[UDK] - Dystopia - UDK Edition

I've spent most of the last two or so months learning how to use the editors, setting up materials, importing meshes and such, and I've mostly got it all down and sorted - I'm even talking with Errant about helping him get his Task Force 141 models into UDK. Since I didn't want to spend too long getting a project up and running, I figured the best thing to do was to redo my FPSC project, Dystopia, in the UDK environment. This would allow me alot more leeway with polycount, shader complexity, lighting etc, etc.

I have the backstory set out, as well as the general universe, I'm still pulling together the game's storyline, and ironing out the details - but the basics of the environments are sorted, and I've started to build the levels themselves.

Here are some of the areas of the first level I've managed to get done. Any and all criticism or comments are welcome - so long as they're constructive, I really want this to be something quite nice. It's set in a long abandoned and partially collapsed subway that is the home of a group of refugees seeking shelter from the silver devastation. I haven't tweaked the Lightmass settings yet, and I still need to make edits to some models, also I have yet to add in AI actors, but the general atmosphere is there...

A storage room/Bedroom:

A Machinery room:

An old subway tunnel - home to the bulk of the survivors:

Another Angle:

A shack built by Cally, the local scrap collector:

A refugee's bed on the rubble pile:

A lounge area on top of the shack:

I'm using only the best stuff from it though. None of that "I maed a zombee, it r mi 1st modull, so b nys!" stuff, Kravenwolf's stuff is going in, Errant's guns look beautiful in the short tests I tried, so they'll look even better all programmed in. Some other models are going in as well that I considered high enough quality, trust me, I don't want this to look crap - and that's what half my models library was...

If I get to that stage, I'll be sure to release a demo - or the full thing...

I fully recommend UDK to you, I reckon you'll do some awesome stuff with it. It's essentially a drag and drop editor like FPSC, just a little bit more advanced.

@Orrion

Thanks and no problem. Can't wait to see what you and your brother come up with! 

@Zemus

Thanks. This is a hobby project - I'd love to get into the game design industry though, it'd kinda be a lifelong dream. This project will be non-commercial for three reasons: 1, I want as many people to download and play it as humanly possible. 2, I don't wanna pay the £50 or so to distribute it commercially, as it is designed by an amateur 16 year old, so it won't have too much marketing appeal I'd imagine. This isn't gonna be the new Gears just cause I download UDK sadly. The 3rd reason is that I never really wanted to sell my first game, my ultimate goal is to get this onto the PC gamer UK, (and US perhaps, I'll see how it goes this side of the pond first), freebie disc. Doing that should get me realised as being capable of pulling together a good project and getting the ball rolling with it. Or at least, some brownie points on my CV for perseverance and initiative...

The full timeline is below:

But side missions were something I was definitely planning, the idea was the player would come across Memorex Cards, which hold the memories of the owner, once activated, the player would enter into that persons memories, (yes, I got the idea from Assassin's Creed), the player would then be able to play through secret side missions, and unlock extra items and such, (i.e., using a Card to find the combination for a safe, the code would be mentioned partway through the sequence)...

So far I had these ideas for it:

*A civilian whose car gets caught in the bombardment, and has to escape the devastation,

*A soldier in Africa, protecting a Genevieve reactor from incoming forces,

I'm open to any other suggestions.

As far as gameplay, I'm going to have ironsights once I figure how to program it in. Also, the player will be able to carry two healthpacks, which heal 25% health, and one Stem syringe, which injects stem cells into the user to reach 100% health. They can carry four weapons, a handgun, a rifle/shotgun, an explosive, and specialist weapons. I'm still drawing up the list of guns that are given in the story, and can be unlocked.

Also, the player can find armour vests lying around certain areas, but rather than them simply adding onto the armour variable, they will replace the current armour. So if you pick up a medium armour, with 50 armour rating, then get it shot down to 30%, it is still better to keep it than pick up a Light armour vest. Hopefully this should make the game a bit more tactical...

I also like the Memorex Cards idea. Although, like you said, it is a bit of a ripoff of Assassin's Creed, I think it has the potential to add a lot to the gameplay/story development (and flashback scenes are cool anyway).

One question though- are you programming this in UnrealScript, or going right to the C++?

I can't really find too many high detail objects either, my budget is pretty small...

Hopefully I'll have more screenshots soon as well...

I've been thinking about the setting for the game, as in the Pre-War setting. Technology took a massive leap forward due to the Il'Vari intervention on Mankind's progression. Because they advanced so fast, it cost vast amounts of money to advance this fast, so while the military and colonisation companies poured their funds into better systems for getting mankind onto other planets, life on Earth changed little, as the civilian sector had too little funding to advance the general living of it's inhabitants...

This provoked alot of riots and uprisings that the UN DOH was withholding mankind's advances to itself. This wasn't the case, mankind was simply not dying enough, so the only way to stave off overpopulation was to move the populace onto other colonies...

Therefore the general style will be a mixture of dystopia and utopia. I was thinking of having simple, post modern style of housing, with skeletal skyscrapers rising out of the landscape, (Triteree is considered to be a small town, whereas cities will be almost entirely made of skyscrapers to save space)...

"I'm getting more media in"

I began to rebuild the first level, because I realised I did it all the design wrong, I began with a bedroom/living area, then turned it into a subway. This time, I'm gonna do the opposite, as it should be.

I've completely started again. He first room, the bedroom, is done. I tried my best to make it feel cramped, and comfortless. Please give any more suggestions you may have:

Old:

New Shots:

Once I get a good amount of work ready and done, I'll grab one of the UDK forum programmers for a few custom classes...

Here's the generator room shot, I ma upload a vid with the more realtime effects shown:

I decided that it would take too much work to get a third person system working, there's just too much that you take for granted with an FPS that needs doing...