[WIP] 11 Day Level Design - Winter

[Billiz]

Name: l4d2_slope
Game: Left 4 Dead 2
Type: Scavenge
Starting Date: 06-01-2010
End Date: 16-01-2010

DAY 1
Plan
Idea, Research, Reference, Floor plan and Gameplay Elements.
Sketches, drawings.

Work
Reference (2h 10min)
Floor plan (1h 30min)
Modeling and Texture (7h 10min)


DAY 2
Plan
Modeling

Work
Block in and Scale (5h 15min)
Modeling and Texture (5h 30min)


DAY 3
Plan
Modeling

Work
Modeling and Texture (4h 15min)


DAY 4
Plan
Modeling

Work
Modeling and Texture (3h 50min)
Displacement (1h 50min)


DAY 5
Plan
Modeling

Work
Forrest and Hills (5h 10min)


DAY 6
Plan
Texturing

Work
Custom Textures (7h 30min)
Forrest and Hills (2h 15min)


DAY 7
Plan
Texturing

Work
Props 4h 30min


DAY 8
Plan
Props

Work
Converting map to L4D2 (3h 30min)
Game Entiries (7h 15 min)


DAY 9
Plan
Game Entities, Nav, Clip Brushes, Lighting

Work
Forrest and Hills (5h 15min)
Modeling and Texture (5h 30min)
Props (1h 30min)


Day 10
Plan
Lighting, Sound, Optimization

Work
Displacement (5h 30min)
Clip Brushes (1h 15min)
Nav (30min)
Beta Testing (1h 30min)
Game Entities (2h 30min)
Skybox (2h 15 min)


DAY 11
Plan
Lighting, 3D Skybox, Props, Falling Snow, Icicles

Work
Lighting (2h 30min)
Lift (5h 15min)
Skybox (1h)
Final Touches (5 hours 15 min)

[Billiz]

Day 1 06-01-2010
Reference 2h 10min
Floor plan 1h 30min
Modeling and Texture 7h 10min

So the race is on and I'm making good progress. I got over 30 really nice reference images and Layout done allready.

Here's the map Layout, you start at the bottom and have to run to the top cabin to defend.



Here are some nice reference images that really shows the atmosphere I'm going for.







So I'm allmost done modeling the lift house at the starting area.

[AlexG]

Nice looking references.

Nice lighting reference!

[Billiz]

Day 2 07-01-2010
Block in and Scale (5h 15min)
Modeling and Texture (3h 15min)

I have started making the base for my displacement terrain, using trees and the models I made last night for scale.

A tip for anyone making a map is to really make sure your scale is spot on. If you don't you will waste a lot of time to correct the scale later on. Good thing to use as scale reference is props and I recomend you to make small pillars as high as a player character ingame and copy them around.

[xlan]

damn i need to learn how to model

good work so far i love the reference photos

[Billiz]

Day 3 08-01-2010
Modeling and Texture (4h 15min)

I'm done with the lift now.

[xlan]

really nice work!

[AlexG]

Damn Billiz.

Looking good.

Are the models created in a 3d package? if so which one? or are they brushwork?

[Billiz]

It's all brushwork made into func_detail.

Holy crap! I'd swear those were models. Lookin' good, man!

[Billiz]

Day 4 09-01-2010

Thanks guys! I'm Almost done with the top cabin now.

[xlan]

damn that puts my cabin to shame

looks excellent

[Billiz]

DAY 5: 10-01-2010
Forrest and Hills (5h 10min)

[Smog]

oh dear...

This looks really good. Very impressive, Billiz, I can't wait to play it.

[Billiz]

DAY 6: 11-01-2010
Custom Textures (7h 45min)

Thanks guys!

Today I spend all day making my custom textures. This was the first time I made custom blend textures, at first they looked like crap but after a lot of work adding bumpmaps and stuff I'm really happy with the result.

I have three blend textures in my map at the moment, you can see them all in this picture. The one used under the trees is a mix of snow and snow/earth, I also added detailed sprites to it making it ideal to use at the treeline. The main snow texture is a mix of snow and snow with tracks in it making it look like a real ski slope, the track snow texture was not tiled to I had to tile it in Photoshop, my first time doing that as well. The last one is snow and a nice rock texture, all textures are from CG.



Here is a closeup of my snow texture, I could not be more happy with the result on this one.