Offbeat Geek

The last twenty one days have flown by.  Naturally Christmas and the New Year played a big part in that.  It finally dawns on me that it is well into 2010 and I’ve not written a single post in the new year!  Shocking, I know!  I am not going to say whats happening as there are a few little surprises in store over the coming two months.  The website is going to be a little more focused. Seeing as I am both Game Developer and Web designer the site will be restructured to reflect these paths and make navigation a little easier.  The loaner theme will be vanishing at some point.  A fun project with Stargate, spanning 214 days, is also in the works.

I will be back posting the release of DM-Malevolence next week and adding the odd bit of news which catches my attention in the mean time.  In anticipation of  Aliens vs Predator  I’ll say: Stay frosty!

DM-HOLP-Takk finally out!

Download now!

After being rebuilt not once, but twice, DM-HOLP-Takk finally sees the light of day.  This is a Harcore Oldskool Low Poly style map with 1on1 in mind.  For those who don’t know (if there are any of you out there), this is a  custom Unreal Tournament 3 level.

Takk, Norwegian for “Thanks”, is dedicated to the community members who helped to keep the HOLP2 Portal Site alive this time last year.  Personally moved,  I created this map to immortalize these individuals.  So today, it’s Thanksgiving Day! I give you DM-HOLP-Takk!  Enjoy!

Edit: This post was meant to be published automatically on the 26th at 12pm GMT but typically wordpress decided to ruin my day and not publish it.

Cells for the special few

After about two weeks the new and improved DM-HOLP-Takk is almost ready for public consumption. It will be released before or on thanksgiving.  This will be my first map with custom audio effects and uses more decals than all of my previous maps combined. The picture above (larger version) is a teaser of the prison cells which were created as a thank you to the individuals who helped keep the old HOLP 2 website alive.  Stay tuned for more info on on DM-HOLP-Takk!

Old Pic New Map

For the last couple of days I have been locked away working on the bits and bobs for DM-HOLP-Takk. It has been a VERY long time coming but the wait is almost over.   I am hoping to have it done before a certain game is released this month. The video footage is also progressing along nicely and will be ready in time for release too.

I took a whole new approach to the way I built the level.   You will get to see it as I release the VTMs about the map’s construction.  Hopefully they will prove useful to some of you out there.

For those of you here for Industry news, I know I’ve been lacking somewhat. Sorry. For now this map gets all the free time I have. I’ll be back with more industry updates and news again soon!

This is a preview of “The Making of a Hardcore Old-school Low Poly Map”. The video will show a custom Unreal Tournament 3 map being created from scratch at speed.  The final release will also contain highlights of what I am doing as I progress through the map. The music is courtesy of Yppah. Thank you Joe!

After this video is released there will also be a set of real-time videos with commentary showing exactly how the map was made for aspiring level designers.

The Wheelman

I know this game has been out a while now but seeing as it is the first game that I had the pleasure of being a part of I just had to mention it!  I worked on 2 of the six “Balance of Power” missions.  Working in the industry was an experience, one I wish to repeat again soon.  I had the distinct pleasure with some very talented individuals.  I’ll be adding a catalog of the games I’m credited on which I hope will grow to be a nice, long, and hopefully good, list.  In the mean time check out “The Wheelman“, available on PC, PS3, and XBOX360.

My new HOLP map in the works

I’ve been busy at work on my thank you deathmatch level for Unreal Tournament 3.  The map, “DM-HOLP-Takk”, is set inside a prison and gets it’s name from the Norwegian word for thank you.  Release is around the corner.  This map will honour the kind folk who helped keep the original HOLP website alive after it took a 200GB overflow in bandwidth.  Each of those kind folk will feature in the map environment.  There is nearly more work outside the playable area than there is in it.  I’m excited about how this one will turn out.  All going well it will see both a PC and PS3 release. More to come later!