The Creation of the Game Level.

As you know for this module we have been asked to create a level for a game environment. From the titles we were given  chose the Alien Crash Site. I milled around ideas in my head until I decided upon a basic storyline to describe the events which would unfold during the scene

Broad Audience: Mature
Mood: Eerie & Foreboding

A man driving a red pick up truck is making his way down a road winding down a mountain. He comes upon a massive evidence of destruction and a large hole in the fence bordering the mountain trail. The man gets out of his vehicle to investigate (this would be where the player starts playing). The man then picks  his way through the mess continues down a slowly sloping path bordered by broken earth rocks and grass. As the man advances down this path he begins to see shards of jagged metal and smoke rising from a mysterious looking vehicle

            There appears to be nothing alive around the crash site, nothing but debris and earth, but then the man then turns to examine the rest of the area and turns around to see an aliens head impaled into the ground by its spine .

Starting hill with the truck the player arrives in 

^The above has had alterations where the scene did not come out as expected. Such as the long forrest path was impractical to do due to walkable game space available to us. I started with a blank game environment in unity and began to mould the hill which would be the starting point of the game. 

The ship ground to a halt after hitting the hill

The alien crash site brief did not specify how it had crashed so i decided that instead of it having just hit the ground I thought it would be better to show it had it a lip of some sort (the edge of the hill), crashed through it and slowly ground to a halt several metres in front of it. I thought this would add more realism to the scene rather than it just be a spaceship in the ground.

After completing the ditch and run off from the crash i decided the stock terrain around it was too flat so i used the raise/lower terrain tool with the opacity turned down (this stops the edges of the hill becoming too steep) and brushed lightly over the ground so there was slight bumps and mounds. This had a profound effect on the realism of the scene.

The bumps and hills in the scene have made it look like a real forrest

The next step was to start texturing the ground. I did this using the paint tool and applied the 'GrassyRock' paint to the whole environment. This was to be the base colour for the environment and the other paints and colours would then go over the top in their correct places. 

The next step was to add the colours in their correct places, this meant deciding what kind of soil or texture to apply to certain areas which would differ in reality. I found the texture forrest floor which was ideal as there would be a lot of trees to be added later on. For the groove the ship caused when it crashed i used a combination of good dirt, cliff edge and grass. This combination helped me achieve the goal of making it look like stuff had been thrown in all directions showing the impact of the ship in the ground. 

The good dirt shown a lot in the main ditch area. The top right shows the green of the forrest floor 

After applying the paint to the ground i need to add the trees. I imported some more trees from a terrain package and started adding the carefully to the scene. I had to make sure there were little to no trees around the crash area as they would have been destroyed in the crash and probably burnt. I used 'ScottsPine' to create the bulk of the trees and then added 'BigTree' and various others to give a more varied forrest environment. I then looked at the scene and realised that forrest was still really empty and needed some more things to pad it out. I then added some random bushes and plants to give an accurate representation of a forrest, i then added some rocks making sure to put more around the crash site, and the ditch itself.

The combination of all the colours in the paint textures makes the forrest look so much more life like

After adding the natural assets i decided to move on to adding the key features of the scene: Firstly i imported the red pick up truck i use to insinuate the way in which the player arrived in this place. I then added the spaceship and carefully placed it into the ditch. After placing the spaceship i realised it had gaps between it and the ground. I rectified this by using the raise tool so it looked like the nose of the ship had been partially buried under the debris. 

        The next step was to add the aliens head, first time round I had it dangling from a tree by the end of its spine, but on reflection the head was not in proportion to the tree so instead i impaled it into the ground using the spine as a support. I then imported the alien ray-gun and placed it just behind the ship, as i did with the head, so it isn't instantly visible when you start the game. 

The crashed spaceship

The final stages of this scene was to add a skybox to give the scene sky. I first used an 'eerie' sky box to give a ominous effect but then after testing i found a sunset one which worked a lot better as the fading sunlight casts a strange yellow-orange light which turned out to be a lot more eerie than the eerie skybox

Sunset skybox was a much better idea

The final stage was to add fire, smoke and sounds. I created a particle system and edited the attributes  to make a more intense flame like the one which would be produced in an engine fire. I then added billowing smoke just above the start of the fire. I did this for two engines, one just had smoke and the other was left empty, to give variety.



The creation of this game was actually a really rewarding experience and the final outcome was much better than I originally expected. If i was to do this again i would remake the pick up and add more detail to it as well as creating an entire alien and the inside of the spaceship.