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Table of Content:
Introduction:
Day 1:
Idea
Research
Reference
Floor Plan
Concept Work
Day 2-4:
Geometry & Modeling
Day 5-6:
Texturing
Day 7-8:
Lighting
Day 9-12:
Lighting
Sound FX
Visual Effects
Final Touches
Beta Release:
Releasing the map
Feedback
Final Release
Recharging:
About the Author:

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INTRODUCTION

How to Create a Map in 11 Days

Following is a day-by-day guide of how I created a map in
11 days using Unreal 3 engine. Whats important here is the
workflow, so if you have no desire to map in Unreal 3
engine, thats fine. This workflow can be applied to any
game or engine.
In December of 2008 I set up a challenge for myself to
complete a full map in 11 days.
Reason I chose 11 days is it was the number of days away
from New Year. When I decided to take on this challenge it
happened to be December 20. That is why it was named 11day challenge.
I then decided to let others know of what I was doing. I
made my personal challenge public. So I published on the
forums and had my website set up to post day-by-day play
of my progress.
If I would have told myself I want to do a map in 11 days
and didnt keep a public journal then it probably would have
been unlikely for me to release this in 11 days.
By making it public I created a deadline. I had to finish it.
People were watching and expecting me to release
something at the end of 11 days. I had to keep my word.

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My main focus was to push my artist and technical skills

in learning Unreal 3s terrain and custom model
importing. I would either succeed or crash-n-burn trying.
Either way I would learn and share my experience. I
posted daily and shared what I was going through.
This was such a great experience that I am looking
forward to do something similar to this in the future.

LEARN LEVEL DESIGN AND GAME

ENVIRONMENT ART

http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/

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COPYRIGHT AND LEGAL INFO

11 Day Level Design is Copyrighted 2008-present. WorldofLevelDesign and
11DayLevelDesign are trademarks of Alex Galuzin. . All Rights Reserved.
Other brands and/or product names are the trademarks of their respective
owners.
11 Day Level Design book is not endorsed by any developers or companies.
11 Day Level Design is a free ebook shared with others to educate and inspire
how to become a better level designer and game environment artist.
No part of this document or the related files may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise)
without the prior written permission.
You may not reprint, republish, alter, translate or reproduce this book or any
part of it in any way or any language without an explicit written permission.
You may not distribute this book or any of its embedded content.
Limit of Liability and Disclaimer of Warranty:
World of Level Design and Alex Galuzin makes no representation or warranties
with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and
specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any
particular purpose and shall in no event be liable for any loss of profit or any
other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental,
consequential, or other damages.
Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as
possible, but no warranty or fitness is implied. The information provided is on an
as is basis. The authors and the publisher shall have neither liability nor
responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising
from the information contained in this book or from the use of any software.
Sharing this Document:
11 Day Level Design is copyrighted 2008-present. All I ask from you is to
please do not share it, but send anyone who wants a copy to World of Level
Design.com so they may download it for free the same way you did.
Trademarks/Attributions:
This book identifies product names and services known to be copyrighted,
trademarked, registered trademarked, or service marks of their respective
owners. World of Level Design and Alex Galuzin is not associated with any
products, services or vendor mentioned in this book.
Unreal Engine 3, Unreal Tournament 3 2007, 2010, Epic Games, Inc. and is a
trademark or registered trademark of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of
America and elsewhere. Maya are a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc.
Photoshop is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. World of
Level Design is NOT affiliated with these companies in any way.
WorldofLevelDesign and 11DayLevelDesign are trademarks of Alex Galuzin.

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Prior to Day 1
Planning was huge for me. I always dedicate certain
amount of time to properly plan. That plan often changes
once I begin working but the initial beginning that I plan
out has saved me time, and made me finish.
I planned out on what specific days things had to be done
by, mini deadlines. I needed to utilize each and every
single day to its most effective level. Each day I need to
be moving forward and have significant results to
showcase. 11-day mapping was about producing results.
Planning, Time Management Breakdown:
First thing.
Create and set a deadline.
I set a deadline of release at - Jan.1, 2009, beta version.
Its important to set a deadline and know when you
expect to be finished. This forces you to work on what are
the most essential and important tasks. Planning this out
in detail also sets you on the path to success.
Also once you have a plan you have to be flexible. So the
plan is not set in stone, but it is a guideline to follow.
If I didnt plan this out like I did and had faith in myself of
sticking to the plan I would have not completed the map
when I did.
The schedule eliminates a lot of unnecessary behavior
what is known as analysis by paralysis.
In my case it would include the search for perfect tutorial.
Watch enough videos, find the perfect textures, and find
the perfect model to place in my scene. All without
actually opening up the editor and just going along and
doing these things.

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This is the basic outline.

-

Idea
Research
Reference
Floor plan
Game play elements
Geometry and Modeling
Texturing
Lighting
FX, Sound and Final Touches
Release Beta for testing

Having this basic outline in written form I took it further

and broke it down to day by day. Since I only gave
myself 11 days this was pretty straightforward.
DETAILED SCHEDULE
Dec. 20, 2008 Saturday
Intro
DAY 1:
Dec. 21, 2008 Sunday
Idea, Research, Reference, Floor plan and Gameplay
Elements.
Sketches, drawings.
DAY 2:
Dec. 22, 2008 Monday
Geometry and Modeling
DAY 3:
Dec. 23, 2008 Tuesday
Geometry and Modeling
DAY 4:
Dec. 24, 2008 Wednesday
Geometry and Modeling

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DAY 5:
Dec. 25, 2008 Thursday
Texturing
DAY 6:
Dec. 26, 2008 Friday
Texturing
DAY 7:
Dec. 27, 2008 Saturday
Lighting
DAY 8:
Dec. 28, 2008 Sunday
Lighting
DAY 9:
Dec. 29, 2008 Monday
Lighting, FX, Sound and Final Touches
Day 10:
Dec. 30, 2008 Tuesday
FX, Sound and Final Touches
DAY 11:
Dec. 31, 2008 Wednesday
FX, Sound and Final Touches
Jan. 01, 2009 Thursday
Beta Release
If you are giving yourself more time then you might want
to break it down to per week basis. Important thing is
you want to have the milestones to hit and know when
you need to reach them so you know you are on track.
Being able to do the best you can before moving to the
next. It was important for me to stick to the
schedule. Since I was only giving myself 11 days the
planning and the actual release was more important then
making my map beautiful and the best there is.

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DAY 1
IDEA. RESEARCH. REFERENCE. FLOOR PLAN &
CONCEPT WORK.
Everything started off on day one. When I began I didnt
have any ideas of what I was actually going to make. I
wanted to start at a blank slate so others could learn and
see the research process that I was going through.
Now you may have an idea or you might use a different
approach to generating designs. That is great. Do what
works for you. My approach is just one of many out
there.
I love learning about other level designers workflows so if
you want to share yours, drop me and email.
Having no idea on location or environment I wanted to do
I head out to the bookstore. I went to Books-a-Million
and ended up spending majority of the time looking at
Smithsonian Earth.
Smithsonian Earth is a great resource. Ive had the book
for over 4 years now and I still look through it every time
I have a shortage of ideas on what environment or terrain
to do.
There were some guidelines I set for myself. Restrictions.
My map has to be realistically doable in 11 days.
My Restrictions:
- The map has to be small
- 1 vs. 1 or 2 vs. 2
- Terrain based and 2-3 custom modeled objects
imported
- I have to utilize some skills I already know along with
learning new things in the editor.
Restrictions and limitations are a good thing. If there
were no limitations then nothing would get done. If I

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didnt set any deadlines, I might have procrastinated and

found a way to work on something else.
I took my own thinking out of the equation and set a very
specific deadline for myself.
My advice would be the same for you. When working on
any project set a deadline of when you think you will get
done.
So, after spending about an hour going through the book
I finally had my idea. This single scanned image was my
inspiration for an idea.

I started with absolutely no idea what I was going to

make and was inspired by a single image. Also having a
clear focus on what it is that I want to accomplish with
my map was important.

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My idea: A small cliff island with a lighthouse.

I go through Map Creation Guidelines so my idea is more
solid and clear. This is especially important when time is
of the essence.
Below is the questionnaire I made for myself. Give it a try
on your projects.
MAP CREATION GUIDELINES
GAMETYPE
Single Player or Multiplayer?
Multiplayer
Game Type?
Death match
What game is this map for?
Unreal Tournament 3
STORY
Story behind the map. Why are the players there?
Why is the place/environment there? Write the
history of my environment. What happened to the
place before the player entered the environment?
Atlantic coast. Old days of permanent lighthouse keepers
are thing of the past. Each lighthouse is now completely
automated making each area an isolated cliff arena.
What is this map about?
Old lighthouse that was built in late 1800s now stands by
itself on an isolated cliff island.
GAMEPLAY

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What is the objective of the map?

To eliminate the other player while escaping your own
death from the deadly cliffs and low visibility.
Do I have a top down game play sketch?
Yes
How would the level play out? Gameplay wise?
It is a small map with a few z-axis areas. One is inner
lighthouse area. You are able to go inside and come out
on top. The terrain has a few hills, not a lot but does
contain enough cover. I am also thinking of a small house
or cabin on the ground but it will not be inner area for
this house. The area itself has no barriers so if one has
been not careful they will suffer the consequences of
falling to their death at the rocks below.
How would the player to play through your map?
Visualize this. What experiences do I want the
player to walk away with from the map?
I want the player to walk away from playing this map and
get a sense of that they have been on the cliff itself,
feeling the wind and the moisture of the air. I want to
communicate the sense of isolation and despair in the
map.
How big is the map?
Very small.
1 vs 1. Maybe 2 vs 2. Because of the time limit I am
keeping this map small and manageable.
Who is my audience? Who is the player? What is my
Demographic?
Anyone who plays Unreal 3 and any inspired level
designers.
How will I make the map memorable?
Atmosphere. I want the player to feel the cold windy day.
I want the player to experience the despair and isolation
of a lighthouse cliff island.

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Do you have basic top down view and few location

concept sketches?
Yes
VISUALS
Is the map original? What is everyone else doing?
Dont make another everyone map. Be original
and different. How will I achieve this?
I did a search and have not found the type of lighthouse
cliff map that I am attempting to do. So I believe I have
an original and a different idea, especially for Unreal 3
world.
What is the time of day of the map? Season? Color?
See Reference.
The color palette is gray blues, greens with a
complimentary oranges coming from the light sources on
the lighthouse and the house/cabin. It is winter time, cold
and windy with a high sense of isolation and despair.
Feel and Atmosphere. Describe what I want to
portray in terms of the feel of the map and
atmosphere.
Foggy and low visibility. Cold. Brink of dawn. Atmosphere
will play an important role. Sound will help to set the
mood. Sound of seagulls, harbor bell and waves below.
Color palette. Despair and isolation. Danger with jagged
cliffs.
How will I direct the player? What methods will I
use? Color? Noise and Sound? Guide the player
without telling them where to go. Smart design.
The lighthouse will be the focal point of the map.
Possibility of a house on the bottom will balance the
composition out. I am thinking of this map as a painting,
balancing the visual elements and gameplay elements
against each other. Sound will be another way I will
direct the player around the environment. Since this will

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be a small map, the player will have no trouble navigation

around the map.
What am I going to concentrate on? What do I want
to learn when I am finished? What aspect of design,
gameplay, fun, crazy, atmosphere?
Mood and atmosphere. Sound. Terrain and custom
models. I want to be able to share what I learn with
others on this 11-day challenge.
What is the visual trademark of your level? How
will the players remember your map?
Lighthouse, atmosphere of coldness and despair.

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Reference:
After going through the Map Creation Guidelines I began
to search the web for reference.
I cant stress enough how important reference images are
for anything that you do.
These images were collected on the web at
images.google.com
Flickr.com

I tried to keep the following in mind when I am looking

for reference images.
Architectural design and detail
Textures
Mood/Atmosphere
Lighting

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Floor Plan and Design Concept Sketches:

I always draw the design on paper. Nothing fancy. Trying
to establish an idea and more clear focus on the house
and the lighthouse. Top down view shows a figure eight
flow to the map.

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Other people use google sketch up, photoshop or they

block it in using 3ds max or Maya. Whatever you use is
up to you.
Doing this preliminary step is very important. The more
clear and specific you are of what you want the easier it
will be getting there.

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Textures: I used majority of my textures from Unreal. I

did have to texture the lighthouse.
Models: I modeled the lighthouse using Maya and
imported it in to Unreal. This was very simple to do and
took no time at all. Making me focus on map creation.
One of the things I wanted to learn was importing into
Unreal from Maya. Every other model came with Unreal.

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DAY 2
GEOMETRY & MODELING
With all the preliminary work done yesterday, I kicked off
the day by opening up the editor and hammering out the
terrain.

First I set up the terrain. The dimensions were 256x256.

Using the terrain brush tool I started from top-down view
and getting the shape to the island based off of my top
down sketch. This is why it is so important to have some
preliminary work done ahead of time, and it only took me
one day, but I know it is going to save me hours worth of
work later.

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I spend a lot of time getting the shape and the scale of

the island just right. First try was too big; I kept making
it smaller and smaller.

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Important thing to keep in mind here is to be very general.

You want to be blocking everything in and checking for scale
and playability.
You want to play test your map as soon as possible.
It took me about 5 tries to get the scale and the size of
how I wanted.
One thing among many that I love about Unreal 3 engine
is you are able to just jump in within one button push and
test your map out. If its not working, hit escape, fix it and
jump back in.
Amazing.
I also really quickly jumped into Maya and modeled a basic
shape of the lighthouse and imported it. I just wanted to
get that going.

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Thing is you want to be working your whole map at the

same time. Slowly bringing everything up to speed. At
this stage, the block in stage you dont want to focus on
any one area for too long.
I imported the mesh and build a bsp brush house. Making
sure that the scale was correct. I constantly jumped into
the game to see how it looked.

At this stage if something wasn't right it is still easy to

change it. You don't want to be refining terrain because
gameplay isn't right during later stages.
Think general to specific. Large to small. There will be
plenty of time later for detail passes, but not right now.

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At the end of the day I was happy with my results. The

shape of the terrain is where I liked it. The size and scale
was correct. The distance between the lighthouse and the
house is where I imagined it and planned it.
It was a good day.

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DAY 3
GEOMETRY & MODELING
Terrain refining.
Today I spend the entire day refining terrain, as well as
added water.
Yesterday I got the terrain where I like it. One was
refining terrain and two adding water.
Basically today was the day where you dont see much of
visual progress. Getting terrain down to where there is no
gameplay hang ups. To where you can run freely and not
get stuck on terrain geometry. I am still finding them
here and there and taking care of them.

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Here I was taking care of sharp edges near the cliff.

Using the flatten tool and smooth at the same time. I
went around the island and taking care of that.
I also applied rock texture but just to gage where the
cliffs are. Day 5 is texture pass. So I stayed away from
spending a lot of time on anything texture.

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Now adding the water took the longest. Approximately

two hours of material connection editor.
If it wasnt for Hourences tutorial on setting up water, I
would have been lost. Huge chunk of time but I am
happy its over with. Now it will be refining the water
effects.
Its coming together. Still extremely rough, but the key is
to move forward everyday.

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Note: By the time I released the final of DM-LightHouse I took out the expensive
water shader and replaced it with simpler one.

Tomorrow I focused on building the house and modeling

the lighthouse. I need to be 90 % done with geometry
and modeling. I need to start adding static meshes to the
island to make the place come to live.

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DAY 4
GEOMETRY & MODELING
Today was the last day for any geometry and modeling.
After today I need to move on and concentrate on
texturing, lighting and refining.
Getting into the thick of it. Today was huge productive
day. I got up at 6:30 am and went to work.
This is where I left off yesterday. Bare, ugly checkered
textures, big huge blocks and ugly terrain. My goal was to
have majority of the modeling and geometry done.

So first things first I went online and began taking note of

what models I need in my map. Instead of building
everything and reinventing the wheel I will use what has
already been done. So on this web page there is a huge
list of models that have been shipped with Unreal.

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I started adding them to my map and slowly building

them up. At this stage I began to narrow down my focus
and concentrating one thing at a time.

House.

Adding windows, possible lights, doorway, and fence. All

the necessary things to make a house look like a house.
Rooftop and chimney.

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Inside UN-Foliage I found some kick ass models for trees

and logs. Perfect for my map.

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After a few hours of looking through the model packages

I jumped into Maya to model my Lighthouse. When I
model I always check the silhouette of the model and
how appealing and strong it is. When in Maya and you
haven't added any lights, just press 7.

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Imported the lighthouse.

At this point I like where my map is going. It is slowly

beginning to come together. When we add lighting, which

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is when the map begins to stand out. Its hard to say right
now in terms of atmosphere because lack of fog and
lights. As much as I want to start adding fx and lights, I
know not to get a head of myself.

I will still need to tweak a lot of things around the house

and lighthouse but at this point, tomorrow, I need to
move on to texturing.

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DAY 5
TEXTURING
I woke up at 6:30am and had to get moving fast. I
needed to get my texturing done for the day. So my goal
was to get all texturing for terrain done and fix up
anything else that I felt like I needed to fix.
Well after adding a few layers in the terrain editor I was
greeted with Unreals Christmas present.

After a bit of searching I found out that the reason you

get a rainbow colored terrain is
- I have to many layers and those layers have too much
and too complex of instructions going.
So my plan of having 57 layers was shot. I didnt have
the time to go and fix textures.

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I had to keep moving forward so I made some sacrifices.

I stuck with the fewer layers.
Here is my slow progress on texturing terrain. Making
pathways and blending textures. This took me quiet a
while.

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Here is some of my uvs for the lighthouse.

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At the end of the day I added 2 height fogs. One for the
water and the other for visibility. The texture is very
noticeable tiling. But the player will never be this far to
see it and right now I am greeted with rainbow terrain if I
try to do any texture layer editing.
Beginning adding atmosphere. At this stage I am
beginning to really like how this looks.

Things to do for day 6:

Texture the uved lighthouse and make sure be done with
textures. Getting ready for 2 days of lighting.

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DAY 6
TEXTURING
Last day for texturing. Goal was to texture the uved
lighthouse and fix up any other minor problems before
they get out of hand.
Not much of visual progress but the lighthouse texturing
are completed.

Textures, include color/diffuse; specular and normal map.

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Textured Lighthouse.

Not sure if I like that sky. I am now thinking setting it in

evening, nighttime and have a rotating light coming from
the lighthouse.

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DAY 7
LIGHTING
First day of lighting.
I started with adding the directional light for the main
light source of the sun/moon. Then I began adding little
area lights around the house. I wanted to use the blues
and orange contrast. Complimentary colors.
I actually have two directional lights. One for the main
light source, the other is to fill in the shadows but with a
lot lower brightness setting.

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I didn't like the sunset feeling around the island so I

decided to swap it out for nighttime. I like it a lot better.

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Testing to see how it all looks without and skylights to fill

in the dark gaps.

Here I added the fog to see how it would look with it and
if it is coming together.

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I added a lighthouse beam, which required setting up a

matinee in Unreal. It rotates and loops. Took me a while
to set that up. But it works and adds a lot to the map.

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DAY 8
LIGHTING
I love working on lighting but it does have its
frustrations. Currently I am deciding if I want to make
the map at night or early morning, dawn. I have included
4 different screenshots at the end testing which lighting
example I like the best.

Here I was still working at night scene. Fog is very thick

and fog color is dull and gray.
I changed the color of the environment lighting to be
purpler and blues. I like this better then previous version.

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At this point I needed to make some decisions about

lights.
Below are four examples of possible lighting I may go
with. Still haven't decided on the one I will choose.
I asked a few people on my website and on the forums
and I received a few great responses. Thank you for
everyone who contributed to the final look.
Just as a side note, getting feedback from others is highly
recommended. That is how you get better.
Below are the light variations I played around with.

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After receiving feedback this lighting setup was the one I

chose to keep in my map.

Days 9-12 I will post on day 12, following day 13 as the

beta release. Its getting down to the final stretch. Almost
finished.

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DAY 9-12
SOUND, FX, LIGHTING & FINAL TOUCHES
I've spent the last 3 days working on sound fx, adding
music, navigation paths for bots and tweaking the hell
out of the lighting and testing for errors.

One of the most important steps in releasing a map is

getting everything ready to go. Bringing every aspect of
the map up to a point where you can let go of it.
Along the way I ran into a few problems, where I had to
back track to 2 other previous versions. My worldinfo
property wouldnt work and I wasnt able to add that to
my map. That set me back a few hours.
The importance of saving cannot be underestimated. I
currently ran up to 25 different saves for this small map.
So thats about 2 versions per day. Which I could have
saved more often and take my own advice.

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Below are some of the screenshots I took along the way,

which weren't many. During the final stages, there is
more tweaking and fixing then any visual differences.

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Releasing a beta is very important. It lets others see your

map and you get to step away from your creation and let
go of the ownership. Important step to stop judging your
own work and let the community decide.
At this point I was done.
I was excited to release this finally. I wasnt sure if it was
going to come out like it did, but it exceeded my own
expectations. I am just happy that I finished a map in 11
days.
Now having 2 maps under my belt for Unreal 3, will allow
me to make the next one even better.

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Things I learned:
Importing custom content
Matinee
Beginner and Advanced Texture Creation
Normal Maps
Setting Up Sound Cues
Terrain Generation

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BETA RELEASE
I prepared the map for beta release using zip and rar
files. I used filefront to upload the map to. Filefront.com
is free and extremely easy to use.
Of course you can always use your own web space or
upload it to such websites as mapraider if using Unreal.
I recommend Filefront.
My main purpose was to receive feedback and get notes
for final release.
I posted the map on 2 websites for my beta.
First was
www.game-artist.net/forums,
and second one was
gearsofwar.com/forums
On my final release I also posted on www.mapcore.net
For about 3-5 days I checked the forums and see what
people said about it. I took notes.
After few notes I compiled my notes from the feedback.
Main concerns were:
-

Added rocks for more cover, added few more trees

Added more dirt around the lighthouse
Aligned textures
Added blocking volumes
Replaced water shader to eliminate visual glitches
Improved Lighting
PS3 version

I then began to fix the issues people were having. At this

stage you dont want to be making huge gameplay
changes where you would have to change terrain. If the

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feedback was strong and it was a huge issue then I would

have probably done it.
You also have to ask yourself, did you complete what you
sat out to do in the beginning?
Always remember the reason for your map and check
back if you are on track or went on to the deepend.
After fixing few issues I went ahead and released a final.
Download here:

Download PC.zip
Download PS3.zip
Here are some final screenshots:

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RECHARGE
So after you release your final version of the map give
yourself a few days off to recharge and dont do any
designing. Rest and forget about level design.
You want to give your mind and your body a break.
When you come back youll be fresh and recharged.

ABOUT ME:
My name is Alex Galuzin. I am 31 years old as of 2011
and with a B.F.A. in Computer Animation from Ringling
College of Art and Design.
My other website is AlexGaluzin.com where I started to
release some of my maps and tutorials until I decided to
dedicated a whole website to it.
Level Design, Environments and World Creation.

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I love creating worlds and environments. It is my

passion. I am aspired to become the top designer in this
field and I hope you become inspired by my website, this
e-book and the information to create interactive, fully
explorable worlds. If I never get to do it and get paid, I
will still be making levels for fun.
I am going to teach, inspire and create environments
until there is no more games and Internet.
Websites:
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
www.3denvironmentdesign.com/
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/GameLevelDesign

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