UDK Demo Dev Blog Part I

Part One: Conceive, Design, Plan!


When I started this project I had a clear defined vision in mind. When I first set my eyes on this dark cavern, I wanted to make it as eerie as possible. The whole concept of this empty mine didn't make me think of waring mining companies or the battle over precious metals but rather the discovery of something horrible. I saw the crystals poking out of the ground and thought "Where are these coming from?" and my mind ran with this concept into darker areas.

*Click on images to enlarge them*

Central room of cave

An interesting reverb and ambience will be used in the water area

I imagine a commercial mining company venture turning wrong by the discovery of something new and unsettling. The caves were empty because the miners had been driven away by something they couldn't understand and this is what I wanted to embody with the map.

Large Crystal

Crystals in tunnel

My first and strongest way of achieving this concept was the crystals breaking up through the ground from below. I wanted players to be mystified and scared by the crystals. To achieve this I made the crystals speak. I wanted eerie sounds of whispering and warbling energy to emanate from them. I wanted the crystals to hint at the horrible secrets that had been discovered in the mine shortly before the miners all fled in Lovecraft-ian horror.

The tunnels will each have their own ambience and reverb.

Other side of central room.

The second way I wanted to achieve my unsettling aura was through the ambient atmosphere. Not only did the crystals whisper but I wanted the whispers to echo through the whole cave as well, so every dark corner called to the player making them feel like they were never alone. I wanted to apply a sense of danger as well by using ambient cave in stingers that make it seem as though the cave might collapse at any minute.

Metal tunnel ways will require a  separate ambience and reverb.

My final challenge was to bring all the ambiences and stingers together in a way that wouldn't clutter the map too much. I often find that horror is achieved well through proper use of space. The player needs time to breathe and think.

For all the rest of the sounds, I didn't want them to be too over bearing. I wanted the weapons and hover board to sound organic and not too abrasive. I wanted to leave room for the level ambience to shine.

My first step towards the creation of this project was to write up a Design Doc of all my ideas for the map and an Asset list of everything I would need to create.

You can view them through the links below

UDK Demo Design Doc

Asset List


Click here for part two:
UDK Dev Blog Part Two: Creation!