Ciphering through many ideas that we came up with, our initial idea was to create a spaceship level in which the character has to save the ship from certain doom. For the design of the level we took much inspiration from retro science fiction, art deco and the designs of Alien’s ‘Nostromo’ spaceship by Ron Cobb.
After a team scrum and a chance to vent our frustration at our mistake, we decided to come up with another ways in which we could incorporate our previous concepts into a new level which met the criteria of the brief. We came up with the idea to create a retro-sci-fi styled theme park which contained many tongue and cheek references. We called this level ‘Obo orbit adventure park’.
As time was of the essence, we did not waste time concepting this project, instead we salvaged our previous designs and reverted to drawing. Once we knew the level design and the assets that would consist within the level, we went straight into modelling the assets. My role in the group was to handle level design, lighting, sound and visual effects within the unreal engine. However, it was also up to me to model, unwrap and texture the cryo tubes, the core and lights and the rocket in the level.
If I am honest the project level and my textures was rather rushed as I was working under a short amount of time, which left barely any time for polishing. As a result the quality of the whole level and ambience of the environment suffered greatly. This was because my group and I had poor time management.
However, despite the issues throughout the course of the project, I was also able to learn quite a lot within the project, most importantly, rapid idea generation. Since now, I had been relying solely on my first idea instead of exploring random ideas. More to the point, this project, I focused little on concepting and took the advice of my lecturers in getting as fast into engine as possible. This project has really appreciated the concept of time and how quick one must work under short deadlines.
From this level, I have learnt how to work better in a team. To understand that people work differently and you may not always be able to control this workflow. This meant that I should try not to micromanage the project and fall behind in my progress, but instead focus on produce my work to the best of my abilities first and assess team members’ work through group meetings and progress sheets.
In addition, I learnt about level blueprints in engine and how I can create small interactive animations using the matinee actor. I feel that my knowledge of engine has doubled since I first started the project. What is more significant was that I was reluctant to be the engine-lead in the group at first.