I’m usually not a big fan of race games… But this one, simply can’t pass unnoticed!
It is by far the most realistic, and good looking race game ever made, I just can’t put into words how beautiful this game looks, here, take a look at this gallery, and/or take a few minutes, to buffer and watch to this beautiful HD real-time video of Gran Turismo 5 prologue, a PS3 exclusive! 
“Press the 
to view this HD video in fullscreen.”
Project Chaos ~ Sonic 3 & Knuckles OST Remix »« Max Payne, the beggining…
It was 6 years ago, July 2001, Remedy released the main reason why I’m here, why I love game developing and 3D so much, It’s graphical engine was stunning, great action scenes, bullet time, full blown cut-scenes, I was amazed, I’m obviously talking about, Max Payne.
It was only a year after it’s release, say around 2002 that I started modding. I was so intrigued by the possibility of being able to modify the game’s content that I actually began developing my own scripts, maps, and weapon for Max Payne. I coded new weapons for the game, new moves for the player and NPC’s, edited textures, HUD, and finally made my own maps…
That’s where I found my today’s greatest passion and dream job, level design. Max Payne’s editor was called MaxEd, the modeling tools we’re very basic, but with a couple of boolean operations one was able to create pretty much complex shapes!
Man, I spent hours, days, weeks and months in front of that UI, I was enjoying making maps, a lot, I knew that one day, I would be making levels for games for a living, since then, I never stopped, and eventually with the release of Max Payne 2, and a lot more complex geometry, I had to learn a third party modeling tool, 3DsMax.
I was working for Mission: Impossible – New Dawn for almost 2 years now, I was so proudh of the work we ad there, that in the day this mod gone gold, I actually opened a bottle of champagne and droped a tear of happiness.
I want to thank the remedy team for developing Max Payne, and have always been so devoted to it’s community, my friends aavenr, theHunted, ADoomedMarine, Corwin, StratonAce, and all the others, great people that I knew back on that time, and miss them alot, although we still catch up now and then!
Most of them have chosen the path of GameDev, and they are working actively in the industry as I am.
To finish, I leave here a tribute to both Max Payne 1 and Max Payne 2, to revive good old memories, to where it all started.
Max Payne 1 ~ Tribute
Max Payne 2 ~ Tribute
Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer team-based FPS, with strategy elements, currently being developed by Valve Corporation.
This game will not opt for the realistic graphical approaches, rather, it will use a more stylized, cartoon-like approach “heavily influenced by early 20th century commercial illustrations”. The effect is achieved using a special Valve in-house rendering and lighting technique making extensive use of Phong shading. The game will debut the Source engine’s new dynamic lighting, shadowing and soft particle technologies, among many other unannounced features, here’s a nice video demonstrating the technology used on Team Fortress 2:
I also suggest taking a look at the fantastic movies and screenshots available on the Team Fortress official homepage.
Max Payne, the beggining… »« Environment Artist: The Story Teller
This article is for those who’re looking to become a serious environment artist and not someone who wants to call themselves a ‘prop artist’, set dresser, or any of thing along that line for the rest of their career. You are an environment artist. Your role and title is to the overall environment. Not the prop.
A number of people have e-mailed me over time asking for comments & critiques on work they are making for their portfolio and every single time I’ve said the same thing: Tell a story.
When you sit at your desk and say to yourself, “I am an environment artist” what are you saying exactly? A few of you may say that you’re creating the universe of which the character interacts with, but the majority of you are saying you create props used in levels, maps, worlds, whatever you want to call the outlet. Are you really just that?
Are you, the environment artist, really the fire hydrant you’ve just made?
Or what about that crate with the “This side up” text on one of the sides?
Oh but it has a normal map (!!!), so you’re obviously kicking it up a notch and really expressing your creativity.
Those who believe themselves to be a “prop artist”, someone who’s job it is to create assets such as mail boxes, street lights, sandbag walls, etc., should be giving themselves more credit. Granted, you may just sit at your desk all day creating these small yet significant art assets. However, until you realize the contribution to the environment that they are making you’ll never be able to remove yourself from that role. I’ll touch more on this towards the end of the article.
(…)
Continue reading in the original article.
Thanks to AdamBrome
Here’s a small documentary about Doom saga, and the first person shooter’s origins.
Very nostalgic, just watch it, you’ll know what I mean…
Environment Artist: The Story Teller »« Crysis ~ Level Design
From the time it was announced, Crysis has got attention from the whole gaming community worldwide, by it’s great graphical engine and immersive gameplay.
Crysis next-generation graphical engine is just mind blowing. CryEngine2 uses many new technologies which are only just starting to show up in the world of gaming, none of which have been seen together in the same engine, for the first time in a single game you’ll have: dynamic day & night cycle, sunrays and diffuse transmission, Soft and dynamic shadows, motion blur, DoF, volumetric clouds, ambient maps, full interactive environments and also advanced shader technology!
I especially loved Crysis level editor, It’s amazing how quickly you can place geometry and tweak lighting parameters, and view the result real time, here’s a video demonstrating some of the most cool features of this engine editor. (In two parts)
Part 1/2 ~ (View HD version)
Part 2/2 ~ (View HD version)
If you liked that, and wanna see further, take a look at this 10 minutes video, about Crysis Level design.
I have always been a big fan of MGS saga, enjoy this tribute to MGS! 
Music: “Hanging” ~ Craig Armstrong
Footage: MGS Series
The Hows And Whys of Level Design, written by Hourences.
“The book covers both the visual and artistic side as well as the gameplay aspect of level design. Don’t expect any technical how-to tutorials in this book, this book is about the “why”. Rather than writing yet another tutorial/book about how to create a virtual room this book is about how to make that room look cool and play well. Expect tips and techniques as well as explanations of the logic and reasoning behind art and design decisions. How does the gameplay in a level work? What’s the reason this kind of architecture gives this kind of feeling or looks better in situation A or B? Why does this color combination work so well? What kind of floorplan can I best use to improve gameplay and why? What type of sound setup should I use? The book is well illustrated and offers many examples with pictures, nearly 120 to be exact. The book is intended to be universal. Most of the information can be applied to a wide range of games and different genres, gametypes, themes etc.” It’s a great book, and I recommend it to all of you guys starting to adventure in the fantastic world of Level Design!
Hey there.
I’ve thought of making a few changes on my blog.
So far, I only used this blog to post important personal stuff, well that mainly means that possibly it will pass weeks, even a couple of months before I post anything new…
But, that’s about to change. I’ve made the decision to make this blog a little bit more generic, but still specific to my professional area, that is 3D, Game Development, and Level Design for games.
I’ll be posting the most important news regarding mainly those three topics.
I hope you enjoy it, keep checking back!
Cheers
Level Design book »« Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work
