Torque 3D 1.2 - Chinatown

Welcome back to my blog series regarding Torque 3D 1.2. This week I’m going to go over the new demo level we have been working on that will be part of the release. My last blog ended with a screen shot teaser of the level we have been working on codenamed “Chinatown”. While still a work in progress I wanted to show off what we have, talk a bit about the team currently working on it and discuss it’s history a little bit.

The first version of Chinatown was designed by the wonderful guys over at Luma Arcade and shown off in our booth at GDC 2010. During the planning for Torque 3D 1.2 we needed a level that would be well suited for FPS style gameplay. We knew that the community had been looking forward to getting their hands on Chinatown and it fit our needs for the goals of 1.2 so it was a perfect match.

The level was ported over to the 1.2 project, at which point our art team jumped in to add their own personal touches and optimizations so that it would perform better on a wider range of machines. Elie Arabian led the team as the Art Director, as well as updating the lighting and overall mood set by the scene. Matt Ostgard updated the collision geometry and cleaned up various other pieces. We also decided to use the Soldier from Torque 3D 1.1 as the main character, though we’ve made a few changes to him that will be revealed at a later date. Jesse Oliger, John Shuman, Phill Belanger, Elie and Matt also worked on additional art pieces that I will be revealing in future blogs.

Without further ado here are several screen shots showing off their work. This is all work in progress and may not be fully representative of what ships with Torque 3D 1.2. Make sure to click on the thumbs below for the full experience