On a Rail 2 - The Wedding

(on 04 Mar 2008 by PogoP)

Hey guys, this is my second devblog since I joined the team a couple months ago. It’s been a really crazy few months, with exams and other commmitments, but work on OAR is coming along nicely by both Talia and myself.

It’s been a really good experience working on BM. The team is very professional and gets stuff done efficiently, and everything they make is of a very high quality. My level design skills have really developed and had a chance to flourish whilst working with these guys; I’ve picked up a lot of tips and tricks.

Anyway, the real point of this blog is to focus on the elusive ‘On a Rail’ chapter of Half-life, not to brown nose the team. I’ve played OAR literally dozens of times since joining the team, and I now know it better than the back of my hand. If ever there was a question about OAR in a pub quiz, I’m your man. (or a questionabout ‘On A Gondola’ as ‘Bluseychris’ christened it – that quote is in my signature on the dev forums. Congratulations!)

I really like the atmosphere portrayed in OAR in HL, it really had a gritty, abandoned feel to it. It is this quality that I really wanted to emphasise in the BM version. Lighting is key to the gritty atmosphere, so I retained most of the colours from the HL version, whilst layering new schemes over the top where appropriate.

The one thing that I foresaw as a problem in OAR is how much ‘tunnel’ there is in the chapter. There’s literally miles of abandoned tunnels, which was left very bare in HL. In the days of Goldsource, this was acceptable. However, times have moved on, and with new engines comes a higher requirement for detail. Therefore, I broke a lot of the tunnels up by having little walkways and alcoves off to the sides that show this transportation network was actually thriving and used for something at one point in time. I also added a plethora of ventilation ducts and piping systems along the walls and ceilings of the tunnels, which really helps to break up repetition.

Here’s a couple of screenshots that show what I’m on about. There will be a HL screenshot followed by a BM screenshot. Please do bear in mind that these shots are still WIP and are likely to have a lot more detail added to them in the future!

That about wraps up my devblog for now. I’ll finish it off by showing you guys progress on the area I first showed when I joined the team. On the left is before, on the right is after. You can really see how my time on the team has developed my skills.