Medieval Game Level

[Endcar]

Art above is made by Rysgriffiths on DeviantArt

Hey guys Endcar here!

As you may have already guessed from the title. I’m working on a medieval setting game level. However it’s not just me. You see here at the school I’m currently enrolled in we have a class called “Level Assembly and Lighting” that focus’ quite highly on the development of a game level.

Though our game levels have to be tailored to Unreal 3 (otherwise known as UDK), we were at least given freedom to pick our projects and get working.So our team of three (Jacob Maas, Justin Yaeger, and Dominic Graham) have been working tirelessly to find the best possible scenario to get this level working.

So the setting of this game level comes up…

Theme: Medieval/Fantasy
Style:Tudor Architecture
Time:1500’s
Story: Long ago there used to be these monstrous tree’s that towered above the tallest of castles. The people who lived near them were provided everything they needed to survive and live comfortably. Disease was considered curable, increased longevity, all ailments could be healed, food was plentiful, water never ran out. To some this was their paradise and the lust for power was considered non-existent or at least not heard of. However soon as men grew to unprecedented heights, they also desired leadership and some did not rise for the good others and so came rumors that these fabled Eden Tree’s could possibly grant immortality to any user who drinks of the sap within them.

It did not take long for these rumors to spread and so one after another wars erupted over these tree’s and so destruction fell upon those who lived near them and the tree itself. The fools of kings squeezing every bit of sap from them. Didn’t take long to see that after drinking the sap that they had been tricked. So the rulers turned their gaze towards those who started these rumors.

One king, Gerrald the Cruel came to his closest advisor who told him of this sap and was prepared to gut the wretch on the spot but, this fragile man convinced and promised him that the sap could only work if you continuously drink of it during every celestial moonlit night. Gerrald would take every chance he could to acquire immortality and so he began his rampage over the land once again and the others followed soon after, each in their quest to acquire as much of the sap before the other.

Now it’s thought that these Mother Tree’s were connected to each other by the very roots drawn from the ground. Waves after waves of energy pulsed from tree to tree as though they could feel what the other felt. So as tree fell one after another something had to of snapped because thats when the day came.

The day they call the “Worlds End” or the mighty “Cataclysm”. However it started is unknown but, the tree’s started to uproot themselves from the ground and the ground cracked swallowing most if not all the populace around the tree and civilizations crumbled under their own weight as cities fell and anarchy rose. All the people could do is watch in horror as the great tree’s rose into the sky with large mounds of rock as their boats.

Now only the scar of the cataclysm remains with caverns, craters, and ravine’s littering the surface of the planet. But these are only told in bed time stories or around camp fires to frighten the children. Little did they know that these large islands are still floating high above them. Camouflaged by large clouds that cover the bottom of their large upside down mountains.

Level Design:

Quick Sketches:

I’ve made this thread to ask for your guys’ (fellow artists) help. How might you approach creating a floating island in the sky with tudor style architecture populated around it. Smaller islands connected around it with smaller pieces of rock floating around and a large tree in the middle.
Will upload the pics of the models and the level soon. Any advice or critiques would be helpful. We wanna make the best of this level and learn as much as we possibly can. Hope to see what you guys tell us!

Level Reference Sheet:

[Endcar]

Currently waiting for my team to wake up before we start re-blocking out the entire scene in UDK. What you see above is a rough idea of what you might find in the level. It took a while to figure out what we wanted the overall level to look like in terms of scale so that it seemed fun and interesting to play in.

Nobody spawns in the big island but we hope that it’s shear size will beckon players to approach the inner confines of such a stronghold.

Again this is just a roughed out concept, it’s still got room for interpretation and detailing. The only thing I’m concerned about is how we might texture the mountain underneath and still keep it high res looking. Next issue is the edge of the islands and making sure the island is populated enough so that when the players are jumping in they don’t notice any issue’s or too much spacing between objects.

We still have a lot to do and only a few weeks left before this project has to be turned in. The level needs to be updated to the current design and need to finish the high res models. However if we can at least get 65% of the models done tonight (40% are done) and the map updated we’ll be back on track.

Our next big task is getting 100% of the models done, adding in the small props (banners, buckets, etc.), and base textures by Friday morning.

Time to refill our jugs of coffee

[Senseless]

Quite an ambitious project. I even failed miserably in modeling a few fantasy looking cars for a racing game that never even seen the light of the day, so I might not be the best person for this matter.

Anyway, I hope my hints will help you at least a little:
Getting the proportions right is critical. You don’t want to have a church that looks only three times as high as a person. Same with the interior of the buildings (if the player is supposed to get into the buildings). Even WH had to rescale some things there (as seen in video update #7 I believe).

I might have missed that, but how is the player supposed to get from one island to another? You might to keep that in mind, if there is some sort of transportation in between the islands. I know that the scene in your second post is just a rough image of how it could look, but since everything is broken apart, you might want to make some buildings at the edges look like they’re broken appart (which of course can be more work than a “normal” house). You will most like take a large amount of time with the little things, like a bucket here, a little grass there, some rubble here and so on.

I know that these where more general ideas than something technical actually, but I’m really not that into design. Hopefully it was at least a little helpful

[Endcar]

Thank you Senseless for your words of wisdom. We like to hear what you guys have to say in such a project as this.

So after working a day or two here’s some buildings made by Jacob Maas. The other team members are working diligently to get their assets together to showcase what they’ve finished as well. We hope to reach our goal but, as of right now our scale is about right (at least for right now).

Thing about UDK is that the player or character is 96 unreal units tall (Unreal 4 is a little different). So we take those measurements into maya and space out our grid increasing the size by 512 (this gives you a 512x512 grid). We then space out the grid lines by every 16 units with 1 subdivision so there’s no mistakes when snapping.

You can then take a cube and size it six units tall (each grid unit = 1 foot) two units wide and long giving you a 2x2x6 rectangle. I then grab a human mesh I’ve modeled in the past, import it in and scale it to the size of the cube (you could also import the mesh from UDK).

This allows us to scale our structures while modeling. It’s extremely time consuming to be moving from one program to another especially on one computer with only one month to finish this.

[Endcar]

[Endcar]

I apologize guys for not updating this sooner. This was what we had to turn in for our 1 month long project. A lot was done but, I really need to perfect my use of textures and find a faster work flow to follow or at least get better at it. Though we apparently did take on a colossal project that doesn’t stop me or any of us from trying

This is your friendly host Jake Maas (Endcar/Frogeyeartistry). I do plan to play with this level a little more so you’ll see a few more updates later. If you guys have any suggestions or comments let em loose.