Frontiers '08

Today was the last day of Frontiers, a summer program where high school juniors and seniors come for two weeks to see (kind of) what college is like. I've been doing this for 14 years now in some capacity. The last three years I've been teaching the Art component of the IMGD "major."


That means we have a week and a half of two hours per day classes. I speak for the first hour and then turn them loose on the computers for the second. They design and build Unreal Tournament 2004 levels. I have a TA (hi Eric!) who actually remembers much more about UT2004 editing than I do.

The gang did much better this year than last year. Basically everyone had a playable level. They could all probably use a bit more polish, all the level properties set correctly, a screenshot from the level displayed in the menu, more stuff on the walls, and some set dressing, BUT they were all fun to play. At the end of the day, that's all you can ask.

And really most of them did it in about three days. You see, first they have to work through a video tutorial making their first level. That's most of the first week. The UnrealEd software is really user friendly and easy to pick up. So what did I do differently this year? I stressed a process for level design. It's pretty simple.

Dean's Guide for UT2004 Level Design (applicable to other games too):

1. Have a theme. What is this place? What is it used for when guys with big guns aren't running around gunning each other down there?
2. Draw it out on paper first. It's much easier to erase and redraw a line than it is to replace a hallway or resize a room.
3. Lay out all your gross architecture first with a default texture. It doesn't have to look good at this point, but it should be almost playable.
4. Position all your gameplay elements. Those are spawn points, weapons, health, armor, adrenaline, liquids, and movers (elevators, conveyor belts, pits).
5. Light it. Quick and dirty. Don't fuss over shadows.
   
6. Playtest, playtest, playtest.
7. Repeat #4.
8. Apply textures to everything.
9. Place static meshes to make the level look like a real place.
10. Relight, adding colors and effects.
    
11. Polish: add music, original sounds, level info, etc.

And that's pretty much it. Most of them ran out of time around step 8 or 9, and probably still need more playtesting.

Now I wanted to post a screenshot from each level with a brief description, and maybe a link to all of them. Eric made a pile of CD's so the kids could all take home the work they did, and included one for me. I got it home to load it up and start taking screenshots and found my CD was blank. I'm hoping that it's an anomaly and that the rest of them actually have something on their CDs.

I'll post them as soon as I get them.