Andrew Meade • Game Designer

Arkham Gasworks (UDK)

andrewjmeade — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:39:29 +0000

Well I swore I wouldn’t touch depth of field again, but I suppose I made a liar out of myself. In this project, I wanted to replicate some of the aesthetics of Rocksteady’s Batman franchise. I chose to go with lots of pipes and smoke and steam, with industrial buildings and moody lighting filling the whole thing out.

Arkham Gasworks was designed to be a UT Deathmatch for 6-13 players.

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Time To Build: 4 Days

Tools Used: UDK

Cliffside (UDK)

andrewjmeade — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:43:07 +0000

Cliff-side was made in three days with the Unreal Development Kit. The goal of this was to put the latest UDK build through its paces, and focus on a terrain-heavy level.

In this level the player will encounter multiple levels to occupy, from a feast hall, to a tightened corridor, to a spacious wooded area, to a storage pit, and to the edge of a cliff over looking the surrounding islands. I set a constraint of using as much of the UDK’s “NEC” pack as possible. The level is 95% NEC, with a few BSP’s and materials thrown in the mix.

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Time To Build: 3 Days

Tools Used: UDK

Horror Beneath The Sands (UDK)

andrewjmeade — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 04:00:15 +0000

Horror Beneath The Sands was a Full Sail University Final Project game Built With UDK.

Over the course of four months of development and testing, we designed a 15-20 minute 2.5D Platforming game. My main job was production and design.

As Producer, I managed our asset pipeline, scheduling, workflow, and job allocation. I would host multiple meetings a week and keep the team updated through email and text. I also implemented naming conventions and and managed our backlogs.

As Technical Designer, I worked along Andrew Gaubatz and the Full Sail lab techs in implementing custom game scripts. Major scripted work I participated in was Metal Boots, world parameters (such as gravity, damage, and speed), and asset implementation.

As Level Designer, I worked to keep the aesthetics of each level consistent. I also solely designed both the tutorial and final levels. The final level was a moving platform that the player needed to keep up with while avoiding obstacles and platforming the environment.

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The Team:

FSGD Team

James Ashmore – Level Designer

Andrew Gaubatz – Narrative and Technical Designer

Andrew Meade – Team Lead, Level Designer, and Technical Designer

Dustin Thorn – Level Designer

Asset Team

Mary Chadbourne – Composer

Jake Gilbert – 3D Artist

Zawadi Kirksey-Lamb – 3D Artist

Josh MacDonald – Graphic Artist

Heather Plunkard – Audio Engineer

John Ryan – Composer

Victor Sosa – Environmental Artist

Time To Build: 4 Months

Tools Used:

Horror Beneath The Sands is proudly “Built With UDK”. Alongside UDK, we are also working in the following programs across both Windows 7/8 and Mac OS:

Perforce
Visual Studio 2008
nFringe
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Powerpoint
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Visio
Google Docs
Skype
Dropbox
Adobe Photoshop CS5
Adobe AfterEffects
GIMP
Google Hangouts
Wiggio
Maya
3DS Max
Blender
ActionScript 2/3
Adobe Flash

Shepherd’s Heart – Global Game Jam ’13 (Xbox 360, Windows)

andrewjmeade — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 02:48:33 +0000

Shepherd’s Heart was a game made for the Xbox 360 in 48 hours at the Global Game Jam ’13, hosted by Full Sail University in Orlando, FL.

Going into the project, we knew that we wanted to do something for the Xbox 360, so we scoped our project accordingly. We felt that a game built for the Xbox would be a pretty impressive thing to do in 48 hours, so we mostly focused on getting the tech right, as well as giving the game a degree of polish that GGJ games usually lack. We gave the game a ton of love on the front end, and even had time to push localization live.

As a Designer, Game Jams are an opportunity for me to flex my “Producer” chops, so that’s what I did. Through the course of the project, I helped the game keep scope, acted as a liaison between team members, and provided QA and feedback through playtesting. I also wrote the story.

As the GGJ13 theme was “Heart”, the game is about a heart that is flying through space, dispatching evil mutant bugs that have been disturbing the peace. When the player finally gets to the boss, their goal is to not destroy the boss, but to integrate with it, therefore giving it a heart and healing the galaxy. I know. Silly. Shepherd’s Heart got its name from “Shepherd Satellites”, large objects that skirt a planet’s rings, providing the necessary gravitational pull to keep the ring from breaking apart and go flying into space.

You can download Shepherd’s Heart here for Windows. It requires an Xbox 360 controller to play.

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The Team:

Ingrid Aguero - Artist

Kerry Allen - Producer/Programmer

Mary Chadbourne - Audio/Music

Anna Maria DiMasi – Artist

Brett Green - Programmer

Chris Marks - Audio

Aaron I. McDonald – Artist

Heather Plunkard - Audio

Joe Ricks - Programmer

Alex Rodriguez - Programmer

Robert Stewart – Programmer

You can also visit the team site as we blogged live from the Game Jam.

Time To Build: 48 Hours

Tools Used By Me: Excel, Word, XNA, Tortoise

Forward Observer: Echo (UDK)

andrewjmeade — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 03:59:39 +0000

This is a level that I made in three days. I wanted to do something that was mostly static mesh, so that’s what I did! It is composed of mostly UDK assets, although some public domain and personal assets are used as well.

Forward Observer: Echo is meant to represent a section of a large single-player experience.

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Time To Build: 3 Days

Tools Used: UDK, Maya, Photoshop

Sludgeworks Echo (UDK)

andrewjmeade — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 03:58:03 +0000

Sludgeworks Echo is the spiritual predecessor to the more fully realized “Forward Observer: Echo”. This is a very small multiplayer map that I created in just under 8 hours. The map has a main area, a deck, and a basement. In the basement is a portal that can shoot the player back up to the deck. This map is fully ready to go for multiplayer.

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Time To Build: 8 Hours

Tools Used: UDK, Kismet

Terminal Derailed (UDK)

andrewjmeade — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 03:57:58 +0000

Terminal Derailed is a single-player level, set within a third person shooter environment. The goal is for the player to infiltrate the (seemingly) locked train station, make their way to the train, clear the rubble, and take it to the next destination. The player must fight enemies, find weapons/powerups, and make it to the train. Terminal Derailed was developed by a four-man team over one month.

My chief job was Level Design. I am responsible for 90% of the backdrop and terrain. I also did BSP work and meshes. I also spearheaded most of the materials, in an effort to keep a consistent theme for the entire level. Nothing, however, was a complete solo effort, as there was one other team-member who was also concerning himself with meshes and BSP.

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The Team:

Andrew Meade

Andrew Pace

Matt Rodriguez

Aaron Warren

Time To Build: One Month

Tools Used (By Me): UDK, Photoshop, Whiteboard

Do The Deux – MolyJam12 (UDK)

andrewjmeade — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 03:56:39 +0000

Do The Deux was a game made for MolyJam12, a 48 hour game jam centered around the fictional works of the faux Peter Molyneux, Peter “Molydeux”. The constraints of the contest were centered around theming games around his tweets, so we chose to make a platformer where the player is searching for the green pixel. I was the sole Designer/Programmer of the project, and put out all the content in under 48 hours. I was responsible for all Kismet, UnrealScript, Mechanics, Level Design, and more!

I take credit mostly for implementation, however. I was in a great little team of guys that were fantastic with brainstorming, and coming up with key gameplay moments.

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The Team:

Steven Belowski – Audio/FX
Andrew Meade – Design/Programming
John Ryan – Audio/Narrative
Victor Sosa – Art/Modeling

Time To Build: 48 Hours

Tools Used (By Me): UDK, Kismet, UnrealScript, Photoshop, Whiteboard

Download Link

Tundra (Unity)

andrewjmeade — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 03:55:28 +0000

I’ve always been a huge fan of Unity’s terrain editor, so I decided to make a map that focused on that over anything else. Tundra is a first person single-player level scripted in C#. The player must make it to the wreckage of their ship, find that it’s destroyed, hunt for a tool, and get the wrench – only to realize that a wrench can’t put out a fire! All code and terrain was done by me, and the models were found on the internet.

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Time To Build: 2 Days

Tools Used: Unity, MonoDevelop

Ancient Conservatory (UDK)

andrewjmeade — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 03:54:08 +0000

For this level, I was tasked with elaborating on a concept that was already given to us. Working off a pre-existing level created by UDK Svengali Hourences, I built this hallway and conservatory as a completely original and independent addition to the already supplied resource.

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Time To Build: 2 Days

Tools Used: UDK, Kismet, Whiteboard