dallas

de_boardroom 0.1 released on Steam Workshop

Posted by admin

boardroom_iso_v0.1

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=388019891

 

Version 0.1

A multi-tiered corporate boardroom in the penthouse atop a century-old skyscraper. Focus on tight quarters, verticality, and non-traditional CS.

INTERESTING:
*two-bomb DE gameplay at the moment
*multiple custom models

TODO:
*Support more gametypes
*Soundscape/audio pass
*Bombsite B needs work
*Update radar image
*Clipping pass
*Replace more geometry with custom models, such as the white sculpture hanging in the atrium
*Add place names to navmesh
*Fix zfighting in a few lazy places
*Additional detail pass
*Environmental story telling
*Performance testing and optimization
The exterior of the building has been built out almost completely. I can’t promise that will all stay as it is unecessary to see during gameplay. It will be used in some promo shots and new assets for the level, but ultimately removed since it will improve performance for older pc’s.

350px-Steam_workshop

 

New CSGO Map De_Boardroom: Major lighting pass, detail work, new building exterior.

Posted by admin

I’m super happy to post this update.

Here’s what’s happened since I started re-skinning the level exterior, and detailing the interior. FYI still a lot of WIP art, most notably the large hanging sculpture in the center of the main atrium.

  • Created a dozen or so models for the exterior. Really would like more to match the architectural look I’m going for. Will need a seperate post to explain those.
  • Pieced the models together into the building exterior, after painstakingly removing the old geometry.
  • Brought in some portal2 assets, placed in level.
  • Major lighting and fx pass.
  • Detailed interior geometry and texturing.
  • A few semi-major flow changes which might get rolled back.
  • Not pictured – radar (minimap) texture is in, in a basic form.
  • Nav mesh work.
  • Fog/sky work. The building is shorter now, so the effect it has on the shadows from other buildings is bothering me, might raise the building back up.

de_boardroom level design work in progress – new architecture

Posted by admin

After a lot of debating and hem-hawing, I’m switching the architectural skin of the building from a generic modern look to an older and move developed Neo Gothic (with a touch of Art Deco) style. The old floor to ceiling windows on most rooms will be gone, and the general feel of the level will be much more rich.

Originally, I started this level before the now-famous Agency was released. Agency is an amazing work, and though my original goal was to create a modern skyscraper with that sort of detail, I never solidified the exterior design and what exists on the outside (and parts of the inside) are too reminiscent of Agency. This is not to say I’m drastically changing the flow, but the level finally has a real theme, instead of what was essentially a generic modern building that could be backdrop material in GTA.boardroom_neogothic01

 

That said, here’s an early shot which shows the new direction. The work is still rough and I’m working mainly at this point to nullify horrible redo mistakes by completely implementing this change in a copy of the level, then doing it again it in the actual level. Like in programming, everything is easier the second or third time you do it. Since I can only work at most a few hours a week on this project, I have to go in like a surgeon, or I would simply destroy a lot of work that would have to be redone over a course of weeks. Measure twice, cut once.

The styling and structure will be based off of a number of images and actual buildings, namely the Fisher Building in Detroit.

fisher_building

New indie game project: hatchlight

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Other Pastures

Please check out my new project, hatchlight. We are focusing on rapid development of ios games. When I say rapid, I’m talking 2 week dev cycles. One level higher than a game jam, and with the same goal of creativity.

The games are complete, though lacking a ton of content or really expansive gameplay. But we are structuring them for a long slow build, where each game can get new gameplay and levels as needed.

RLR

Our first game is called Rescue Love Revenge, and is already out. The game is an “Episodic Retro Indie Three-Act Spaghetti Western Platformer for iOS”. We had a freaking blast making Chapter 1, and hope that we get enough support to really flesh out the story.

Indiana

Our second game has no title yet. Its code name is Indiana, and it’s an exploration and collection game. The vibe is similar to many puzzle and adventure games, though we are adding our own twist.

Building a Community

One thing we are doing with hatchlight that we did not do enough of at Controlled Chaos is talking. We actively blog and share development, and already have half a dozen web builds posted. We also plan to be active in the Dallas gamedev community, hopefully we can make it to the April GameDevDrinkUp!

We came so far..

For those interested, Controlled Chaos is still around, but had to lay everyone off. It was a great 4 and a half years for me, coming on at the very beginning as employee number 1. In my time at Controlled Chaos, I worked on so many projects and different types of projects, I can only say that I’m thankful for the experience.

We started cchaos when the app store was still in its infancy and people would look at you funny when you said that you were starting a studio “to make iPhone games”. In addition to our mobile work, we were busy:

  • prototyped a first person shooter (that’s a whole ‘nother blog post…)
  • developed a potentially ground-breaking location based Augmented Reality quest game that was heartbreaking-ly cancelled
  • created The Quest to Lava Mountain nutrition-oriented zelda / metroidvania

and so many other cool projects for clients. Plus, aside from some major ups and downs, working at and building Controlled Chaos was simply a lot of fun.

Now the task of starting over. As we say at hatchlight, “We won’t make the same mistakes. We’ll make new ones, and it will be spec-tac-u-lar.”