Project Bedlam

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Preface:
I don't think I can do this project justice IMO, not with my current skill set anyway, but I have been scheming and planning on this for a long time, (4-5 years at least) so I am gonna attempt it anyway.

Project General Description:
A map (yeah all this over a map) for UT3 set in an abandoned insane asylum I am currently calling Bedlam sanitarium which is a word that originates with the first insane asylum Bethlem Royal Hospital.

The target mood is a grungy gritty industrial gothic and steam punk mix. Everything around you is in a state of decay it's mainly dimly lit and kinda creepy in details.
See these links for visual reference.
http://fibreciment.deviantart.com/art/Tannery-123863503
http://fibreciment.deviantart.com/art/Octopus-161282894
http://fibreciment.deviantart.com/art/Moon-162374333
http://fibreciment.deviantart.com/ar...Hall-137612532

I'm going for... blood running down the walls in places, cabinets filled with gibs/body parts that fall out when opened, blood running from faucets and shower heads, screams coming from the furnace, muffled screams and thumps coming from inside the body cabinets (vaults?) in the mortuary, apparitions when lights are turned out, ...

The layout is split between a main hall/reception area and 2 wings that have 2 or 3 floors plus an attic and a basement. It needs a furnace/boiler room with rusty old machinery that even though the place is long dead is still running for some reason. It needs an infirmary. It needs a morgue. It needs a therapy room with an electric chair (shock therapy). It needs a kitchen. It needs dumb waiters and creaky stairs. It needs booby traps relevant to the scenario, like falling in a hole or blowing up a steam pipe... things that can also be strategically manipulated to ones advantage during game-play.


Research:
The above files were taken from here I have allot of other photo-source that I will either be listing or uploading to my website and posting links for the interested. As well as blueprints for some old sanitariums and allot of collected history on such places.

http://fibre.morkitu.org/
http://fibreciment.deviantart.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlem...m_and_archives
http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/bu...greystonepark/
http://www.google.com/images?q=aband...art=40&ndsp=20
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cemeter...7622968172142/
http://mythrus.wordpress.com/2010/02...insane-asylum/


If you want to help let me know about it. For my part I plan to do this totally for the fun of it, if you want to pad your portfolio or profit from it in some other way thats legal, I am cool with that. All assets and content will be copyright of their perspective creators will be sited in the readme.

If you have the skills and want to take lead on this project I will gladly turn over the reigns I have no problem with that and would relish the opportunity to work with people more skilled then myself. Which in point of fact is probably many people here.

Comments/advice/critiques on the idea/project please post em.

Some good inspiration in this vid...

[AWW SNACK]

So you want everyone to do the work for you?

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Originally Posted by AWW SNACK

So you want everyone to do the work for you?

O.o No. Kinda how mod projects are generally made by multiple people.

[Arnox]

I think the Painkiller Asylum level would be a good example of this.

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Originally Posted by Arnox

I think the Painkiller Asylum level would be a good example of this.

That was a pretty good example but that was a linear gameplay map for singleplayer (I don't recall it in multi anyway).

I am going for a more realistic approach with a horror movie style vibe/twist. The painkiller asylum level had a kinda cartoony vibe because large parts were unrealisticly laid out and it was a less modern engine that couldn't handle the details UE3 can.

My intention is to create a multiplayer expieriance that brings a dark creepy dangerous interactive enviroment. One that spins history and existing myth.

For example...
A back door with whisky barrels that can be broken that spill liquid and a corpse because med schools needed them but getting them was difficult and in some cases illegal so they would stuff cadavers obtained from grave robbing or people who died in asylums into whisky drums and bring them into the schools where the cadaver would be removed. However if it was left in the barrel to long it would often burst at the belly creating the term 'rot gut whisky' appearently some people actually put the lid back on the barrel and sold the booze.

[Arnox]

Maybe you should start with the bare bones of the level and then get help from there.

[[GU]elmur_fud]

I am starting at the begining. Concept>research>concept art & theoretical layout> basic geometry> etc...

I am currently @ concept art & theoretical layout. But I keep adding to the previous areas as things progress

This is kinda a dev blog is all. With a few notes on the fact that I don't think I am quite up to the challenge I am undertaking, but I am still going foreward.

My biggest problems: 1. Creating custom meshes with normals as I am a lightwave modeler and I haven't been able to get the update that ads normals to it's skills yet. 2. Scripting, as I have never been good at code. And 3. Animating things.

So I have allot to learn basiclly.

UT2k4 was a breeze for me. Lightwave was natively supported and my modeling skills were very adequate for the engine. UT3 with it's heavy reliance on scripting and normal mapped high poly models has been a royal ass kicker for me.

[G.Lecter]

Your project seems too focused on visuals and atmosphere... that's perfectly fine, but if you start to think a UT3 map from the looks of a blood-splattered wall, the gameplay is very very likely to be crap. You may want to move to UDK and make something more based on exploration and interactive environments... way more suitable to your idea, IMO. Your creepy hospital doesn't sound like a place where one would like to see rockets and shock combos...

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Things out of place I.E. weapons players and pickups don't really bother me since that is the kinda an underlying tone in UT's. They are tournaments staged in odd arena's, think tokara forest, didn't seem a problem for most people there.

I don't have anything against the udk but that would complicate things much further as to makeing it playable.

My biggest chore with gameplay is managing flow, which isn't as hard as some people think if you start with a logical architectural basis. Basicly I am drafting floor plans for my own asylum with thought to how people are gonna move. Though with UT we have jumpads and other mevement mechanics that aren't a fit with reality. This allows me to warp reality while keeping the realism.

Yeah allot of people have quit playing this game but maybe this will bring 1 or 2 back.

Note to my previous comment about lightwave and normals; I have a work around in place that allows me to make normals using nvidia melody, zbrush, the nvidia photoshop filters. The problem there relates to my skill level not the tools specificly.

[Delacroix]

Lack of proper gameplay? Blah, blah, blah. Asylums CAN have proper gameplay for DM. There is evidence.

F.E.A.R. had an awesome Asylum-themed DM level. If you do not own FEAR, get the free FEAR Combat and you can check it out there. See that for reference, guys. Elmur - keep the gameplay as solid as in the mentioned level, but don't forget the mood - BAM! You got your success.

[silentlykiller]

wish you good luck with the project
is sound good so i cant wait
go crazy with this map xd

[[GU]elmur_fud]

These aren't overly well done but they give me a referance point to work from.




Concept art to follow in a couple days I hope.

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Ok. Update. I have been struggling with bsp. My cousin and brother, neither of whom map at all, said I should scrap the work I have done and restart as additive.

To that end I have 2 questions.

How do you apply a skybox in additive?

and

Is additive really any better perf wise? I have read several tutorials on the subject and they all claim it is, but don't list any reasons it would be.

Also as a after thought I recall reading something about a sub to ad convertor. Any1 know anything about that?

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Sorry about the bump. But it looks like somebody either found allot of the same source art or read this thread though the game style is not FPS.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/ha...-asylum/718881

I would have gone a little less dark in my map and the visual bonuses of the UE3 would have made a better looking product IMO but the overall style would have been the same. Though I don't think I would have been so direct in pulling elements from those pics.