The blockout phase is one of my favorite parts of making a level.
It’s like sketching out in 3D. You get to define the way your map will be played, with pushing and pulling all sorts of shapes and spaces.
It’s one of the most creative parts of the entire process.
The project started out really rough. I knew what I wanted, but it was all still very vague.
I quickly ditched the BSP system for just making meshes in Blender – it was more convenient, and allowed for quicker iteration.
I knew I wanted a completely symmetrical CTF map, where the dressing of each side would be completely different.
Fair, but not boring.
Here is where the spaces started to take shape, where I knew how I wanted the level to be played, what kind of situations to create.
Mood and lighting start to come together too – the symmetry turned out to be very interesting.
It’s always good to not get stuck on something for too long. That’s why I modeled plenty of props during the blockout phase.
I like to create a material with a grid projected onto it and a color on ceiling, bottom, and sides.
This way I don’t have to deal with materials and UV’s inside Blender, while I can still define the look of my environment.
I think I have a good idea of what I want now – time to work it out.