Things Inspiring My Next Project

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I think I have finally discovered that I care more about making beautiful and interesting worlds than I do about gameplay. Ok care is the wrong word because I care a lot about gameplay but, when it comes to what I love to make its the worlds themselves. So I am really shifting my work and portfolio towards environment art.

All that said I am super pumped about the next project I am starting and its definitely going to cover some new ground for me and let me work loads more with the cry engine which I have to say is my new favorite engine. Anyway I made this post to share some stunning projects and games that are inspiring me loads lately.

Amir’s Portfolio Environments

Not only is it some of the best looking terrain I have seen to date in the Cry Engine but Amir  has also done several hours worth of video tutorials covering how he went about making it. The multi page thread over at polycount is more than worth a read.

Journey

The art style in journey could be called simple and complex both at the same time that and the straight forward and basic nature of the gameplay is something I am going to keep at the front of my mind.

Dear Esther

I raved not stop about this game ever since playing the original back when it was a half life 2 mod. Now its one of the best looking games around and the best looking game made with the source engine in my opinion. The narrative really is something else though.

Shadow of The Colossus

Got to be honest and say I have never finished this game but, the world and the colossus that live in it never fails to inspire. The vast landscapes really captured me.

The First Day of May

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Thought I would take a break from my last few days of uni crunch and diet of dominos pizza, fast food burgers and Indian takeaway for a blog post as its been awhile. I am currently putting the final touches on some assignments before I head back home for the summer towards the end of the week.

Sadly university work has taken up so much time over the last month or two its been impossible to get started on new projects, wile I have stuff in planning not much has actually been made since I finished my entry for the last world of level design challenge at the start of march.

However come the end of this week and after I have taken a bit of a break I can get back into the flow of things and get some content flowing. The long summer break tends to be my most productive time of year so I expect to get a fair bit done.

Knowing much more about scripting than I did this time last year I am looking forward to working with the UDK iOS tools at long last.

Housekeeping

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The Site
If you have been to the home page any time in the past week or two you will have noticed that I now have a proper portfolio, even if the content is still a work in progress. I will be adding to it loads over the coming months but, I felt it was time to get something out there.

Second I now own mattnelson.co.uk and it points towards my portfolio the same as matnelson.net. Also if you head to mattnelson.co.uk/blog it will direct you here. I will continue to use matnelson.net but, plan to push the .co.uk as my primary.

This leads on to my third point. We will be moving hosting services some time over the next week if all goes well. Nothing wrong with the current one but, I have been offered some server space from a friend.

World of Level Design Story Challenge
I am very happy to announce that I made the final 5 in this challenge via the public vote and the top 3 are now being picked by the WOLD staff. Very pleased to have made it this far, will update will more news as soon as there is any.

WOLD Story Challenge Entry Featured

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I have been working on an entry for the world of level design story challenge these past weeks and to my surprise it was featured on the home page of cry dev today! My entry also featured in the recap blog post on world of level design its self. Still working hard on my entry to get it all finished in time but it was a very nice boost to see all this when I woke up this morning.

You can follow my progress here.

 

Codecademy

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Thought I would give this very cool site a quick word, as its all in a very good cause. If you ever had real issues trying to understand programming books and tutorials this will solve all your problems. It will pretty much take you right though learning Java Script from the very start and gets into quite complex stuff later on. It’s all done in a very nice web 2.0 style, with Foursquare like badges to collect as you go.

 

 

 

 

Its the same guys that are behind the 2012 code year, well worth checking out if you want to learn some code as everyone should these days.

 

2011 In Review

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The years are going quicker i swear yet the summer feels so long ago now, maybe the wind and rain blasting against the windows as a type this don’t help things. So yea 2011 was one of those all right years that wasn’t bad but, I also didn’t do anything massive.

Got some pretty cool maps done over the summer and realised the error of my ways on a L4D map that was taking forever and I just threw away in the end. Want to and have to change things going forward. First of all planning is going to take a much more important role in everything I under take. Its far too easy to just scribble a quick layout on paper and jump straight into source and unreal. I really need to think about each prop and corner of the map if I want to get places with this. Been reading a new book called Pre production blue print that is helping me out a lot.

I did start to get serious with a bit of code towards the end of the year and now know the basics  of unreal script. I still really want to take a look at iOS app development again and am in the planning stages for an app I would like to make.

At the moment I am just working on some short projects to see the year out and things I can finish during my holidays. Once that’s over I can look at what I am going to under take, trying to do several things at once also does not work as I know only too well.

2011 Games In Review

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Back again with my review of 2011 games. Its a complete list of every game I played in 2011 with a score for each one. Enjoy!

Dead Space 2 – 4/5

Bulletstorm – 3/5

Rift – 2/5

Dragon Age II – 3/5

Homefront – 3/5

Crysis 2 – 4/5

Portal 2 – 5/5

L.A. Noire 3/5

Bastion 5/5

From Dust 4/5

Deus EX: Human Revolution – 5/5

Gears of War 3 – 4/5

Ico Shadow of the Colossus remake – 4/5

RAGE – 2/5

Batman Arkham City – ?/5

Payday The Heist – 3/5

Battlefield 3 – 4/5

Uncharted 3 – 5/5

Modern Warfare 3 – 2/5

Skyrim – 5/5

Halo Combat Evolved Remake 5/5

Minecraft – 5/5

Star Wars: The Old Republic 4/5