Friday, October 26, 2007
Games Scripting 2 :
Workflow Issues
I reached an important milestone in this project today, finishing the last of the basic level design. Unusually for me I've managed to structure my workflow a little better for this project. UnrealEd has, for me, a tendency to throw a wrench in your plans with it's never ending stream of crashes or awkward parameters. To counter this I came up with a simple plan for how I would work this project:
1 Storyboard
The storyboard for my level is there to let me visualise what the action will be, and what the basic shape of the level needs to be. I don't think that it is the right place for intricate level design. However, I did manage to work up a flow diagram of the level's rooms based on the boards.
2 Level Plan
Rather than get caught up trying to develop everything on the fly in UnrealEd, I chose to plan the level first, in greater detail than my storyboards would have allowed. Since it is a cinematic piece the plan needed to include Visual references, i.e. there would be a vanishing point here, the fog emitter can’t be think enough to obscure the action here, etc. I was already confident of which texture and mesh packages I would be using, so I referenced them for my own benefit in the plans.
3 Building
Structuring the level was a great deal easier following the plans I had laid out. Of course I have made revisions to the plans as I've progressed, mainly in the Maintenance Room. I laid out basic geometry, followed by meshes, followed by any more geometry needed. I still have lights, particle effects, karma actors and some of the movers left to add.
It seems that my work is benefiting from the more structured approach. It remains to be seen if the camera's and scripting will hold up to this approach.
Workflow Issues
I reached an important milestone in this project today, finishing the last of the basic level design. Unusually for me I've managed to structure my workflow a little better for this project. UnrealEd has, for me, a tendency to throw a wrench in your plans with it's never ending stream of crashes or awkward parameters. To counter this I came up with a simple plan for how I would work this project:
1 Storyboard
The storyboard for my level is there to let me visualise what the action will be, and what the basic shape of the level needs to be. I don't think that it is the right place for intricate level design. However, I did manage to work up a flow diagram of the level's rooms based on the boards.
2 Level Plan
Rather than get caught up trying to develop everything on the fly in UnrealEd, I chose to plan the level first, in greater detail than my storyboards would have allowed. Since it is a cinematic piece the plan needed to include Visual references, i.e. there would be a vanishing point here, the fog emitter can’t be think enough to obscure the action here, etc. I was already confident of which texture and mesh packages I would be using, so I referenced them for my own benefit in the plans.
3 Building
Structuring the level was a great deal easier following the plans I had laid out. Of course I have made revisions to the plans as I've progressed, mainly in the Maintenance Room. I laid out basic geometry, followed by meshes, followed by any more geometry needed. I still have lights, particle effects, karma actors and some of the movers left to add.
It seems that my work is benefiting from the more structured approach. It remains to be seen if the camera's and scripting will hold up to this approach.
# posted by Matt @ 8:23 AM 
