Epoch: Incursion - Building Buildings
by Mark Nosworthy · 09/20/2010 (4:58 pm) · 6 comments
It’s been a very busy 2 weeks, but I’ll do my best to bring you up to speed on where I’ve come from and the challenges that lay ahead.
Getting us off to a great start was reaching an agreement on the aesthetic style of our civilian residential areas.
With that settled, I’ve moved straight into the modelling of those structures.
Our fundamental building block (excuse the pun) to all this is getting the design of each building’s construction as modular as possible (without going to a brick by brick level).
Our story requires fairly expansive areas of futuristic buildings but it is impractical, expensive and unnecessary (and actually not in keeping with the lore of the Epoch universe) to make all of those buildings absolutely unique.
We’ve decided to experiment with a standards based modular design for all the buildings we create so that build times are reduced in the initial stages and at the level construction stage.
As an example of how this philosophy works:
Exterior doorways are identically proportioned and so placed, on all our buildings, in such a way that a level designer can slot many different buildings or collections of different buildings together with relative ease very quickly, either directly or using a similarly proportioned corridor section to join the two, to create unique interior and exterior spaces out of these modular building blocks.
This process can then be replicated over and over with small variations in the buildings used and the combinations of those buildings used to create a unique and seemingly random settlement.
Great progress on this has already been made and we have a modular set of building blocks in place that you can create 70% of our residential structures with. It’s really helping to visualise the environment and it’s great to be able to play with the construction and layout of these in the engine, go upstairs, along walkways etc. and get a real feel for things.
I’m hopeful that in the next 2 weeks all of these building blocks will be finished and a full residential complex of some considerable size can be built.
The next job is getting those spaces to represent something that looks and feels lived in. This is where a lot of the work stems from but it’s an interesting process constructing a liveable practical area.
Getting us off to a great start was reaching an agreement on the aesthetic style of our civilian residential areas.
With that settled, I’ve moved straight into the modelling of those structures.
Our fundamental building block (excuse the pun) to all this is getting the design of each building’s construction as modular as possible (without going to a brick by brick level).
Our story requires fairly expansive areas of futuristic buildings but it is impractical, expensive and unnecessary (and actually not in keeping with the lore of the Epoch universe) to make all of those buildings absolutely unique.
We’ve decided to experiment with a standards based modular design for all the buildings we create so that build times are reduced in the initial stages and at the level construction stage.
As an example of how this philosophy works:
Exterior doorways are identically proportioned and so placed, on all our buildings, in such a way that a level designer can slot many different buildings or collections of different buildings together with relative ease very quickly, either directly or using a similarly proportioned corridor section to join the two, to create unique interior and exterior spaces out of these modular building blocks.
This process can then be replicated over and over with small variations in the buildings used and the combinations of those buildings used to create a unique and seemingly random settlement.
Great progress on this has already been made and we have a modular set of building blocks in place that you can create 70% of our residential structures with. It’s really helping to visualise the environment and it’s great to be able to play with the construction and layout of these in the engine, go upstairs, along walkways etc. and get a real feel for things.
I’m hopeful that in the next 2 weeks all of these building blocks will be finished and a full residential complex of some considerable size can be built.
The next job is getting those spaces to represent something that looks and feels lived in. This is where a lot of the work stems from but it’s an interesting process constructing a liveable practical area.
About the author
Co Founder of EiKON Games and the artistic lead on the co-operative, tactical, first person shooter, Epoch: Incursion.
#2
09/20/2010 (6:19 pm)
That's coming along nicely! Lookin' forward to seeing it finished. 
#3
The title reminded me of this little boy and his parents I heard while in town a few months back
"daaaad, why do they call buildings buildings if their still building the building, why dont they call the building a 'builded' if theyve finished building the building?"
his dad looked so confused and just said "i dunno, go and ask the builders" lol
god kids are funny as hell
09/20/2010 (7:41 pm)
Really like the style you guys have gone with :) love the sketches too, should up some larger ones and link the tumbnails too them.The title reminded me of this little boy and his parents I heard while in town a few months back
"daaaad, why do they call buildings buildings if their still building the building, why dont they call the building a 'builded' if theyve finished building the building?"
his dad looked so confused and just said "i dunno, go and ask the builders" lol
god kids are funny as hell
#4
09/22/2010 (9:00 am)
Embigulated the key sketch a bit ...enjoy :) 
#5
09/22/2010 (11:40 am)
How are you going to go about doing the windows Mark? Are you also going to make them breakable? 
#6
09/22/2010 (6:32 pm)
Windows and their destroyability (or not) are a matter of internal debate at the moment and we've not yet decided what way to go. 
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