Level Design

In terms of level design, I have a general idea of how I want my map to appear. The aim is a dark-themed building in a concrete style, for an abandoned atmospheric approach that I will achieve with the use of lighting and textures/materials.

At this stage, I have not decided on the details of the layout which will require more of a detailed plan. I want to create the base of the building so I can become familiar with Unreal and learn what will be realistically available and achievable before I begin designs that will never be executed. The main purpose is to build an area for the player to move around in and use this as my building block for the project.

This is the downstairs. I have achieved creating the building using Unreal's Geometry Box. With the Scale Tool located in the top right-hand corner, I was able to resize the box to a reasonable size of a building. By selecting the box, In the details panel is an option to make it "Hollow" under the Brush settings. This made the inside of the box open space, meaning I had four walls, a floor, and a ceiling. I could then add a floor in the middle of the box to create two levels of the building.

Using another box, I scaled it until it was almost flat but wide enough to create a second floor. With the materials included in the First Person Shooter pack, I gave the floor and walls a concrete style. I was able to access the materials using Ctrl + B, then with the surfaces selected I simply drag and dropped the material onto the object(s) in the viewport to apply them. The alternative method is to edit the material in the details panel with the object highlighted.

I used the curved stairs supplied by Unreal, but the position I wanted the stairs made it so the player hit the wall as soon as they entered the second floor. To get around this, I created a box that the stairs could join onto to make it appear more natural. It took a long time getting the sizing correct, matching it up and also matching the material up to make it look like one object.

Eventually, after tweaking the transform values for precision I was able to match the sizes and positions to make it look like one object. Afterward, I created another box with the Subtractive brush type selected to remove a section from the flooring. This made the entrance from the first floor to the second.

At this stage, I am far more pleased than I had expected. Creating the basic building has been simple in terms of technical skill, and I think I perhaps spent too much time getting carried away making it look realistic. The materials supplied in Unreal are a fantastic range to getting started and my level appears visually impressive and gives off the atmosphere I was hoping to achieve.