Tying things together

This weekend was a good one. In-game testing revealed that the level I had termed as 'functionally complete' in my mind (the one mentioned in the last post) had some issues that had to be ironed out. One major problem was that the important interactions and areas were all in one side of the area - which means there was no reason to have the rest of the level. I spent some time reworking the structures and adding a small sub-quest to the area to accommodate that.

The other issue was that the level almost extended to the edge of the level grid - which meant I needed to have some way to block the player from going past the green box without it being too obvious. One simple option was to place an area transition there but it didn't make sense. I ended up with a solution that, if I say so myself, makes me quite happy! It is one of those instances that go against the player mentality when playing games like these. I am throwing around ideas to see if I could tie this in later with subsequent plot points but that's undecided at this point.

Here is a screenshot of the level - it is now officially complete except for texturing and additional vegetation work. Comments welcome!

Leeward, as you see it when you enter it

Next up is to do 3 more cutscenes in this area. Now that I am relatively comfortable with the cutscene editor, things should go along pretty smoothly. One of those will be a very complex scene and I am not even sure if the animations exist for those. If not, I might have to get creative with the camera angles but I will be asking for help in the BSN forums before I go that route!

Till later...