Well, as some of you know I have been spending quite a bit of time recently toying around with the Unreal Tournament III level editor, UnrealED3. I’ve made an array of small levels and am currently working on a much larger Capture The Flag level. The level itself will be a shell to better contain a mechanic I recently used in a smaller level (one created merely as a “test” to see if this was possible in Kismet). Read on to learn about the level, including screen shots and descriptions of how various things were accomplished using the editor itself, Kismet (a visual scripting engine included), and Matinee (an “animation” editor included). (more…)

I just wanted to inform everyone that I have updated the site to require a previously approved comment before guest comments will appear on articles. I apologize for not catching all those spam comments sooner; hopefully with this change that will not become a problem again in the future. If it does, I’ll just have to require registration.

It’s a bit of a rant, just to forewarn…

So, about a year or so ago, my brother decided to purchase a new Wireless Router for his apartment where he and his Fiancee (and their son) are living. The specific purpose was so that he could get on to Xbox Live and play games with me and his other friends, and for a time, it worked quite well. (more…)

I am currently toying with the idea of making a total conversion mod for Unreal Tournament III; more specifically, a paintball mod. I realize that such mods are fairly cliche among amature developers and by no means “original,” however - I absolutely love paintball and have not seen it done well since the days of Quake II. The largest hurdle to overcome is going to be the art assets; particularly the paintball guns themselves. I just recently recieved my Unreal Tournament III collectors edition (which contains hours upon hours of video tutorials for content creation with the engine and editor), and stumbled across quite a few excellent resources. While in the long run the mod would have to become a total conversion, for now it is going to start out as a simple GameType modification. (more…)

Well, I’ve finally played around in the Sandbox2 editor for CryENGINE2 enough to where I feel confident in making a decision as to what projects would mesh well with the technology, and what projects would not. For now, I wish to concentrate more on multiplayer experiences than singleplayer, so I’ve decided to check out the new version of an old favorite of mine. Unreal Tournament 3 recently launched, and I hopped on the ability to purchase a collectors edition tin (could not find one in person so I ordered it from GoGamer). The more I use the engine, the more excited I am about starting a new total conversion mod (though, I may do it as a simple gametype addition for now and change it to a TC mod further down the line when I feel more confident starting from scratch). Anyhow, read more for some links to useful resources getting started with the UnrealED experience; also, I have attached a download with all the exported scripts from Unreal Tournament 3 (the areas of the source code that are available to the public, just not yet hosted at an official source). (more…)

Well, I have now tinkered around quite a bit with the editor bundled with the new Crysis game, Sandbox2. I think the editor is amazing for what some people need, and has it’s shortcomings in other areas. The general idea I’ve gotten from it is that, if you are looking to make a primarily outdoor, single player experience - CryENGINE2 may make an incredible base for your game. However, if you are looking to create a primarily indoor experience - or a multi-player experience (or both), you may want to look elsewhere.

In the full article I touch briefly on my impressive on the terrain editing and texturing, the A.I. control and scripting, solid creation (from-scratch simple geometry construction), as well as some uncategorized thoughts. (more…)

Quick 2 minute flash video thats definitely worth a watch

At Work With Thwomp

Alright, I managed to play around in the CryENGINE2 level design software for a while today and I have to say - I’m impressed. It is incredibly robust, albeit a little confusing to get started with. So, I wanted to link to everyone a few things I found incredibly helpful.

Your First Level (PDF)

Crymod Modding Portal - the official home of the CryENGINE2 mapping/modding community (I’ve also added this to our links)

CryEDIT2 Manual (a few real handy tutorials, though they are poorly explained at times - they don’t even mention the need to import things into the DB)

Guide to making underground voxel caves (only read this if you have already completed the voxel tutorial and successfully made a cave to begin with - the answer is not the first post, the guy asks a question then figured it out himself and posts the answer).

One thing that is not documented yet, but is incredibly important to getting a level to actually function is the loading of libraries into your map. To do this go to… (more…)

Update: Bah, not available in stores until tomorrow

I just watched what was the most impressive engine demo I have ever seen. A classmate of mine from UAT linked us to the following two videos which demo the level editor for the CryENGINE2. So impressive in fact, that I am on my way out now to pick up a copy of the game and start tinkinering inside the engine. After seeing the part in the first video where he demo’s the foliage placement tools, and ability to quickly scale elements, I got the idea for a “Honey I Shrunk The Kids!” level that would be pretty fun to make as a first level. (more…)

misha-design-document1.docHere’s the Game Documentation that I wrote for my NWN mod.