothache and multiple trips to the dentist... back to business. I've blocked out most of the level and added some ladder volumes to the lookout and the stairs on the ship. I've parked the ship further out; either planning a dock or a small boat to get there and back. I've added a fence and some higher terrain platforms on the island itself to make it less spacious in the village area sine I want it to be a very small place.

HTivey

KISMET! I don't know if I love it or hate it just yet. I've managed to get a boat moving back and forth from the ship activated by touch triggers.. yaay

Also more or less completed the level layout, just got to get it working

GrimFiction

Cool, really interested to see how this comes along. Would be nice to see some nice jagged rocks and ship wrecks as well to really tell a story in the scene. Keep it up!

HTivey

MOAR KISMET! Got the first two tasks done.... basic picking up and putting down elsewhere. The island is looking pretty good.

GrimFiction: I like the idea of jagged rocks and shipwrecks I'll look into it in a few weeks when I work on texturing and the visual side of things ^_^

HTivey

Screenshot of the kismet so far

HTivey

Added some more visuals from the UDK engine to get the feel right. Also added wind sounds

MikeGalli

Those wind sounds look great!
I haven't been on this thread in a while. I like the progress so far. I'm a bit confused though, is the large 4 story village house in the last screenshot what you did? Or is that just from the sdk that you have in as a stand in? It might be a silly question. But it looks pretty out of place thematically. Also I just noticed in these more recent updates, but it looks like your beach fronts are really steep. They should be smoothed out a bit to feel more beach like. With how sharp they are now, the island feels like a floating plateau.
Anyways, keep up the good work!

HTivey

any textured assets were just put there out of the engine for the play testers
Here's the texture thread: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118286