KAELAN sIMPSON

The Problems I Wanted To Solve:

Allow for sure rapid building of modular hallway networks

The level layout of Alberio relied heavily on large hallway networks.  Our environmental artist had created a set of modular pieces that could be pieced together to form these networks.  However, each segment was small so hand placing them took a lot of time.  So my primary motivation for the hallway builder was to create a tool that would allow artists and designers to rapidly build out hallway networks.

Prevent seams in placed hallway segments

Another issues early on was seams between hallway segments.  Even if the team member placing the segments used grid snapping, it was common for there to be one or two small mistakes.  These mistakes could easily go unnoticed but were immersion breaking when players say them.  I wanted a tool that would seamlessly align hallways so our team didn’t have to rely on human error.

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Major Iterations:

Adding doors

After the hallway builder was complete, I realized that I need a way for hallway networks to feed into the room builder.  The way I accomplished this was by adding doors to the hallway builder.  These doors were treated like a modular hallway piece but could also snap to rooms using another function.  The door allowed for a room and hallway network to be builder separately then snapping together at the click of a button. 

 

What Went Right:

The tool was widely used and solved the problems it was made for

More than any other tool I made for Alberio, the hallway builder solved the problems it was created to address.  It was universally used for building hallway networks and the visible seams issues disappeared.   

 

What Went Wrong:

Future compatibility with rooms

While I created a means of snapping rooms and hallway together, I did not properly account for rooms not aligning up with the size of hallway segments.  Since the wall segments were smaller then the hallway segments, our level designer would sometimes run into doors that didn’t perfectly line up with rooms.  It was an oversight that caused me to force a suboptimal solution into the tool.

The pipeline for adding hallway segments was very inefficient 

The pipeline for adding new hallway models to the hallway builder was very inefficient.  There wasn’t an easy to determine where the connection points were.  As a result I had to add new hallway segments to the tool instead of the artists themselves.

 

What I Learned:

The importance of solving problems before they happen

The alignment issue with hallways and rooms caused a lot of extra work and handicapped the development of certain map areas.  By the time I realized the issue the only solution was to forced the tool to account for it.  I added a padding feature that could adjust the size of doors on a smaller scale to line then up with rooms.  However, if I had anticipated the issue I could have worked with the art team to create wall and hallway segments of equal width which would of properly solved the issue.

Good tools have good pipelines

The use of the hallway builder was bottled necked by the fact that adding new segments to the tool was too technical of a process for most artists to do.  This meant that artists had to wait for me to add their assets before they could be used.  A lot of time could have been saved by eliminating the middleman (myself) and creating a more accessible pipeline.