This past week I found myself filled with a strange, new-found creativity which has resulted in my getting quite a bit done! Edit: You will never know.
I am currently working on a level called "The Pit". Despite its name, it is one of the only levels to feature any sort of outside environment. I have finished with making the rain look pretty and have moved on to more story-related endeavors at this point. However, one thing that I have begun implementing in terms of level design that I like a lot is decals. I had been tossing around different ideas in my head for how to make my levels look a bit more organic, and I finally discovered a very handy feature in UE4 that allows you to paint textures onto other textures (aka decals). I immediately set to work creating some nice-looking (in my opinion) cracks and dirt and am happy with the result! I'll attach a couple of screenshots here:
You can find a couple other screenshots not posted here if you click on that "images" link near the top of this page as well.
In the two screenshots I attached to this post, you can see the before and after of my decals. They really are subtle after you actually fill a room with various things, but you can see that it adds some interest to the scene and makes it much more organic-looking. This will be a great tool that I will be utilizing in future levels as well as some areas I already put together before.
I am also working to make more things intractable. I want the player to be able to examine all of the objects and sights around him, as they all have a unique purpose to the story of Troy and Sarah. I don't want any part of the game to seem random or unnecessary, and I believe being able to understand things in the world from the character's point of view is an important immersive element in any game!
Thanks to all who have taken an interest in my game, as always have a fantastic rest of your day/night :)
