Psylum and Portfolio
polycounter lvl 7
Howdy y'all!
It's been a few weeks since I finished school, I think it's about time I posted my final project and hear what you all think. This was my final project for school (3 year course) - my focus was level design, but I like to back it up with solid environment art as well. It took about 4 months of planning and 4 months of work from concept to final product. It includes elements of Scaleform as well.
My capstone project is a single-player FPS level built in UDK. You play a corporate spy, tasked with breaking into the recently abandoned laboratory of a scientist of questionable repute, and stealing important documents. It started off with almost a sci-fi horror feeling, but ended up being closer to a cyberpunk/sorta-noir adventure. You meet a little robot who you help out (and helps you later on), and can interact with the level in a few different ways. I'll go through a few screenshots, and there's also a gameplay video.
This is one of the main objective areas- a drug lab. You play a mini-game to open a safe, and then snatch the documents (and stacks of cash). This trips an alarm which closes a security door, and triggers ducts to vent deadly neurotoxin into the air. I feel this is probably the strongest element in the level- it looks cool, and it plays well. The safe has a scaleform combination-lock style puzzle.
This is the first area of the level; the 'reception' area. The player starts in the elevator, which gives enough time for the objective UI system to open up. When the doors open, they drag on the floor causing sparks (I really, really like particles
). There's also tons of graffiti in the area, created by the junkies that couldn't break into the lab after its owner skipped town. I learned a LOT about how stencils work and what spraypaint does during application. This area was also the vertical slice for the rest of the level, so a lot of time was spent focusing on the details in here.
At the end of the level, the player has to escape the Psylum. They run to the basement, but just before they can reach an elevator to safety, a section of ceiling collapses. The player can over pressurize a nearby pipe, which makes a section of wall explode, creating a new exit. Here, I felt that some of the environment design was weaker since I only had so much time to create the destructive elements (exploding brick particles, falling light fixtures, etc). I had to learn a lot of new concepts and mechanics in a very short amount of time.
Gameplay video:
It's been a few weeks since I finished school, I think it's about time I posted my final project and hear what you all think. This was my final project for school (3 year course) - my focus was level design, but I like to back it up with solid environment art as well. It took about 4 months of planning and 4 months of work from concept to final product. It includes elements of Scaleform as well.
My capstone project is a single-player FPS level built in UDK. You play a corporate spy, tasked with breaking into the recently abandoned laboratory of a scientist of questionable repute, and stealing important documents. It started off with almost a sci-fi horror feeling, but ended up being closer to a cyberpunk/sorta-noir adventure. You meet a little robot who you help out (and helps you later on), and can interact with the level in a few different ways. I'll go through a few screenshots, and there's also a gameplay video.
This is one of the main objective areas- a drug lab. You play a mini-game to open a safe, and then snatch the documents (and stacks of cash). This trips an alarm which closes a security door, and triggers ducts to vent deadly neurotoxin into the air. I feel this is probably the strongest element in the level- it looks cool, and it plays well. The safe has a scaleform combination-lock style puzzle.
This is the first area of the level; the 'reception' area. The player starts in the elevator, which gives enough time for the objective UI system to open up. When the doors open, they drag on the floor causing sparks (I really, really like particles
). There's also tons of graffiti in the area, created by the junkies that couldn't break into the lab after its owner skipped town. I learned a LOT about how stencils work and what spraypaint does during application. This area was also the vertical slice for the rest of the level, so a lot of time was spent focusing on the details in here.At the end of the level, the player has to escape the Psylum. They run to the basement, but just before they can reach an elevator to safety, a section of ceiling collapses. The player can over pressurize a nearby pipe, which makes a section of wall explode, creating a new exit. Here, I felt that some of the environment design was weaker since I only had so much time to create the destructive elements (exploding brick particles, falling light fixtures, etc). I had to learn a lot of new concepts and mechanics in a very short amount of time.
Gameplay video:
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Some extra screenies:
All of this is also on my portfolio site: http://www.gavinsarafian.com
Comment & Critiques welcome on everything! Currently I'm working on my hoverbike (which is cross-posted [thread=97780]here[/thread]), and applying to the entire planet.
All of this is also on my portfolio site: http://www.gavinsarafian.com
Comment & Critiques welcome on everything! Currently I'm working on my hoverbike (which is cross-posted [thread=97780]here[/thread]), and applying to the entire planet.
Replies
Overall the material definition on RoBr0 and the metals in your scenes are lacking... I'd look up some tutorials and get a much stronger specularity going.
Some of it may also be a misapplication of specular power, a couple of the metal pieces I saw in the video had a very tight small highlight, which is something you want to reserve for plastics and highly polished chrome-like metals, which is not something I'm seeing much/any of in your scenes.
Also some more details on RoBr0's antenna and the piece across his "brain" might be nice, since right now they look like mostly flat color.
One last thing about RoBr0, does he get to move at all? Or is he stationary? cause right now he looks like he's supposed to be bolted to the floor... if he does move I'd give him some little legs or an obvious booster/hover thing on the bottom.
I can tell you've put a lot of work into this, now you've just gotta get in there and push the materials the extra mile.
Yes, RoBr0 is mobile- he's got small treads on the bottom. I ran out of time at the end of the project, I had intended to give him some animations - head moving, arms flapping and so on- he actually has a retractable arm inside the doors on his chest, so you can give him the battery, but it didn't make it to production. I'm more of a level designer, but I'm slowly picking up texturing skills... I definitely see what you mean by material definition. You can't see it from the stills, but there is a cubemap reflection on some of the metal parts on the body. I'll try to work on the spec