First Team Project & Finished Level

This was one of the first team projects I had the opportunity to work on. We were in development for one month in June 2011 to July 2011. I worked with Renee Wooten, Mark Sanders, and Ricky Warden. We used the Unreal Development Kit June 2011 version and Microsoft Visual Studios 2010 for development. The theme of the level is a jungle temple invaded by the robot enemies in UT3 multiplayer. Since I attend college classes online we worked remotely. The option of working locally was not available. It did prove to have it's own set of challenges.

I had the responsibility of working as team lead, lead level designer, programmer, and quality assurance tester. Being team lead was probably my most important role because of scheduling and planning work schedules, team meetings, crisis management, and over all management of the project with our lead programmer and fellow design student, Mark Sanders.

We did get pretty lucky with a team that had a wide range of skills. I had the most experience programming and the passion for level design. Mark had the most UDK skills at the time because of his vast time tinkering with it. Ricky was a solid beginning design student overall and was the person in the group that kept our heads on straight. Renee has passion for story design, immersion, and aesthetics. This was what really made this project work.

The hardest part of development was the little experience we all had in the Unreal Development Kit, Kismet, Microsoft Visual Studios, and designing in a team. We had a lot of trouble throughout development mainly because we were in the dark about UDK's level streaming. This lead to some work shifts lost, required reworking of the project more then we would of liked, a few kismet warnings, and a laggy level throughout development and at the end of development. The level just has way too much to load at once and chugs along on non-gaming rigs. I have attempted to fix the issue a few months back, but with my new knowledge in design and the workings of UDK I will have to see if I can rework the level to run smoothly.

So without further ado, below are some screenshots of our level. I would like to thank all the members of my team for making it a great experience, great gameplay, and aesthetically pleasing.

(Level Start)

(First Hall / Break In)

(Main Hall)

(Hidden Rocket Room)

(Courtyard)

(Tomb)

(Bunker Room)

Game Download

On a side note, my website is finally under development! I will keep everyone updated through Twitter, Facebook, and here on my blog. I am always looking for talented people to work and network with. Feel free to follow this RSS and my Twitter feed, friend me on Facebook, and connect with me on LinkedIn!