mozidesign.com Unorganized Thoughts of a Game Designer

Making of MP_Pipeline

The other day I finished up my second level for Gears of War entitled Pipeline. The download link is available on the level design page.

So when I started to make this level I thought it would be a neat idea to take iterative screen shots as I built the level from the ground up and talk about what I was thinking and planning toward the end result.

This level started the same as most levels I build, just messing around BSP cubes and building a basic shell of what I think would make for a good level layout. After a couple of hours of trying different designs I came up with this basic shell.

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If you notice in the top corner the level was actually entitled Caves, what I had in mind was to build a level that was underground with large opening looking up into the sky with some visible structures, sort of like a massive sinkhole. But then I remembered that the offical retail level MP_Goldrush is very similar to my idea so I decided to scrap the concept but use the shell to make something different.

After a little brainstorming I came up with the idea to make a factory that would be in the middle of nowhere, like the ocean. To add to that I decided to create the factory around a large rock formation, taken from the Caves idea I had before. Digging through the static mesh library and materials I built the basic idea of the level and textured the BSP shell and removed some extra brushes to create a more refined layout.

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With the level now textured it was time to start adding some static meshes for more detailing. Now there are lot of different static meshes to choose from and some seem to fit together than others for a factory theme. So what I like to do normally with most of my level design is to create a ‘junkyard’ near the level and just place a whole bunch of meshes that I think look cool and could possibly work.

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In the image above that is just a handful of the many meshes that I eventually added to the ‘junkyard’.
With the junkyard pretty much full of good meshes I started to play around with them and see how the looked on different sections of the level. After a while I found the right pieces and eventually the level started to take shape.

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After a week of working on the level I got all the details that I wanted to make the level feel like a factory, a total of 1936 static meshes to be exact. I felt like this phase was done and moved on to lighting.

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One of my many favorite levels in the game is Tyro Station, not only is the game play fun in that level but the environment with the red haze looks awesome. With that inspiration I decided to make a similar post process effect on the level

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I also added some directional lights to change the color to be a little more brigher than dark red as well as global spot light as the direction from where main light source was coming from. The spotlight also helped with some nice glare/refelections off some of the more metallic looking meshes in the level.

From here I added all the cover spots, play tested the level and got some good feedback for subtle improvements. So I went back and added some more details to the level, and started to give it a more run down look by purposely mis aligning floor tiles, adding broken support beams, trash, blood stains, and a few dead bodies out on the rocks outside the main playing space. In the end the static mesh count went up to 2453!

Here is the end product of the level fully textured, detailed, and lit.

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As well the final BSP wire frame

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And final mesh wireframe, looks cluttered but really is not.

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For more in game screens check out the level design page to the right. Hopefully you guys will enjoy the level and as usual comments and feedback is welcomed along with any questions that you may have from reading this.

Cheers!