Game Level Design II 3


Let's populate our little village. Make a copy of the house and place it at "X:-25.00" and "Y:55.00" ( "1" in the image above), add an "Array Modifier" with the same values as in the image, at "2" ( only needed to change the "Count" value to "6", normally), then, enable "Merge", and press the "Apply" button, to make the objects "real" ( and visible in "Game engine mode").

Enter "Edit mode", select and delete not necessary/invisible edges/faces ( "1" in the image above), make a "multi-material" with more two simple colors materials ( light blue and yellow) and apply them to some faces ( "2"), to add diversity ( will not be visible at the moment, but useful later).

Here's the actual state of our scene ( image above). Next, we'll add some streets.

Add a new "Plane" to the scene, and place it at "X:5.00" and "Y:35.00". Enter "Edit mode", select the left vertical side, and move it, until it reaches the square extremity , using "Axis moving constraint" and "Ctrl" key to snap to the grid lines.
Extrude again to make a square shape here, extrude the other sides of the square, and do the same to the other side of the original square, to the right, now, to make a shape like the one in the image above.
Probably, to make the last crossroad, some edges will overlap? Just select all the edges, and press the "REM Doubles" button.
The streets should outline the square.
Make a road bend is quite easy. "Left mouse" click near the vertical ( and horizontal) axis, of the final straight edge ( where the turn will start, "1" in the image above), do "Shift-S" keys and choose "Cursor->Grid" in the "Snap" menu, to align perfectly the "3D cursor" to the grid lines.
Now, select the edge ("2"), in the "Mesh Tools" panel, set "Degr:" to "180" and "Steps:" to "12", and press the "Spin" button, "3". The road turn faces should appear, select all, and press the "Rem Doubles" button.
Please, notice that the turn faces, have more or less the same size, as one grid lines square, our reference for the textures size, thus, make our texture work much more easy.

Here's how to apply textures to the road!Select the four crossroad faces, and load the "estrada-cruz.jpg" image. Done, for these faces ( "1" in the image above).
Now select all the other ones and load the "estrada.jpg" image. The turn faces should be already correctly textured, the other faces will need some UV scaling.
To know how long you should scale the "UV" faces, count the grid lines squares, five in the selected face, in the image above. You can select others "five square" faces and scale the UV's in one operation, just check if the "green/red" edge outline has the same orientation in the "3D window" and in the "UV Editor".

Here's one view of our road in "Game mode". It was quite fast and easy to make, I guess?!

More "furniture" to our village. This new house was made with a basic cube, with a "loop cut" ("K" key), applied to the middle of the vertical edges, the top face was extruded, then the four vertices "merged" ("W" key), at the center, to make the rooftop. Two textures were used, "Yellowhouse.jpg" and "toit.jpg", this one applied with "Project from view (bounds)" from "Top view".
Place it at "X:-65.00, Y:15.00, Z:5.00", make a copy, move it down ( top view), three grid line squares, and place the original house between the new houses.

Our new scene.

Here, with some more "house" objects added.

Now, we'll add some sidewalks, using the same method as for the streets to model the object, and using the same textures and techniques as the central square.
No need to model the entire object, only the upper section ( image above), apply tetures to it, and then, make three copies, rotate, and place them, in the "good" locations ( fill the gaps between the houses and the streets).

The image above shows the current state of the scene.
To fill the last gaps in our level, use the usual plane, place it "against" the top left crossroads for example, scale it, apply the "grass.jpg" texture, scale "UV's" ( "1" in the image above), then, to brake the flatness, we'll make a little hill. It's quite easy.
Enter "Edit mode", select the face, do "W" key, choose "Subdivide" in the "Specials" menu ( "2"), select the new top left face, press "W" key again, and choose "Subdivide Multi" this time, with "Number of Cuts:2" ( "3"). Select the new top left face, press "O" key to activate the "Proportionat Edit" tool, move the face upwards and control the amount of faces that will follow with the "Page Up/Down" keys ( "4").
"5" in the image above shows the final state.

To fill the gap where the road turns it'll be a little more complex.
Add the usual plane and place it "against" the crossroad ( "1" in the image above), delete all the vertices but the left bottom one, "select" and "extrude" it to the vertical axis of the road bend ( "2"), place the "3D cursor" as we did for the road ( "3"), and "Spin" the vertex with the same settings as the road faces ( "4").
Then continue to "extrude" the vertex, more or less like in the image above, until the line is closed. Then select all vertices, do "Shift-F" keys to "build" faces, and "Alt-F" keys to make them "beautiful".
Select the big face at right ( "5"), multi-subdivide it, "2", select the new face at far right, and raise it a little, with the "Proportional Edit" tool activated, as done previously.

Our new central square deserves a monument I guess?! As an exercise I'll let you add your own.
Mine's the "classic" metal cube sculpture ( yes, all towns have one).

Here's the final state of our village ( image above)!
You can download the .blend file of the current state of the level.