Perdy Lights

Wow, week 4 already.

This term has been a strange blend of hectic and relaxed.  While I don't feel any immense pressure at the moment, I also don't feel like I have much- if any- free time.  There's always always always something that needs to be worked on.  Level design, general homework, lighting, modelling.  The only reason I'm writing this blog post is because I'm waiting for lightmass to build in my UDK map (there shall likely be screenshots later this week or the next once it's done.)

This term we've moved into our streams, for Art I have 3d Modelling and Lighting and for Level Design I have Level Design 2 and Environmental Level Design.  Level Design 2 focuses more on the gameplay aspect of level design while Environmental Level Design focuses more on aesthetics and theme.  Both classes mesh really well with the lighting class, where we pick one of our UDK levels and work on some aspect of the lighting, from making sure there's a clear foreground, middleground and background, to guiding the player through the level using lighting, to using colour to set the tone of an area.

Besides streams we all have general classes, from Detailed Design Docs where we create a design document for a game in painstaking detail to User Interface Design where we learn the basics of designing a GUI to Mobile and Handheld where we look at the booming market for things such as iPhone games.

I'm really enjoying lighting especially.  Good lighting can do so much for a level, it blows my mind!  I'm also pretty excited for the next level design assignment, which is to basically create a single player game in UDK.  I think I'm going to go for an Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider type theme.  Jungle, Temple, Artifact, the whole shebang.

Also: Game Design Expo!  Tickets have on on sale and I'll likely be purchasing mine on Thursday.  Will have to take that day off work, but the slight hit to my wallet shall be well worth it.

Well, I think that's enough brain vomit for now.  Though I could swear there's something I am forgetting.... hmm....

Oh yes.

SKYRIM!!
Gah! I want to play it.