The Journey of a Mod: Docean (Big Pics)
polycounter lvl 18
The Idea
The idea of this thread is to basically record everything that happens with the mod from idea to completion. I always liked the behind the scenes sort of stuff, and I always love to see how other devs do their thang, so this is like a diary if you will. A diary without all that girly stuff.
The mod is pretty simple. We want to make a Co-Op, Class based Sci-Fi game..Yeah, I know, so does everyone else. I just hope we do it right and get it done before others.
The story behind the mod is that your "team" is a squad that was sent from The Root to complete a mission. The Root is a big giant hub for everything in the future.
The mod will be released with only one mission. However, each mission contains about 10 different levels.
Whats already been done? -As of 4/20/05-
Concepts
More like sketches, not concept work. The concept artist and I meet about once a week and talk about the mod. He draws as I talk. We should have character sheets by the end of next month hopefully.
I know, they look like the alien things from Independence Day.
Working on changing that.
Textures/Map Stuff
When walking around the city, school or work I carry around post-its. I draw the cool little things I see and I try to make them into textures. Here are some of my post-it notes.
And here is how they looked after a few days of the Photoshop treatment and a map makeover.
http://img253.echo.cx/img253/6664/test500020co.jpg
http://img253.echo.cx/img253/6669/test500016gv.jpg
The Hud and Splash
I have shown these here before I think, but just to get everything in the same thread, I will post them again.
So there you have it, about two weeks or so worth of work and this is where we are at. The coder has the GUI in game and is working on the overheating feature of the weapons as the moment. Now all we need is models, sounds and more of everything. I hope to update this thread as progress continues on the project. Sorry if the pictures are too big. I said big pics in the subject!
The idea of this thread is to basically record everything that happens with the mod from idea to completion. I always liked the behind the scenes sort of stuff, and I always love to see how other devs do their thang, so this is like a diary if you will. A diary without all that girly stuff.
The mod is pretty simple. We want to make a Co-Op, Class based Sci-Fi game..Yeah, I know, so does everyone else. I just hope we do it right and get it done before others.
The story behind the mod is that your "team" is a squad that was sent from The Root to complete a mission. The Root is a big giant hub for everything in the future.
The mod will be released with only one mission. However, each mission contains about 10 different levels.
Whats already been done? -As of 4/20/05-
Concepts
More like sketches, not concept work. The concept artist and I meet about once a week and talk about the mod. He draws as I talk. We should have character sheets by the end of next month hopefully.
I know, they look like the alien things from Independence Day.
Working on changing that.Textures/Map Stuff
When walking around the city, school or work I carry around post-its. I draw the cool little things I see and I try to make them into textures. Here are some of my post-it notes.
And here is how they looked after a few days of the Photoshop treatment and a map makeover.
http://img253.echo.cx/img253/6664/test500020co.jpg
http://img253.echo.cx/img253/6669/test500016gv.jpg
The Hud and Splash
I have shown these here before I think, but just to get everything in the same thread, I will post them again.
So there you have it, about two weeks or so worth of work and this is where we are at. The coder has the GUI in game and is working on the overheating feature of the weapons as the moment. Now all we need is models, sounds and more of everything. I hope to update this thread as progress continues on the project. Sorry if the pictures are too big. I said big pics in the subject!
Replies
oops sorry... i slipped into hl2world forum mode.
I love the simplicity of the main menu and the HUD graphics. Mapping looks good but the lighting needs some work.
Good luck!
OMG U'R USING DO0M3 TEXTURES ON THE FLOOR AND CEILING TEEHEE!
oops sorry... i slipped into hl2world forum mode.
I love the simplicity of the main menu and the HUD graphics. Mapping looks good but the lighting needs some work.
Good luck!
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Thanks. I agree on the lighting. I want a lot of the light to come from computer consoles and screens. Give it that blue, green look. I dont want to create those things out of brushes, so I have to wait on models to get it jussstttt right.
Don't forget to give a flashlight!
Are you looking for a voice actor? I was doing some voice acting before for this UT2004 single player mod thing but my computer went kaput before I finished, I should be getting it back from the shop this week.
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Don't be afraid to use lighting hotspots. Lights with high brightness and low radius look a lot better then lights with high radius and low brightness. One common technique in Unreal is to have a low brightness high radius white/desat light aswell as a high brightness low radius and coloured light for the same source. I'm unsure about the Source but I don't see why it can't work in the engine too.
Don't forget to give a flashlight!
Are you looking for a voice actor? I was doing some voice acting before for this UT2004 single player mod thing but my computer went kaput before I finished, I should be getting it back from the shop this week.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the lighting tip. I'll see how it works out. The light textures aren't set to selfillumanation yet. I'll change them, see how it works and play around with your suggestions.
I was thinking of having the flashlight on the player/weapon models. Don't want any of that Doom3 switcheroo stuff.
I'm not really sure on voice acting. I'd really like to have it, but its one of those things where it's either done perfect or not at all. I'd like to hear some examples if ya got any.
Just finished making some monitor textures. Going to make them animated textures hopefully. Also fixed the alpha channels on some of the light textures. Still a bit too dark.
Edit: Thumbnails anyone? Sorry.
When you figure out animatied materials in source could you post how you did it?
Hehe I love 1612's.
When you figure out animatied materials in source could you post how you did it?
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I like the green too.
I finished the animated texture using the tut from here http://www.hl2world.com/wiki/index.php/AnimatedTextures. Here's a movie of it in action. It's 2 megs cause unregistered Fraps is a mean bastard.
www.meeware.com/anitexture1.avi
I used a little glow light in front of it. It's a really easy thing to do.
What codec is that, because i dont have what ever it is.
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Poopie. I'll mess with it in Virtual Dub. Hopefully I can encode a longer one and use Divx.
Edit: Fixed the video. If you have divx, you should be able to watch it.
The load screen is my favorate part, very nice.