Conclusion

When I first begin the design, I immediately know what i was going to build. A simple environment that's both relaxing and beautiful. I begin jotting down my thoughts and knowledge so i wont forget and create the level step by step.

The blueprint of the map and character's back story were a challenge. When a character appears in a level it is linked to curtain object within that level; A witch with a hut, a mayor in a village and more. After the story and blueprints comes the easy modeling and textures as you putting your imagination into reality creating the pieces one by one and walk forward. Between times, there will be times when I feel lazy, lost or have no motivation, it was a struggle getting myself back on my feet again. But once the level is finished, the thing I was looking forward to has became reality; the feeling of joy and achievement is overwhelming that everything I did and the time spend was worth it. The level maybe completed but i still think there are a lot more i can do to improve, making the level better.

Once you started on something, don't give up and give it your all to finish it. Follow your thoughts and dream and create a road with your imaginations.

Constructing the Level

After all modeling and texturing are completed, it is time to put everything together and construct the map. All objects and textures, and sound are imputed into the Unity program and creating our map.

The first step to creating the map is to have a base, a terrain. Shaping the terrain corresponding to the blueprint and scale out the height, length and width to suit the models when placed.

This is the map after the terrain has be Terra-formed, and just suited the models created and scaled to the right size.


Constructing the level is like connecting puzzle pieces together once you have all the materials you need, each objects you have belongs to a part of the map.

Once the models are placed, the terrain itself needs to be colored as well. Mountains, grassland, hills ,forest and beach have to be textured.

A view of a level coming to life with colors, the river and sea had been added to boarder the map up transforming the terrain into an island.

Continuously adding a piece of the map together, sky-box, grass, lighting, lens flare, trees and other assets, the map will be reborn-ed into the creators imagination.

The finished screenshot of the map with all model, texture and assets input and ready to play.

Textures

All games have colors, textures to identify the object of what it is, this map i have imputed a few texture which has been tilted to suit the mapping by using Photoshop.

Some textures are imputed though the help of Unwarp UV, to help adjust the edges and side of the texture.

Wood texture for walls on houses

Wood textures for walls or boxes

Wood texture for walls

Some image have not been tilted but still fits the object perfectly.

I have use the to texture wooden poles and support

This texture here is the straw grass used for the roofs

Texture for stone, hard surface objects

Lens Flare, Alpha image Grass and Skybox

In the game there are some assets or background that helps improves the game play, like the weather snow or rain; background day or night and water, tree, wind and grass.

In my map i have added the following to enhance landscape of my map.

The first i added in the sky-box, having a sky-box will make your map have a thing to look up to then just simple blackness.

Secondly i had place a lens flare in the air, directly centered and beneath the brightest spot in the sky-box. this will have the effect of the sun is right where the brightest part is and threes a reflection of the light shining on your eyes.

In games their will be grass sometimes, but being a simple picture or texture will be dull. So unity have an asset of grass in Alpha Image. This makes the grass more realistic as it moves with the wind and 3-dimensional view.

Modeling

With the knowledge of what to build and how the lighting works, I'll be moving on to create the models essential for the map. While modeling it is important to know how long will the model take to complete and which models are more important to the game. This is distributed into a priority list.

Top Priority:

My top priority is the mayor's house, which is large and detailed.

High Priority:

The Shops are next in the Priority 

Medium Priority:

Followed by Witch's Hut, bridge and the barricade fences.

Low Priority:

The Arbor and Well are both low poly objects which are easier to model and less time consuming so they're modeled last.

Assets:

Last few models are assets which is not necessary needed in the map, they are added to enhance the surrounding.

Lighting

Ever games have some sort of way to show lighting. May it be the sun from the sky, a candle light or the shadow of the trees. In my map I will be adding a directional light as a indication of being the sun, the light will be placed near diagonal top making the time around 11 AM or 1 PM.

This is an example of the lighting, some place are bright and a few place are darker.

The light will cause shadows on the objects and assets in the map and making the landscape more calm and relaxing.

An Example of a game using lighting to create a realistic environment.

Blocking the Map

Once the blueprint of the map is completed, we can move on and block the level up. Create boxes/shapes on each location according to the blueprint fitting the objects with the appropriate scale.

The Steps to Blocking up the level is shown below:

First step -
Place the image of the blueprint into the 3ds Max

This is how the your image should look like.


Final Step -
Drop the Box and shapes.

The box has been place on the location shown by the blueprint.