Week 15, Year 2: New Year, New Project.

First thing Monday morning, we were presented with the 'container city' brief. Working in groups of 4, we have 4 weeks to create a level in Unreal Engine, using modular shipping containers as a base. A good example, and likely inspiration for this project, is the container city in Brink.

Not wanting to waste any time, we quickly got into groups. By the afternoon, we were sketching out ideas. To kick things off, we sat down and came up with a bunch of ideas that were completely mad; all involving enormous ship wrecks, or downed space ships; or copious amounts of dead scientists and escaped aliens.

Discussing themes and sketching layouts.

Once that was out of our systems, we began to arrive at some more sensible options. So with the goal of arriving at a final idea, we created a mood board.

An idea that seemed to stick, was attempting to steer clear of dystopian clichés as much as possible, while still meeting the brief. We began to think along the lines of run down, yet homely; claustrophobic, but cosy.

'Making the best of a dystopian situation.'

The next step was refining our initial level ideas, and creating a playable white box. After a few runs through the level, we all agreed it was a good starting point, so Anya took some screenshots and we set about doing some paint overs.

However we still weren't settled on a theme and wanted to keep our options open, so I created a template that would allow everyone in the group to further explore our top three ideas.

Container City, theme template.

I then set about creating a bash kit. These are very early versions of the 'Lego bricks' that will make up our level.

By Friday, we had a playable level and the start of a unified design direction. It's been a great first week back and our group has had an excellent start on the new project. 

I'm really pleased, and confident that we can sustain this pace to create something we're all really proud of.