Spam Blog? ...Updates Anyway!

One of the members of the Sky Gaming Organization notified me yesterday
that my blog was offline.
This blog contains parts of my portfolio as well as my brothers (check out
the awesome video of his left 4 dead campaign below).

As soon as the misunderstanding with blogspot.com gets situated, I'll begin
posting video segments of the new left 4 dead 2 add-on content that I personally
created for our steamgroup at Sky Gaming Organization Steamgroup

I'll also be releasing new screenshots of an upcoming level designed specifically
for the plugins that we run, so hopefully you guys will love that!


Talk to you later!

A Twist or Two

It's been a while since my previous update, so here goes an explanation on that.
On New Years, the graphics card in this laptop went to the grave. Fortunately,
I've ordered a new laptop that should finally be here in a few days. Check out
these specs:

1gb nvidia geforce gt 250
500gb hdd
17.3" LED Monitor
Dual Intel Core i7 1.77ghz (Turbo Boost to 3.2ghz)
8gb ddr3 ram (2dimm)

With that out of the way, I'd like to take some time to post about my brothers
upcoming campaign. I think it deserves some major attention due to the amount
of time and effort he is putting into it. Soul & I come from the Quake era, before
we had prefabricated objects, static meshes, and total rooms created from programs
such as Maya and 3DSMax. With that in mind, he's taken the effort to MANUALLY
create many of these amazing areas himself. Unfortunately, he's pushing the
Source engine to its limit to such an extent that his modeling team has had to
create entire rooms out of models. Below is a video of one of his most recent updates
and a link to his project site. A good number of high quality modelers and texture
artists are working to bring this campaign to life, not to mention a custom musical
score being created by a composer specifically for this campaign.

Check it out:




And the website: http://purojekutozero.wordpress.com/

Chapter 3 In-Development!

These are in development photos of chapter 3 in the new upcoming Left 4 Dead 1
and Left 4 Dead 2 Campaign. It will be released to testers with Coop/Versus capability.
As these photos are shot during development, there is usually a lack of detail and
there may also be numerous changes before the private release. The frame rate also
suffers during development as the map is not closed to leaks.

Last Resort Photos

This post will be updated occasionally with new photos of the campaign.
Clicking on the photo will show you its full size.
Newest to Oldest.
Suggestions, comments, etc are
encouraged, thanks!

Also, when I'm editing, I'm also streaming my level editor at Rebirth Gaming on Justin.TV

I've copied and pasted a post I wrote at L4DMaps.com

"Level layouts and weather, among things can be randomly created in
Left 4 Dead 1. If you wish it to be randomized without requiring a
map restart, you simply do not use logic_auto.

In regards to panic events, in my current campaign, I have created
a panic event that doesn't expire naturally. I have created a unique
"Objective-Based" panic event. In one sense it is a race, where if
all survivors reach the destination point and none are incapped or dead,
the event is terminated by players blocking the path with which they
entered. On the other hand, if all four players do not make it, they are
penalized and must complete an additional objective.

This is just one scenario. The reason for this is during this event, the
ai director will, using logic cases (several, actually) determine the most
fair (or what my logic determines to be) path for the survivors.
To up the ante, there are random explosions or level changes (such as
debris or floors falling apart) to prevent survivors from simply memorizing
one path.

While it sounds cruel and unusual, I assure you that it has been
created with a just sense. The only thing that will make this event
difficult is when players attempt to leave other players "Left for Dead."

In regards to weather, the ai director properly (and not randomly as in
hard rain for l4d2) creates more "challenging" weather conditions for
survivors based on their performance (time & health are two of the
factors) on the fly.

All of these I have accomplished using the Left 4 Dead engine.

Perhaps it isn't designed as a random pub campaign, but it pushes
the thing that made Left 4 Dead great---team work.

I hope I've answered the question here about the open level layouts.
Yes, level layouts can be determined on the fly, at the start of a map,
and even during previous levels (entities can be carried over as well as
their state)

This campaign is a 4-stage campaign scheduled for release in January
for both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2."

Left 4 Dead 2 Campaign Early, EARLY Build

I'd like to point out this compilation is from Left 4 Dead 1, as I'm producing a L4D1 and L4D2 version(s) of the campaign, the difference between the two will merely be texture and (s)light level differences.
As I was hoping to not be publishing any photos in such an early stage, I've decided to do so anyway, even with the multitude of errors and problems at this stage. This is the first compilation of the level, with blood decals and other items missing via errors or simply omitted. Lighting, at this point in development ceases to currently exist as it's one of the last stages of development for me. Hopefully these two photos give you an early idea of what the first level in this four-level campaign offers.
Also, when I'm editing, I'm also streaming my level editor at Rebirth Gaming on Justin.TV

Left 4 Dead 2 Campaign Announced!

It's been several months since I've made any posts, so before I have any photos available for release I wanted to publicly announce this campaign. I don't want to discuss much of it at the moment, but the first level sets you back to a familiar environment, an hospital that's on fire. It's sort of a twist between Dead Center's "Apartments" and No Mercy's "Mount Hospital" levels. I should have some photos uploaded later in the week. Try Friday.

Beta Concept Brought to Life!

If you reference the concept below, you should recognise this room. While it is an early editor concept of the room, there is of course much to be done. While the entire unloading dock acts as a safe room, should the unlucky chance occur of a director horde, you can only guess where they will come from.
This level is absolutely unique in the sense that I have gone through great pains to provide an evolving, changing level based on the teams decision. While versus clans may claim it will be unfair as to match play, due to a difference in layout, that choice comes based on your teams choices. For instance... there is a set of doors, which opened in different orders will unlock/lock different doors, causing path changes. While these changes are minor, to simply avoid extreme advantage/disadvantage, they act through the logic relay of several entities, to prevent players from knowing exactly what caused which path to become available. I hope to have a demonstration video of this level available in the next few weeks.

Randomization of level structure, Left 4 Dead

As we know, Valve has announced that in Left 4 Dead 2, depending on how well or poor your team is playing, the director may change the level to assist or hinder you. What Valve hasn't announced is that you can set the AI director up to do this in Left 4 Dead 1. For those of you who may question this, refer to No Mercy 3. Turn left directly out of the safe room, and right at the dead end, until you're standing in front of that truck. The door here is occasionally open. Why is this? By using a handy method of scripting within the game, the level designer can inadvertently create level modifications prior to the player reaching that level. There are entities that can be placed, which, based on certain circumstances met could be carried over to the next level, at least their properties, and whether or not certain conditions were met or not. However, you can take this one step further and, with a handy work around with the scripting, make the director seem just as advanced as AI Director 2.0. With a little work of triggers and logic relays, you can have the game change the layout, add items, remove items, etc, etc., based on time or other variables, such as player health, among things. While currently buggy, I've produced this method in my upcoming campaign. I've produced changes in the environment that I am sure will surely surprise you.

The Hollows

Unfortunately, there are no videos or text to accompany this post as I prepare for a busy week. I'm going beyond the typical scripting in this campaign, and providing moments that should startle or just simply irritate the survivors, with an abundance of scripted events. As valve would describe the crescendos as gauntlets, such as making your way across a ravine, hitting a motion sensor on the spotlights, summoning a crescendo event, and having to fight your way across the rest of the ravine out of the motion detectors in order to end the flood of horde. Fun times? There are a lot of these wonderful, scripted events in the campaign, some of which I hope you'll enjoy. Remember, the motto of The Hollows is... There's no way out!

The Hollows, Beta Concept

After much revision, this is the new concept I have developed for the first level of my 3-level campaign. Note that the left side of the concept is generally set in stone, for the most part, at least the survivor starting area. The right side, not so much, but the final concept will be developed and published tomorrow. Note the length of the level, while the campaign is 3 levels short, each level is slightly longer than the typical valve campaign level.