hi there! because i can't work on my regular maps because of this runtime error i still have i started a new one.
it's a small town that was attacked by zombies. the player has to find people in the city and bring them to the safehouse where the player is safe.
just a small game with multiple ways to make levels. save hostages from the houses or collect stuff.

these screenshots are the first version after 3-4 days. i have streets, fences and houses. now i start with the smaller things like traffic signs. in the end i will put up a lot of trees. i need a working, finished game i will make some new sound effects for the zombies that i will offer here for free in a few days.
how do you like?

Looks nice.
Maybe some more entrances on the fences to allow more freedom of movement across the map?

ha lol yes of course i have put up fences and hedges all over but i haven't opened the walls yet. i need to do that i will use some gates or arches for that.

nice map nuncio, the lighting is great too, must of taken some to do that map. nice one.

Quick observations.

Too clean and symmetrical, you definitely need to add a bit of clutter and "wear and tear".
Some more foliage, there is barely any, definitely add some grass, some flowers and shrubs.
It's a pet peeve of mine, but roads aren't flat, they slope to the sides.
While it is definitely harder to slope roads even give them a gradual incline, as roads would in real life, perfectly flat roads, make for a troublesome design, it is definitely much more complex to create a road system that better echo's what you will find in real life, nor is it always possible, it is also a very hard thing to get the right structural depth.

A quick example would be adding the bridge you have in the background and move it to the middle of the town, would block the players view and add considerably more to the scene.

The way around it is to obstruct as much of the players view as possible, with clutter cars trees and other things when it is not possible to do the above, the object is to draw the attention away so the player doesn't notice the road being awkwardly flat at times.

Definitely in the right direction good job.Towns is hardly the easiest of jobs !!!!

thanks!! yes i'm not finished yet. i will add some vehicles, clutter and lots of foliage but i will do that when i have all the other things. yes, the roads are too perfect. where i live the roads are way different
i still have a lot to do but just to let you know i chose to show some screenshots although it's not finished at all.
i'm not sure if i should add some little fog in this scene.

fog would help the atmosphere, and help with pop up if you are using occlusion. As you know most of my stuff uses dark fog, that way you can make the terrain draw distance shorter too, and therefore increase fps. Looking great so far.

thank you! i tried with a little fog, not too much. the framerate is terrible

i have worked on the town, trying to use the feedback from you. new screenshots. the town is almost finished but i can not use it in one pice, it's too large. i will make 2 or 3 levels in different parts of the town. i think i will put up some blockades to make a path for the player and in every level i will have different way to go

Nuncio, you're a games making machine, great job !

^thanks

here i have new pictures from a new map. i have decided to change the scenery into a bombed out wasteland. i have more damaged ruins and broken buildings now. it's still missing some clutter and small parts. these pictures are still at an early stage.

Looking Good! The building layouts are nice and believable. Just a question for my own future endeavors - are you taking any frame rate hits on such a good sized area being populated with models?

thanks i have all sliders on medium (for the screenshots i set it on highest) and i have a framerate of about 60 - 80. at some spots the rate drops down to 15 but most of the time it is all running well. i still have no clutter, small stuff or zombies. i used to have a map that was the double size before and there i had about 10 FPS all the time. without zombies. that's the reason i did this map again. smaller.

That's pretty good Nuncio, well done, I've been trying to make a town scene myself for some time, but everything just ends up looking too level and flat, and the horizon looks empty.

Any tips you can give me?

For example I notice your ground isn't all level, what's your process for placing roads and houses etc?
Do you make the ground randomly bumpy and use U to "cut" into it with your models? or do you use some other method?
I notice the skybox you use looks like it has trees around the edges, which skybox is that? I've been looking for one just like that but the only ones I can find with trees have huge trees that make it look like your a tiny man in a giant world,

thank you! very nice to read!

this is my about 10th try to make a city. i have / had the same problems. too flat. when i make bumps i can't place the houses and buildings like i want to. it is a hard struggle
in this map i have an all flat terrain. i couldn't do anything else because i used the streets and they need a flat ground. you just need to create the illusion of bumps. i changed the texture of the ground. the basic is a dark green grass, then it becomes a brown grass, than sand and finally broken concrete. i used the concrete instead of the mountain texture. i can't do big hills with this anymore but it's okay. you need thinks that stand in the way so that you can't see that the terrain is flat and looks like it's infinite. bushes in different sizes are also very good for this. trees are also good but i had to cut some trees from my map again because of the FPS rate.
in the graveyard i have different grounds heights: i have a flat terrain. then i make a very small hill and use the flatten tool to bring the height of the hill all over ther area. then i cut a way with the original height through the little hill and there is a way. the rest can be made with textures and grass / bushes.
for houses i never use U because this can ruin a complete map.
when i have placed some buildings on a flat map i usually take the terrain "lifting / lowering" (?) tool in the smallest brush and do some very small clicks on the area whe there are no buildings. just everywhere you can need a little bump.
about the skybox. i have downloaded this skybox from an artists page and built it myself. it is kinda easy to do but i'm not allowed to publish the skybox here in public. i dan't know if i'm allowed to send it to you. i can tell you the link where i found it and there are about 50 great skyboxes that are very easy to import into GG. i will search the link and tell you...


edit:

here it is!

http://opengameart.org/art-search?keys=skybox

new stuff from the industrial part of the town

the industrial zone from "safehouse" is finished i would say. i still need interior for some buildings and finally the lighting. framerate is around 30 - 40 with all sliders on "highest". when i put in some zombies the framerate might be dragged down dramtically, i must be careful not to overkill the map with stuff.

Wow, very nice job on the city Only thing is that when you put AI and stuff in it, it will run slow Hope they fix more performance. Keep up the good work

Your use of clutter objects is really really good in these screenshots, Nuncio

thank you guys!
i have new screenshots from the sewer level in "safe house" this was from another project but it is better here. i think it might look good after lightmapping!!

new level for "safehouse". this is a recycled level from a previous game i called "deadly chase". i took this level from there (parts of it) and rearranged it for this game.

another one. i had to split the game into many small levels because it was too slow and didn't work

Thread unlocked at OP's request.

This is looking great nuncio, amazing layouts for the city and industrial stuff.

^thank you!!
i have new gory screenshots. this is in the "hospital" level.

this is map 2 "supply" with some zombies. i'm not really happy with the behaviour of the zombies. they ignore waypoints and sometimes they don't want to attack, they just stare at the wall. but i completed it anyway. i'm thinking about runnig a lightmapping but i don't know how much it will slow down the game.

The basic zombie script don't have waypoint functionality, but in small's script thread (at least I think it was in there) there is a zombie script that follows waypoints.

^thanks, i will take a look at this!

a new screenshot:

10 Levels and almost finished:

Mission 1 „Alive on arrival“
Find the safe house, follow the burning barrels.

Mission 2 „Supplies“
Find supplies, follow the burning barrels.

Mission 3 „Hospital“
Find the hospital and bring medical supplies.

Mission 4 „Railway“
Find the way to the yard. The key to the gate is lost and must be found.

Mission 5 „The yard“
Follow the railway tracks and find a way into the tunnel to the harbor.

Mission 6 „Harbor“
Get through the harbor and find a way into the old factory.

Mission 7 „Engine parts“
Collect engine parts and escape through the sewer tunnels.

Mission 8 „Sewer“
Escape the sewers!

Mission 9 „School bus“
Find and repair the school bus.

Mission 10 „Diesel“
Find Diesel and enter the school bus.


EDIT:
i have a question. i have just found smallgs script for zombies that follow waypoints. is there a way to attach this script to zombies that are already set in a map without selecting everyone separately and changing the script manually? i changed the scripts in all FPE files but in the game they still have the old scripts attached ("properties")

Phew !!!

You really know how to make GameGuru look good ...
Your Level design is excellent !!

^thank you
i am about to change all zombies with a new script. the script by smallg is working much better but i can't change the script on zombies that i already put up in the game. when i change the script in "properties" it doesn't accept it and always goes back to the script attached to the zombie FPE so i had to make all new zombies. now i added some realistic sounds to them.
it will take a while to replace all but it will be worth the work.

strange, this was supposed to be just a small game and now it's more work than i wanted to have

this game is almost finished! i have all scripts, all zombies, music, sounds, markers and so on. here are some pictures.
i guess lightmapping will not work it's already really really slow.

Looks neat!! Interesting skybox you have there.

I think this title could use some color grading and maybe a few retextures to improve the mood. Other than my usual nitpicking: good work, looking forward to checking out the gameplay.

thank you i made the skybox from pictures made by a swedish artist so i guess i may not share it with you i think i will make the game little brighter. what would you suggest for color grading?
the game is almost finished i will soon post more pictures and maybe a playable version as well

"safe house" is finished now and i'm about to work on some videos, here are some shots!

I'll be interested to see how these screenshots translate into video. Either way, very impressive!

yes, this video is just a slideshow! now that i can record videos i found out that 3 slideshow pictures and one video and then slideshow again does not look good it will just be slide show of stills like the ones above. i'm working on it and in a few days you can see the intro video to this game. it's almost finished, my first finished game!

the intro. cheap effects but okay

Lol! Pretty cool. I mean, its only still images but the way you put it all together really works



-Wolf

thanks yes, i now have 3 videos. an intro (the one up there^^) a video in the middle and a very long and big outro with credits. the game is getting more and more finished. now i'm working on putting it all together. the sewer map is still a lot of trouble.
lightmapping does not work so i will make this game without lightmapping.

finally i finished the last map of "safe house". i had to make lots of changes to make it work.

this is the official trailer