Archived from the original dev blog and left as it was written, so it reflects the game as it stood in 2008.
I decided today would be a good day to post a new dev blog about Gasworks. Mainly because you deserve to know what is going on in the world of BM.... if we want you to 😉
That being said, when we begin work on level we obviously go through the orange mapping phase, and in some cases areas have to be added to levels to begin to make them look remotely realistic. [See gasworks before, and below] The whole front facade to gasworks was made to make the whole factory seem more interesting, and used lots of reference from a trip where a few BM guys went to an abandoned power plant.... good times....
Anyways, when working on gasworks I decided I wanted to try to have some more balance in the gameplay on the surface. It was a lot of fun holing up the top floor of the 3 story building, but I wanted to add some new dynamics to the gameplay which are under testing. [Please understand they are UNDER TESTING, so please do not flip out]
Some of these changes range from small things like adding small traps in here and there to spice the game up in duller areas, and some are as far as the main change to the front of the 3 story building. Originally it housed a rocket launcher, and the player could trip mine the ladders, secure the top and camp away. Though this was fun and I did do it myself, I thought what if I make it a little harder to camp by keeping the rocket launcher indoors, but the extra ammo outdoors. So what I decided to do, which is barely visible in this screenshot, is that if you are on the top floor you may run out the right side [facing outwards towards the level] and go down a set of steeps to the stoop of a smaller building. This area has 2 rockets, and I think I added a small battery for a little extra bonus. This now forces the player to show is ugly head in the heat of battle, potentially making this a lot more fun. However it could also make it too hard to camp and no longer fun.... play testing will prove this true or false.
Another thing you can notice in this shot is the additon of the catwalks and pipes as compared to the loading crates. When working on this area I decided it needed a change from the cargo crate yard feel to something more industrialized. I went in and took the footprint of the old objects and added brushwrok in to fill the old footprint. Then I modeled it out in 3ds max, after which it was passed back and forth between artists until we got that final prop. This provides a different look and is a bit taller then the normal crates which may provide extra protection, but it should be enough to still make navigating this area fun. One thing that will be tested for sure is the catwalks on top of this area. Though they do look nice, it was added for extra vertical combat, but may make this area have supreme protection from snipers and rockets from above, which lets face it is no good. More to come on this later.
On to new things like caustics. We of course haven't implemented real caustics, but we have a very convincing approximation made by our rockstar texture artist, Mark "Jenn0" Bing.
I decided it would look nice if Gasworks had some of this effect in the bottom area due to the fact that it is filled with awesome water. I got our sweet ass texture and applied it to invisible planes, and wrapped them around. I am still currently tweaking visablility values and colors so it is by no means final, but something I wanted to share.
Keep in mind ladies and gents, these are VERY wip shots. I am still working on this level while helping with other chapters, and have work to do to visuals and gameplay, but hopefully some finalized shots will surface in the future.