Ben Matthews - Environment Artist. Building the Level.

Now that I had built a basic Grey Box and some assets I began building up the actual environment itself. Building assets and researching old architecture had really helped to expand the vision I had for this level and the game as a whole. Unfortunately I hadn't received any concept artwork for the Environment at this point so I decided to press on without it and design the look myself. I started to form a clear image in My head as to what I wanted the level to look like. I then set about building upon the Grey Box.

Throughout this process I was constantly checking whether or not the level and assets fit to scale with the player model. I used Ewan's reference boxes to do this.

The first thing I did was change the layout of the pillars on the upper balcony area. Before there were many pillars in such a small space. Now there are eight pillars. I built the new wooden pillars to fit in with the overall theme of the game. The pillars are also low poly so they shouldn't have too big of an impact on the final tri count. Spreading them out also allows more room for the player to navigate the space. 

I began looking at the level layout at the same time and responded to feedback from the game Designer. The grey box worked well however one of the corridors was slightly too narrow. I corrected this and also moved the position of one of the doors You can see below. This was to help improve upon the game flow. Now when the player enters the downstairs corridor from the main entrance they have enough room to move and aren't immediately confronted by a door. This means instead they see a corner, this will hopefully build upon the atmosphere of the game as the player won't know whats around the corner.

The next step for Me was to place in all the doorways so they can be coded to open and close. I built a single doorway, a double doorway and a main entrance doorway. All in an old fashioned style. I will cover these assets more when I come to the texturing stage.

The most important part of the environment though that I built were the stairs and clock in the main entrance. I wanted the main entrance to represent wealth and have a sense of awe surrounding it. Back in the 1910's it was standard practice for someone to demonstrate their wealth through their possessions. This included their home/ buildings they own. Since this level is a public or privately owned library it would make sense for the owner to try and build a grand entrance to try and impress guests.

Here You can see the main stairway along with the entrance to a secret room.

I placed pillars around in the corner of each room to give the building the illusion of structural support. It also helps to fill the space and make the rooms feel more realistic.

You will notice in some of these screenshots blocks in the shape of people. I made these as placeholder characters to the exact scale given to us by Ewan, our tutor. This allows Me to build the level to the correct scale, and to make sure the assets I create are also to the correct scale.

I added in a fireplace to conceal the entrance to a secret room. This will form part of a puzzle when the game is complete. The renders I take here are also for the Game Designer to get a good idea of possible camera angles.

I finished the Grey Box by adding in all of the windows, and building the outside of the tower. the final thing I did was to place in the spiral staircase. And the banisters within the tower. I will cover this step in the next post.