So, what are you working on right now?

[Obsttorte]

Didn't you say that Penny Dreadful should be a series of small missions

[Melan]

Wellllll... the original plan was not very big... except as usual, I estimated the dimensions of the gameplay space badly. Things got carried away from there.

 

Still, I'd say it is still a medium-sized FM. Larger than the first one, though, more complex, and (regrettably) much more demanding on hardware.

[Goldwell]

That screenshot looks fantastic! Question about the book shelf, is that a custom bookshelf you made with a flat faced texture for the row of books per shelf?

[Melan]

Yes, it is using a set of bookrow textures which were made for the campaign, and for some reason, haven't been released yet. I hope they'll soon see wider distribution, because they are great.

[Digi]

So while everyone else is building submarines and sprawling epics, I started my first actual map today. I'm aiming low - it's a knockoff of Thief's Den 1 (from Fidcal's tutorial) - but I hope to change/add enough features that it can act as a standalone mission. I don't want an identical mission, I'm just using it as a guideline. But I have a save game of TD1 after I've cleared the guards so I can pop in-game and view stuff for reference. I also aim to turn the levels primary house into more of a middle-class estate, so there's a bit more design work to be done on the interior.

 

Something this small would take most of you only a few days. But it's glacial progress for me as I try not to get ahead of myself. I'll provide screenshots as soon as I have something worth showing, and with luck I'll having something close to beta in a month or two.

 

Or I'll flame out and will be the latest in, I assume, a long string of one-and-done wannabe devs that have poked around this forum before disappearing. Hopefully not, but my hopes are modest. Wish me luck!

[Sotha]

Best of luck!

 

It is a good idea to start small, and try not to be carried away. For first mission, it is a also a good idea to stick with interior locations. Fully completed scene requires a lot more work for exteriors than interiors.

 

And, remember, you can always do a google image search for reference pictures.

[demagogue]

The first time is always dead slow for everybody.

There aren't really shortcuts than just doing it, and your next time will be better.

This is why it's very smart of you to make your first one small.

You know going in you'll make some mistakes and might have started differently, but it's ok for a small FM, and then the next one you do you'll know what's good from the start.

[Digi]

Thanks all! I'm focusing most of my effort on the primary house itself, so it's mainly interior stuff. There will be a couple streets, and 1-2 nooks & crannies besides the main house, but the plan is to provide most of the outdoor scenery via prefab buildings, so that I don't get caught up in it too much. I've successfully completed about 90% of Fidcal's tutorial (minus a few things that I don't plan on implementing, like the elevator), so I know I can do the basics. Putting it together into an attractive level will be the challenge.

[Sir Taffsalot]

 

I'm finally back after a long mapping break. I've just started working on a new map. It's going to be a good old classic manor heist. At the moment I don't plan for it to be anywhere near as big as the VFAT maps but hopefully it will bring you guys an hour or so of fun.

Edited May 25, 2014 by Sir Taffsalot

[Goldwell]

Oh that is awesome news! Manor heists are some of the most fun to be had in the Thief universe (in my opinion) that and bank jobs.

[Sir Taffsalot]

What I like about building manors in TDM is that unless I win the lottery, I'm never going to have enough money to live in one so making my very own manor in TDM is the next best thing IMO. You don't even have to worry about exceeding your budget unless you come close to breaking the brush, patch limit in DR.

Edited May 25, 2014 by Sir Taffsalot

[Springheel]

Is that one of our trees?

[nbohr1more]

Is that one of our trees?

 

Yes, I'm pretty sure that's one of Nosslak's trees that made it into TDM 2.0?

[Sir Taffsalot]

Is that one of our trees?

 

It sure is. Awesome model is it not?

[ungoliant]

hella nice use of the skylight. Scene gives me a real FB&T vibe too. Can never go wrong with that

[Sotha]

Bomb trap? Trap bomb?

 

http://youtu.be/RijyWotXXXU

[Airship Ballet]

Science!

[Goldwell]

A screenshot from my upcoming FM New in Town (which is a different story line to The Accountant series)

 

[Obsttorte]

custom skybox?

[Goldwell]

custom skybox?

 

Yep

[Obsttorte]

Looks cool, but it may be more fitting if you desaturate it a bit. Hard to say from that screenshot, though.

[Goldwell]

Looks cool, but it may be more fitting if you desaturate it a bit. Hard to say from that screenshot, though.

 

The sky is like that because of a story related reason. You will have to wait to play the mission to find out why

[Digi]

http://imgur.com/jO5oS2J

 

I'm not ready to post screenshots just yet, but this is a top-down view from DR of my first FM. I've got the basic architecture done, and have started filling in some areas with larger details that will grab the player's attention. There's still a lot of small stuff I'll need to add to make the world believable, and I've not plotted out my lighting yet either.

 

My biggest task at this point is the main house/yard (at the top of the image, with the spiral staircase inside). While I've done a lot of work on the bottom half of the map, I've barely touched the upper part.

 

I'm also foreseeing an issue with my sky and map borders. When I didn't use prefab houses, I cheated and just made a wall enclosure around the neighborhood that the FM takes place in. But there are places where, logically, the player should be able to jump out despite the height. Or they can look down from a high-up vantage point and see sky where there should be ground. I need to tool around with Fidcal's Startpack to see if I can incorporate the "distant city" texture from it. I don't want to completely surround the area with prefab buildings, but that's a worst-case scenario solution if needed.

 

Working title is "Best Served Cold", though that seems fairly cliche to me. It will likely change.

Edited June 2, 2014 by Digi

[grayman]

And so begins WS4: The Warrens ...

 

A very early WIP screenshot, just outside Cleighmoor's SW gate.

 

[Digi]

You guys will appreciate this. So I'm testing my map and checking out my latest additions, and I have music from the Thief games playing on my computer to keep me in the right frame of mind. So I'm checking stuff out, and I start to hear footsteps, and suddenly a guard says "Who's there?!" and I hear louder footsteps of a suspicious guard. My mind started frantically trying to figure out what was going on. Never mind that I have no guards in my level yet; I snuck into a dark corner and started looking around for him.

 

It took me a good 10 seconds to realize it was the music. Tail between my legs, I laughed and closed out of the map, having received quite a scare. I'll just chalk it up to being fully immersed in what I was doing.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Digi