Game: Gears of War
Description: "Brink" is a single player level set in the Gears of War universe after the events of the game campaign. While riding back to San Jacinto on a train after detonating the light mass bomb, Marcus Fenix has time to relax. However, the Locust have other plans. In a cave known as the Kryll basket, the Locust blow up a rail bridge sending most of the train into a deep abyss. The rest of the cars hang precariously from the destroyed bridge and Marcus has to travel from the end of train hanging over the sheer fall, to a King Raven transport helicopter 8 cars ahead.
The focus of this project was to push the player forward to speed up the gameplay in Gears of War. Many parts of Gears of War allow the player to wait patiently and overthink strategy before taking action. "Brink" does not allow for that kind of luxury. The spotlights on the bridge are scripted to explode one by one, plunging the immediate area into darkness which leaves any organic material mighty tasty to photosensitive Kryll. The majority of cover can be blown up or shot apart, keeping the player moving forward to find the next piece of cover.
Development Time: 8 weeks
Creator Commentary: javascript:void(0);/*1259913303648*/
Game: Unreal Tournament 3
Description: "DM17-The Longest League" is a modification of the classic "DM-17" first made famous in Quake. What this level does is modify the space to accommodate more players and add environmental scripting to create an even more exciting, helter skelter experience than the original.
The original featured jump pads and high flying action between two platforms floating in space. I wanted to bring the setting back down to earth and set it on a container ship. The first challange was to create a dynamic level that appeared to be moving even though technical limitations meant that the ship had to remain stationary. The solution was to script the ocean and the sky to rise up and down while the ship remains stationary.
The day after I finished the map, Epic Games released an expansion pack with a level on a ship that appeared to move up and down with the surf. After that I went back into the level and revised the scripting so the ship not only rises with the surf, but also appears to be moving at great pace through the ocean and turning to avoid obstacles.
Another challenge was to explain how a player falling off the play area would perish, just like in the original. However a 10 foot drop onto shipping containers is far from fatal, so I added an attacking spaceship firing missiles setting off explosions in the shipping containers.
Gameplay wise, I increase the number of ways the player can get to and from each island and added a new platform made of shipping containers in between the two main islands. This allows players to attack other combatants as they fly through the air.
Development Time: 3 weeks
Download File: javascript:void(0);/*1254692208221*/
Game: Gears of War
Description: A small scene and combat sequence with refined Gears of War gameplay, with a twist. The goal was to create a very polished gameplay sequence, then add environmental set pieces.
Development Time: 3 weeks
Download File: javascript:void(0);/*1254752819141*/
Game: Gears of War
Description: I wanted to create vehicle controls for a new vehicle for Gears of War. The King Raven Helicopter shows up at many points in the game but the player is never allowed to pilot it. The challenge was creating this vehicle without access to Unreal Script or native code in order to read player inputs and move an actor around the screen. I had to do the entire system in Kismet.
Reading Player Input: I used the UI Scene Editor to capture input from the keyboard.
Helicopter Movement: I devised a system where the player gives the helicopter a direction to travel and a matinee scripted movement sequence causes it to move 80 units every .25 seconds repeatedly. Each time a matinee plays, it starts relative to where the previous matinee ended, so by playing a matinee over and over it appears the helicopter moves smoothly.
Movement Acceleration: To make it appear the helicopter is speeding up and slowing down, I speed up and slow down the play rate of the matinee.
Mover Hierarchy: Vehicles require quick, precise controls or the player becomes frustrated. The problem in Kismet and matinee sequences is a split second lag when moving a single object using player controls. To counter this, I use a series of attached actors each capable of moving a different direction. The helicopter is mounted to the top of the hierarchy while the player moves invisible objects around with the controls. Since they are all attached to each other, the player can send the King Raven in two different directions and the helicopter will appear to move in both directions.
Development Time: 3 weeks
This is a sampling of some of my work from the last 12 months.