Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Sack in the Saddle Again…part deux

I was reminded yesterday that it has been a year since I posted anything on this blog.  Time flies when you’re having fun.  Fun, like playing Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, and participating in the LBP Karting beta testing.  I’ll say this about LBPK…it’s going to be alot of fun!  I had a chance to play tracks from the story line, and some from some great level builders.  We also had a chance to build our own levels with a sample of tools and materials that will be in the final game.  The interface was a little tricky since you are working in a full 3-D environment, but I was starting to get the hang of it right before the beta ended.

Since my last post here I have made some progress on the conclusion to my Yeti level in LBP2, thanks to a video on the LBPlanetorials YouTube channel.  He talked about modular level design and it enabled me to break my level down into small manageable chunks.  It also showed a technique for building without gluing.  Makes it easier to rearrange pieces of the level without alot of fuss.

I am about 60% done with blocking the level in, and about 50% done with the details on the sections that are blocked in.  In this part of the level I am including the grappling hook to give the player a way to avoid some, but not all obstacles.  One of the techniques I am using to make design easier is using gravity modifiers (with dampening set to 100%) to keep pieces from moving around without gluing them in place.  It’s easier to switch stuff around this way.  Also, using a piece of sticker panel, with a gravity modifier attached (and dampening set to 100%), as a surface to attach things like pistons, cameras, etc. I can move those things around easily too.

Well, rest assured I am back to working on this level, but keep in mind I just got Tiger Woods 11, and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, so I might be a little distracted.

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