Game Level Design I 2
Please, look at the image above. Yes, we can say that it have a..."particular style".
Even if it's a bit exagerated, many beginners ( and veterans too) don't go much further, yet it's almost easy.
I'll show with this tutorial, how to "improve" this image with limited resources and time, perfect for a "begginers fast start" with the Blender Game Engine.
Unfortunatelly, it's almost sure that you'll not revolutionize the gameplay standards with Blender, so if you care the "look" side of your game a bit, maybe it'll be much more noticed.
The most useful tip I can give you, is: try to know the features and possibilities of the Blender Game Engine and do your "game/demo" accordingly!
It seems evident, but most people have a "game dream desire" and try to realise it with Blender leading, in most cases, to frustration, when they realise that's ( almost) impossible.
I've made the image tutorial scene above with 313 vertices and three 256x256 textures, with an "automatic" Cube UV Calculation for all objects.
Let's start! With the 3D cursor at the center, add a Cube to your scene. Scale it 10 units higher ( press Ctrl key to snap to the grid).
Enter edit mode, select all the vertices and do Ctrl-Shift-N keys to make the faces normals point inside ( blue lines in the image above).
To control your work, Add or Append ( from other Blender files) a camera/player/viewer, or download my scene file ( camera script taken from the Blender3D.org site).
Now, we'll use the great new 2.3 version modelling tools, very useful for low-poly work.
To subdivide our cube faces, enter Edit mode, and press K key. In the pop-up menu choose Face Loop Cut. The 3D cursor has changed to a square/arrow like shape; move it over the object. Notice the yellow square line ( image above left) that represents the selected "cut plan". Choose the one like the image and press Enter key.
Now, a blue square line has appeared ( image above right) that represents the exact place where the "cut" will hapen. Move the mouse to choose the place and notice in the toolbar the amount of %. If you press Ctrl key the value will change by 10% steps and 1% if you press Shift key. Choose a 50% value and press Enter to apply.
Using the same method, subdivide the oposite side of the cube, in Top view select four vertices ( red line in the image above) and extrude in the Y axis ( press E, Y and Ctrl keys for a fast work). Do the same at the opposite side. Select the top central vertex, delete it, select the surrounding ones, Extrude and scale them inside a bit. After this, in Side view, Extrude them again, move them up and do Shift-F to build faces and close the object ( look at the image above).
It's not important if you don't have the same geometry. The important thing is that all the normals point inside, so please check.
Now, we'll add some columns to our romm.
Out of Edit mode, in Top view add a Cube, scale it and place it at one room corner. In side view, enter Edit mode, select the top four vertices, Extrude, Scale and move them in order to obtain a column with reliefs.
Make some copies and place them more or less like in the image above.
Select all the "outside" columns and do Ctrl-J to join the objects. Do the same with the four central columns. We have now three level objects.