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+--- Thread: Looking to join a team (/thread-8946.html)
Looking to join a team - palistov - 07-04-2011
Hey guys. Anyone have a level design spot in their team or are interested in creating one? My current project's first chapter is getting close to completion. Doing it alone has been quite a hassle, so I'm looking to start working in collaboration with other designers.
I specialize in level design and basic scripting. What I can do is give you a high-quality level with exceptional detail and lighting, a dynamic soundscape, cognitive enemies, and script fairly advanced events and basic interactions. I am completely open to collaborating with multiple level designers, and can adapt to and use custom assets. 19th century tilesets are starting to get overused, don't you think?
What I am reluctant to do is spend large amounts of time developing, brainstorming and implementing storyline, quests, characters, and puzzles. I can throw out ideas, but I hope that whoever I join forces with can handle that. I also want to work on a well-conceived and original story. If your story involves waking up in some dark room with no memory of how you got there, I'm probably not going to be interested. Frankly, there are plenty of stories involving waking up with no memory, including the original Amnesia. I want to work on a project that will be unique, original, and fun with a team that is dedicated and capable.
Screenshots of my work can be seen on my mod's ModDB page, by clicking the button in my sig. If you want a better look, I can upload videos or levels for you to play. Examples of scripted events and basic interactions can be seen in the videos below.
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Scare event: Shadow run v1.0 [v1.1]
This was one of my greatest triumphs as an early scriptwriter. I had many failed attempts at this, but the end-result was extremely successful. I scared myself countless times while playtesting the map's other features. The event is short and simple; your typical jump-scare. It involves a dark entity fleeting across a window. Uses for loops to create sequential timers which deactivate point lights to which the billboards are connected. They are then sequentially reactivated to give the illusion of something flying close to the window.
Version 1.0 shows the very first version of it. The billboards or blindingly bright, as my design skills were fairly premature at that point. Version 1.1 is darker and harder to see; FRAPS recordings are fairly dark. Go to fullscreen and the highest resolution to get the best effect.
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Lightscape: Entrance hall lightning v1.0 [v1.1] [v1.2]
This script took quite a while to perfect, and even longer to build in the editor. I use duplicated light sources which are brighter, and have flicker active. I simultaneously activate the flickering lights and deactivate the normal lights, then add a delayed thunder sound. After a fraction of a second, the lights return to normal, and the thunder is heard.
Versions 1.0 and 1.1 are the early stages, and v1.2 show the finished product.
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Scripted interaction: Piano poking
Ever wonder what a piano sounds like in Amnesia? Find out in this video.
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Scripted interaction: Dynamic key-door puzzle
This is the big one. This scripted interaction took me hours to perfect, particularly to the implicit nature of it. By implicit I mean that I can use the exact same script chunk in any map file I want, and it will work perfectly as long as the door, key, and script area are named properly. I spent as long bug-testing it as I did writing it, and the end-result is a simple but fun little interaction. And no, you will not be chased by monsters while doing key-door puzzles. That's absurd.
The way the script works is by checking the names of the key and the door which the key was used on. If they don't match, the key won't work, and it is returned to the player's inventory on interaction. If the key matches, the player must rotate and unlock the door manually. Obviously, throwing a key at a door doesn't unlock it, right guys?
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Soundscape: Zoology Quarter
This was a map in my first project, the Scarecrow. The project was cancelled, but some of the work from it will see use in my current project, One Light in the Darkness.
I used random timers and random integers to play a sound at a random area. It's basically completely random. Also easily tweakable and easy to implement across multiple maps.
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Level development series: The Underhalls
A 6-video series of me creating a level from scratch. The Underhalls was also a map in the Scarecrow. I start with a plane, and build walls around it. From there I move to ceilings and then continue on to detail. Minute detail comes much later, after the overall purpose of each room/hall has been decided. For example, the room with the overhead beams and tables represents a make-shift laboratory where vile chemicals and tonics were tested on the sick and weak. The room with shelves and random tools is the storage room. The overall purpose of the Underhalls was to serve as an underground hub granting access to multiple zones. A sort of base camp, if you will.
This was made a while ago, and my design methods have changed and improved since.
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Outdoors level: The Courtyard
The Courtyard is an outdoors level in my current project. It took a while to create, particularly because I had designed it with a very particular path in mind. I didn't want it to be a free-roam area, especially since Amnesia and its assets were created specifically for indoors gameplay. The only instance of outdoors play where the player is close to the outdoors is
[spoilder]in the outdoors flashback.[/spoiler]
There is also no way to create heightmaps in the editor. I would have to create a terrain model in a program such as Maya, and import it. I hadn't cultivated that option because I am still a novice at modelling; most of my knowledge is of re-texturing and modifying Amnesia's ready-mage assets.
To compensate for this, I placed flat rocks randomly across the path to remove the smoothness of the ground plane. I also made them non-colliding, so the player can't get stuck on a little flat rock. Foliage took a while too, because I wanted to minimize the amount of objects used while still giving the feeling that the player is surrounded by wildlife. Patches of flat ground are distracting and don't fit in.
The skybox was created by Khyrpa, for which I am very thankful. It is the exact skybox I wanted, and he/she had it already ready for use! Thanks!
Lighting was tricky too, because I can't just create a large shadowcasting spotlight. The larger the radius of the spotlight, the lower-quality shadows it casts. It's just the way the lighting in HPL2 works. I ended up just using a non-shadowcasting spotlight with a nice blue tint.
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If you're interested in using me or in creating a team, please send a PM via this forum or add me on Steam @ riize669.
RE: Looking to join a team - Seuchensoldat - 07-04-2011
You got a PM.
