A modest level created in Unreal Editor, simple enough sounding brief, but upon closer inspection of the editor I found it took some time for me to get to grips with its controls, especially the actors side of it.

Waiting patiently for my copy of Unreal Anthology was painstaking indeed, and upon its arrival I quickly underwent my design ideas for a sewer pipe/waterworks theme for my Unreal level. However after pouring hours into creating and concept, I found it lacked any real game play, too many long corridors and not enough going on. In addition to the lack of interesting details I found to keep with a sewer theme it was dark, and I did not want to create a level of black areas with shadows, I liked the way unreal allowed me to express light into the game play, and it was during this exploration that I encountered a nice mix of tones that inspired me to change my original concept from sewers to a more fire and ice theme, with the use of blue and red lights reflecting off reflective surfaces.

I continued to build my level testing it with a good friend who loves Unreal the game with a passion even these many years after its release, I found Jonathan Summers, a friend of some ten years and a graphic designer by trade to be an invaluable source of information regarding what he liked in a level, his experience of playing unreal levels by far surpassing my own.

As I brought my level I assumed near completion to one of the final lectures, it became apparent that the level had many bugs as yet undiscovered, laggy, moving textures that I was using to keep the fire and ice theme flowing becoming too much for the fast flow of a fps. Bots also seemed to be needing tender loving care, as well as the addition of more player starting areas. Back to the near drawing board I went, bringing a new feel for the level by extending what worked within the level throughout. A reflective texture from the side of a trophy (one of Unreal 2004’s own textures) was then brought to the level rooms, the lighting continued, and I renamed the level from Fire and Ice to that of Mercury, in keeping with the new reflective feel.

There are many ideas I wanted to explore in the level designs, gravity being one with a space dome idea being one, however after previous problems biting off more than I can chew with new programs, I decided to keep within my limitations. I enjoyed the assignment but I doubt I will make many more level within Unreal, my love for the game is not as strong as it probably should be to place so many hours into its creation of a good level, however the experience has enriched my knowledge of what it entails and the ever important rule of “test, test, test”.