DN3DS – WIP Update 05
As promised, here's a video from my level, DN3DS.
I'm open for suggestions and feedback.
DN3DS – WIP Update 04 (Project Chart)
Sorry about the not-so-much-blogging lately. I've been preoccupied with other things (less important, of course).
Anyhow, tada! I bring you yet another update on my DN3DS-project. But more than the embedded screenshot (sorry about the size) I also bring you something new. Something at least I haven't seen anyone else do with a hobby project.
Everytime I've worked on the level, whether it's an hour or three, I write a small post about it. You could say it's something like a journal. But what's interesting (I hope) is that I also try to quantify the amount of fun I've had while working on it at the same time as I try and stay objective and say how productive I was during the time. That it, of course, in relation to the time spent. So 10 minutes can be just as productive as 5 hours.
In the end, when the project is done (if ever) (parentheses for teh win!) I will eventually be able to see the relation, or lack thereoff, between having fun while you work and being productive.
Are you more productive while having fun? Am I having more fun while being productive? Or maybe, none of the above!
You can follow my journal and chart on:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=paGKBHTWmSscZku5MQuVFHA (Available 6/4/09)
Please, let me know what you think of this idea!
Btw, I'll call this the "Prodemo Chart". (Just made it up while writing this. Production/Emotion Chart.) Remember, you heard it here first!
Oh right, the pic.
6/4/09
Tomorrow I'll Fraps a vid when running around in it and post or YouTube (or some equivalent). Hope you'll look forward to it.
Like the kids say; peace out!
DN3DS – WIP Update 02
Another little update. By now, I've started the second floor, although I'm not done with the bathroom on the bottom floor, but I want to make some progress on the second floor first, so the connection between them turns out okay.
You DO remember the secret passage between the two, right?
16/3/09
DN3DS – WIP Update 01
Just a little update for those curious people. I dedicate this post to Cozy Dave.
11/3/09
DN3DS – Creative Freedom… Again
So I've encountered a problem regarding the topic of creative freedom of which I discussed a bit in an earlier post.
If you've any memory of the first level in Duke Nukem 3D, you surely remember that there was a cinema (movie theatre) there.
I'm trying to build it, but I can't decide on whether or not to stick to the original design (or lack thereof) or if I am to alter it a whole lot. The problem is that the cinema in the original game is simply a big room with a bunch of seats placed on the floor. When doing it like that, it does not only look bad, but it also doesn't offer much in terms of interresting level design.
As seen in embedded image, I've tried two approaches; one being that of the original and one of a more interresting looking/playing type.
Personally I like the other design more, but I'm not sure if I stray too far away from the original if I do. One "problem" though with the new design is that you can't see the doors in the back very well. But then again, maybe that's not a problem.
I feel I'll have to leave this area for now and work on something else untill I've decided for certain.
What do you guys think?
Which is better?
DN3DS – Eye measurements…
You know the cinema in the first level of Duke Nukem 3D?
I felt I'd made it too big, but wasn't sure about how much too big it was, so I thought I'd check by placing benches in it, similar to that in the original Duke.
...I was way off...
Nice going, Arcade...
DN3DS – Creative Freedom?
One of the decisions I had to make very early in the production of my Source level was how faithful the original I wanted to be. The very first and original idea was to make a replica, geometry-wise but the more I thought about it, the worse that felt.
One of the reasons was that if I were to simply recreate something the same way it was, then what's the point, except for some people to get some retro feeling? Simply recreating it would only be a challenge when it comes to using the tools and measuring everything but that's not a challenge I'm looking for.
The gameplay can't be directly translated either, since we're talking about completely different games, except for the FPS-aspect.
I want to stimulate myself in regards of creativity, gameplay and problem solving so I decided to go for a remake/remix-thingy instead.
My goals are to keep the feel of the level. I want every player having played and rememberd the first level of Duke Nukem 3D to instantanously see and feel the resemblence of the level. I want them to "feel at home" with it. But I'm doing it "my way".
I'll keep the things you remember, like the hidden corridors, the alternative entry points, the overall layout and stuff, but I'll have it tweaked to become (what I hope) better.
And example of this can be seen in the image below, where the left part is the original Duke Nukem 3D and the middle part is my first blocked layout of the beginning of the level which is a 1:1 replica of the original. The right part of the image shows how it looks (at least right now) in my level.
Creative Freedom Progression
Another update:
I've scrapped the idea (for now) to create a Half-Life 2 level out of it and moved on to the Orange Box-version of the SDK, since Valve recently "released" documention for Left 4 Dead level design.
http://list.valvesoftware.com/pipermail/l4dmapper/2009-February/000000.html (9/3/09)
Thanks Cozy Dave for the URL. Oh, and don't forget to check out his blog (in Swedish) in which he gives updates on his HL2-mod.
http://davidlundvall.blogspot.com/ (9/3/09)
DN3DS – Announcement – Duke Nukem 3D Source
Oh hi!
I thought I'd tell you guys about a little level design project I've started very recently.
The idea is to create a remake of the first level in Duke Nukem 3D, but in the Source engine (Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead). Right now I'm building using the Half-Life 2 (HL2) settings, so it'll probably end up being a HL2 level first and the plan is to later on adapt it for Left 4 Dead. Nothing is certain though about the HL2-version, as I'm just creating the world first, without the gameplay.
Anyway, it's just a little something I'll work on now and then during my limited spare time.
If all goes well, I'll post some updates every so often here on this blog. Some posts being just updates while other being of a more topic focused sort.
Oh, one last thing. In the future and when it comes to the usage of "tags" on this blog, I'll refer to the map as "dn3ds"; Duke Nukem 3D Source.
Hail to the king, baby!
dn3ds screen numero uno
Ninja?
I'm gonna tell you a story about one of my first games.
Back when I was in what's in Sweden called "Gymnasium", being best described as upper secondary school I believe, I made a game.
The game's name is "Ninja?".
The final project at school was open for us students to decide, as long as it had something to do with what we were studying. I was a civic-student myself, so I basically got to do anything that had anything to do with our society. Computer games are part of our culture, right? Yes, it is. And there we go.
I did the design together with a great friend, Jonas and today, 4 years later I can see that it was pretty... Well... Let's just say it wasn't as good as it could have been. The biggest problem was that wasn't very good with programming at all, so even if we had some good ideas they all pretty much failed because I didn't know how to implement them. The time was limited so I had to do something basic.
But the game has Gamepad-support!
I made the game using the software GameMaker (http://www.gamemaker.nl, available 20/12-08). With it you can do pretty much drag 'n drop-editing, but I didn't wanna do that because I wanted to learn so I coded the whole thing within the program. I'm not regretting that decision even if the game probably would have turned out better if I'd just used the tools within the program.
Of course the game is a ninja game. Your avatar can walk, run, jump, double jump, melee attack and throw shurikens. In theory enough to make a pretty decent game but there is pretty close to no tweaking made what so ever. "Does this feel okay? Well, it's working. On to the next task!". Stupid? Perhaps, but I had to finish at least the basics of the game and one level.
I'm actually very proud of the game. Not because it's good, because it isn't. But because it's one of the first games I ever made and I learned so, so much! Even a failure is a success if you learn something, right? "Learning Game Design".
I think people interesting in making games, be it as a hobby or professionally should really keep pushing themselves. If you play it safe, you won't learn as much. At least, that's what I think.
The game demo is available at http://www.grymling.com (20/12-08). The file there is not Windows Vista-compatible I think and the site is closing down during the fall of 2009.
Me and Jonas made a bunch of T-shirts with the Ninja and we managed to sell 17 of them across Sweden, UK and Germany. That was the greatest achievement of them all!
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- Ninja? T-shirts Box
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- Ninja? T-shirts Brown
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- Ninja? T-shirts Bundle
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- Ninja? T-shirts White
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- Ninja? T-shirts Blue
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- Ninja? T-shirts Black
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