Chris Selig

An experiment in animating modern art has gone terribly wrong! Is there no one who can stop this abomination? What will it take to bring down such a powerful and terrifying freak of nature? According to the latest logistics received from Half-Life 2: Deathmatch officials, no one has come even close to matching this creature's agility, intelligence and strength. In a statement released last Friday from casual gamer Brian Chiu, Brian proposes that perhaps a "well placed sniper shot to the head" may defeat the beast. Danny Pan, an experienced gamer agrees with Brian, but suggests a more forthright approach to the situation in the form of a crowbar to the face. No matter what the strategy may be, hundreds have been fragged at the hand of this monster and only time will tell whether of not it can be defeated.

Here is my Modern Art model for HL2: DM. Let me know if it doesn't work... my computer did something weird when I zipped it.

Download file

There is a free mod download for Half-Life 2 on steam. It's called Rock24 and it's very well done. The level of detail is amazing. Check it out.

Here is a little slide show I put together with screen shots taken from the first level (intro):

Slide Show

I was wondering if anyone had any idea as to how to create a spherical level. My idea is to create a spherical level in which everyone is constrained to the the "floor" and has to look up to see their enemy. The hard part is figuring out how to make the damn thing. Any ideas?

Also, I was wondering if anyone has checked out my Rock 24 slide show and downloaded the mod. Any comments?

Old School Made New

Idea: Design and create a multiplayer level pack for Half-Life 2: Deathmatch. Recreate first person shooter multiplayer levels using Hammer. Games sampled from would include: Doom, Quake, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Halo (1), and others to be determined. The number of levels would depend on the amount of time allowed.

Concept:

-          Mod

-          I have many fond memories of playing older first person shooters with my little brothers and my friends growing up. Bringing them back into this new generation of technology would be fun and challenging.

-          Any technical aspects of a level, such as doors that open and close upon user input, that are beyond my programming ability will have to be redesigned to accommodate my skill level.

-          My final product will be a package of levels that resemble as closely as possible the classic multiplayer level designs of the before-mentioned titles. The video will be from the perspective of a 3^rd person camera that follows the player (me) around the level, demonstrating the various design aspects. Although I would like to leave time for the whole class to test the levels on the last day of class.

Technical:

-          This mod will be built using HL2: Episode 1 (SDK) for HL2: Deathmatch. It will be based on several games as was already mentioned above.

-          I will utilize skills learned in XSI, Hammer, and Photoshop to create the levels with accurate representations of objects, dimensions, and textures.

-          Using primitives other than cubes within Hammer will be required for some of the level designs. I will need to work on learning to use those. Also I will have to learn how to successfully import and object into Hammer from XSI.

-

If I cannot import models from XSI I will have to build
them within Hammer or utilize any available prefabs.

Schedule:

-          Friday April, 25^th:

·         Complete concepts and test importing models.

·         Compile an archive of reference material for levels.

·         Build test level within Hammer to try out models, textures, spacial dimensions, and cameras.

-         

Friday May 2^nd:

·         I will not be attending class (ask Danny).

·         Have completed most basic level designs: primitive structures, item/weapon placement, spawn points, and proper dimensions.

·        

Start to work on textures and basic programming
(doors, lights, special effects, etc.)

Sketches

-          Original Layout
Original Island
Original Structure

(sorry about the layout mistakes, I tried to do this blog in html... i need practice)

So at this point I have altered my final expectations for the final project: instead of attempting to design and create multiple levels for deathmatch, I will concentrate on a single one. I chose to go with a level that was originally in Halo as "Wizard" and later redesigned for Halo 2 as "Warlock." It's general layout is a generic symmetrical multiplayer map with four distinctive bases. What makes this level special is the many lines of sight that allow players to target opponents from almost anywhere on the map. Strategic use of cover, height, and the teleporters is vital for success in this map. It will be interesting to see if this translates into Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, after all, the master chief has abilities that the characters in HL do not.