The project was first started back in early February of this year (2012) and I can soundly say it has been extremely hard work throughout but extremely enjoyable, it's given me a great chance to get some creative skills into practice. There has been a lot of trial and error but eventually everything has come together far better than I could have ever expected, this is thanks to a lot of intense research, perseverance and dedication for every problem I have come across, I would like to thank everybody on the Epic Games UDN/UDK forum as their input has been invaluable. I would also like to say thank you to my amazing friends at University who have put up with test playing this mod over the past few months, their input has also been a fantastic help, not only through this project, but throughout my entire time at University. I love you all and I know you will all go extremely far.
So, the idea of the mod originally started from playing a Skulltag map called "The Abandoned Fortress" which is a mod itself from ID Software's DOOM, perhaps a bit of an old game to take inspiration from (1993) but considering the small time frame I had, albeit a huge task I thought I could probably replicate this in my own way and update it with the modern UDK engine. I took a lot more inspiration from ID's DOOM than what initially meets the eye, I took note of ID Software's co founder John Romero who once said in the postmortem of DOOM (GDC 2011,) that considering their time frame and small team back in 1993, "whatever got made for the game - got put in the game," I took heed of this advice and implemented it into my mod as much as possible, which is why I suppose some features may seem "unpolished" at this point, but at least the fundamentals are there.
On a personal level, this project means a lot more to me than I can express in words, having to repeat my second year at University this year was a hard thing to take in initially, but I like to think that this time hasn't been wasted, I have garnered a lot more skill and experience through this project and in a way it is nice to get this out there to get a bit of closure on this. I mean hell, I may be as poor as the common hobo but it's more about making the most of bad situations, to have complete creative control has been absolutely priceless, the experience and scripts from my last years project "Limbs" (which didn't go down well!) were already at my disposal, unfortunately now lacking a talented environment artist this year, I had to create and design the level myself on top of everything else, which in itself was a invaluable experience.
Alas, what now? is the biggest question on my mind, to continue to update this? with more content and maps? perhaps, depending on how it is received by the public and my University, I'll add more over the next couple of months. Unless something more worthwhile turns up in the mean time, looks like I'll be on the shop floor again before I know it.
On the whole, this was a huge experiment and most certainly the biggest project I've ever mustered up in my life, a huge learning curve if you will and a big homage to some of the greatest games that I loved when growing up. If you can name them all, well done! you're old school like me and you should be proud of that.
Finally, I would like to say please, I hope you enjoy this mod.
As always, if you have any questions, comments or requests then please feel free to comment below or email me at: jamescalittlechild@gmail.com
