Project Flashback - Level 4

[Masakari]

For which Engine - portfolio / UE3
Polycount - tbd
Texture Size - various
Description of background information on piece - Inspired by the recent Shadow Complex, which i loved, i've been replaying some older games in the genre, like Super Metroid and Flashback (FB for short). Replaying FB reminded me of how much i loved the game, which i played back when it was released for PC in 1993.

I was looking to do something interesting for the portfolio, but different from just regular assets, so i'm gonna remake a level of the game, and use Unreal Editor from UT3 to showcase it.



About - Flashback, also known as Flashback: The Quest for Identity, is set in the year 2142 and details the journey of Conrad B. Hart, an agent for the Galaxia Bureau of Investigation, and his attempts to recover his lost memory to save the world. During one of his investigations, Conrad discovers a plot to destroy the Earth involving aliens that disguise themselves as governmental officials. These shape-shifting aliens are discovered with his monoculars that measures molecular density. Conrad then uploads a copy of his memory to his friend Ian and records message for himself in a holocube as a precaution against it being erased. As he feared, the aliens do eventually kidnap Conrad and erase his memory. He escapes, but is left stranded in a jungle on Titan completely unaware of who he is, thus starting your adventure.
+ Wikipedia entry
+ Mobygames entry

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Ok, so i blocked out the first part of the level, which is the part i'm thinking of doing (there's a second, indoors part, which doesn't interest me so much, i'll see later). First up, there are some interesting issues that arise from displays nowadays, as well as the evolution of game concepts, and remake philosophy, which i'll talk about after the renders:







Issues: Well, to explain this, you have to understand how FB worked. Due to platform limitations, each of the sections above occupied an entire screen, formated 4:3 of course, when you exited the screen it took 1 or 2 seconds to load the next one, and so on.
This creates the obvious issue that nowadays pretty much everything is in widescreen. So should i change the layout a bit?

That also plays into remake philosophy - would an FB remake even have the changing screens, or would it be just free flowing like BC Rearmed and Shadow Complex?

Finally, while BC Rearmed took the literal remake approach, Shadow Complex still manages to maintain interesting platforming and exploration while keeping the environments pretty believable, and even realistic. The latter pleases me most. For example, it doesn't make much sense to me that section 4A is actually the spaceport where he arrives coming from level 3, it would have more depth, a different scale, etc.

Important issues that will define the rest of the work, so i would apreciate all your thoughts on this. I'm more inclined at the moment to develop each section more to fit the widescreen aspect, give the environments more believability and detail, while being faithful to the original layout.

[Pankake]

One of my favourite games ever . Do show your progess.

[G Saviour18]

Would love to see this playable, one of my all time favourites too!

[jxi]

I like how it has a 2D feel to it even though it's fully 3D. You'll have to keep us in the loop on what kind of textures you plan on using.

[neenerpants]

Thirded! An absolute classic. This and Another World were amazing games. Along with the likes of UFO: Enemy Unknown, they stole my entire childhood.

[Masakari]

Thanks guys! I was busy with some other work lately, and will now resume this.

Still don't have enough opinions about the issues quoted below, can you guys comment on those?

Issues: Well, to explain this, you have to understand how FB worked. Due to platform limitations, each of the sections above occupied an entire screen, formated 4:3 of course, when you exited the screen it took 1 or 2 seconds to load the next one, and so on.
This creates the obvious issue that nowadays pretty much everything is in widescreen. So should i change the layout a bit?

That also plays into remake philosophy - would an FB remake even have the changing screens, or would it be just free flowing like BC Rearmed and Shadow Complex?

Finally, while BC Rearmed took the literal remake approach, Shadow Complex still manages to maintain interesting platforming and exploration while keeping the environments pretty believable, and even realistic. The latter pleases me most. For example, it doesn't make much sense to me that section 4A is actually the spaceport where he arrives coming from level 3, it would have more depth, a different scale, etc.

Important issues that will define the rest of the work, so i would apreciate all your thoughts on this. I'm more inclined at the moment to develop each section more to fit the widescreen aspect, give the environments more believability and detail, while being faithful to the original layout.

[neenerpants]

I wouldn't think a remake would keep to the old divided screen mechanic. can't see a reason to other than to be faithful to the original.

as for widescreen, I'm still on crappy old 4:3 so not EVERYTHING is widescreen these days!

[Masakari]

Thank you neenerpants.

Well, i am of that opinion as well, but some people have said the screen-by-screen thing, despite being technical at the time, is also a mechanism to build tension, as you never knew what would come next. But yes, i agree with it, nowadays it should be free-flowing.

I'm actually curious how the whole wide vs 4:3 works in terms of game design. If the designer / level artist is doing a level, comprised of "rooms" that are set pieces, how would they handle that issue? Because in a nice widescreen setpiece you might have an enemy or puzzle element "over there" that wouldn't be seen in a 4:3 unless you either zoom out, or have to walk to move the screen that direction. That obviously changes the interactivity between the user and the setpiece.

It's funny, i always thought a side scroller would be easier to do, but when you're actually designing it, these kind of unforeseen issues pop up.

[Joe Lemonade]

Awesome idea! What I'm looking forward to see is how you work with depth. I can imagine it pretty well how it would look with different distance levels (close, medium, far) that scroll with different speeds. Kinda like in this music video:

Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar

And the player being in the vanishing point. Also some elements like corridors that connect these distance levels. That requires the camera to be free-flowing I guess. At least to a certain extend. If you go for a radical design change you may also enable rotation of the camera around 90 degrees for the intersection of some screens. Might be a great effect too.
If you'd make it free-flowing you could use black colour, or blurr effects (or something else) to conceal areas that ain't yet visible.

[abandonstage]

About the widescreen issue, you might want to take a look how the film industry deals with this problem with DVD releases. This link has some pictures and text to describe how they work around it

Understanding Aspect Ratio

I think that you should just go widescreen, if it were a game that would be released anyone playing in 4:3 would have to be letterboxed. While not ideal is the best way to ensure that they don't suffer any problems such as the enemy outside of screen space.

Hope I've been of some help!