after switching over to UnrealEd, exactly a year ago, i am happy to say i still love working with it. it gives the user amazing power.

obviously, everyone has a different style, but i’d like to compare notes. this is the way i have been building with UnrealEd lately, specifically when i sit down to create a new area:

* first phase–rough creation

a) create all raw geometry–staying mainly on the 16 scale grid. mostly entering values for the brushes in expressions, like i make a cube that is 16*4, 16*4, 16*4. i vertex manipulate or use the 2d shape editor whenever i need to. i never use lightwave objects unless i need natural terrain.

then at the end of step ‘a’ i select ALL brushes and ‘transform permanently.’ from what i have seen and learned, i consider this last step *really* useful.

b) plaster down 4 or 5 simple textures–temporary floor, wall, trimming, ceiling.

c) drop a single light, adjust its values, then clone it wherever needed for ambience.

i’m thinking about modifying step ‘c’ by tagging all those lights specifically as ‘amb’ or something. that way, later, i can select all the general ambient lights for the level but NOT the small radius lights dedicated to special case situations (like a small red light under a bar sign or whatever). then, with the levels ‘general’ lights selected, i can easily experiment with different color schemes for the level.

* second phase–texturing

prior to step ‘d’ i select all textures in the level (the temporary textures i plastered down) and i align them all completely. (this makes step ‘d’ a lot easier. this habit is to textures what ‘transform permanent’ is to brushes in my opinion.)

d) work with an artist to get a custom set of textures for the level.

* third phase–lighting

e) alter all the lights i dropped in step ‘c’ so the lighting looks good with the textures.

working this way, i have seen a speed increase, i work cleaner and i seem to have more freedom because of the logical sequence. i hardly *ever* have the crashes i had when i first started and i rarely have dissappearing geometry (despite the weirdness and complexity of our game’s real-world spaces).

if you use UnrealEd and have something to say, i’d love to hear it.

…in the BIO section.

someone on the net was nice enough to send this cool historical info along:

—-

The “machina” of ancient greek drama was an actual machine used to lower performers onto the performance space; most notably in the plays of Euripides. “Deus ex machina” was, originally, a reference to an actual mechanical artifact, not merely a dramaturgical mechanism as you suggest in the interview. It is only through time that the phrase has come to mean “a contrived ending.” You may verify this information through any reputable contemporary source book on theatre history.

I hope you find the above information amusing. And I look forward to the release of your game.

Sincerely,

Jim

—-

thanks, jim!

GameGirlz is an interesting gamer news web site. they just posted a new Deus Ex interview. Cassandra, a writer for GG, actually asked some fresh questions too. so head on down to the GG spot if you have time.

meanwhile, here at the austion ION office, we are still prepping for E3. as i’ve said before, we’ll be showing off missions 01 & 02 (complete)–so right now we’re fixing bugs and polishing things related to those missions.

also a lot of work is being done on the mission docs for all the other missions. months ago each designer planned his missions out in detail, developing NPC’s, instances of skill use, goals, etc. but as is always the case after some time we began to develop a much better grip on exactly how we’re going to implement things. mostly thanks to the fact that we crunched really hard to get missions 01 & 02 done. in doing that, we learned a lot. basically, we’re busy as always, but we can now see the light at the end of the chunnel.

(hmmm…now *there’s* an idea: chunnel assault mission…)

my enemy design article is up at gamasutra.