After my week's luxorious holiday, I'm back to see some changes made to the Hellgate team. Spookily, Greg is still part of the team. He's currently still lounging around the office in a mad state of limbo watching the clock tick for when he's officially leaving. And just when I wrote him a goodbye e-mail...! It seems that Greg's going to be around for some time now seeming that the management don't know what to do with him. There's probably the obvious chance for them to leech Greg dry. Also, Greg isn't getting on too well with Ernie, which brings me to the next bit of Hellgate re-arrangement.

Ernie is now Head Project Manager of Hellgate! Greg fumes about it a bit, and this gossip is getting so meaty, it's now on my home PC. Well, not that meaty. Still, there are some reservations about communication with Ernie. When I became Head Artist, one of my job descriptions is to communicate with all artists, and I do that well. Unless, of course, you are the rebellious artist known as Nick. I come back from my hols, and the monolith level is still unfinished. What didn't I say? Ernie is a bit miffed over this, and so am I. Looks like some late nights are in order to get the level FINALLY finished. And even when it is finished, there's talk of events in different rooms. Meaning MORE level manipulation. Building the levels is only the start!

I do want to get the swamp level built pretty sharpish, so hopefully by the end of the week the thing will be ready. Toks has already done his half, so characters could be next on his list. John and Andy have been amazing in getting the Graveyard level sorted out, with Andy building the underground sections of the graveyard, and John building the upper buildings of the graveyard. Also a new weapon has been put into the game - our version of the BFG. We need a witty name for it, though. I haven't seen it in action, but I've been told the Deathmatch section is now running very well in 30fps. Nick was working on his Hellhound (hence my slight miffed-off-ness with him), though it is going to be for a specific section of the cavern. Perhaps I shouldn't be too hard on his rebellious nature. One day it'll make him go far in the games development world. After all, he has a lot to learn about late nights and Red Bull. So have I actually.

Shock move of the day - because I spent all week on my arse and getting paid for it, I've splashed out MY OWN DOSH(!) on an office Dreamcast. Much to the unsurprising looks to the office as they see me bring even more stuff into the office. Still, now we can play all games without fear of the Dreamcast dev kits spitting them back out at us. I'm going to bring Sega Bass Fishing to the crowds of expectant fellow work colleagues! Oh, and a little game called Crazy Taxi...

I did also buy Soul Reaver as well for the office - part of the £150(!) package deal at Currys and everywhere else. The levels in Soul Reaver are gorgeous because of the fact an architect was employed to produce some of the buildings in the level. Sounds familiar? Alf and co questioned why I was playing the game, and I said "vertex colouring information, manipulation and texture mipmapping compression" and they left me alone. Must spout techno-babble more often. It's strange the guilt I get from playing games even though it's our job to produce and play those games..! Still, it looks like I have a companion for the office when those allnighters start drawing in.

It is good to have Greg back for the while - more Quake III fun! Plus, I did promise him I'd do a Quake III model, just that sussing out shader files is a bit of an arse. I'll pull through...

I officially spent my birthday in the office working most of the night. Sad, I know, but it was actually self-inflicted, which is even sadder. Still, I am putting myself in good shape(?!) for the beginning of the inevitable "living in the office" stage of development which is going to happen to almost everyone in the office, with the obvious exception of management. (Hee hee!). Some of the art team like John and Toks are in denial, saying they'd be working at home, but I've seen it with my own eyes in the Liverpool office. I've seen the frenzied tiredness and shattered lives of Music 2000's last few weeks, and the team were practically living in the office.

The reason for my madness is that we have officially 3 months left to get Hellgate ship-shape and sorted out. The Monolith level is in it's FINAL (I mean that, now!!!) stages of completion. It's all built and that's set in stone. There was worry from the programmers and some management that we've been working on this level for ages, but let's not forget that this has been the testbed level for collision, etc. While we've been on that, the Tokyo and E3 demo deadlines hit hard into our schedule, and also we had niggles with exporting the level out. But now, this next week will see the absolute and total end of the monolith level.

VMU Animator is the package I used for all VMU animations, and is obtainable from sega.com

Click on image to enlarge.

Andy was mad enough to work with me through the night, though I was lucky to have a kip on the sofa in the office for a few hours, which refreshed me for the morning after. I think I need to get into a regular routine of doing this, because at the end of the day, if the game graphically isn't finished, a huge chunk comes out of my behind. I'd rather put in the effort now, adapt to the soon-to-come horrific hours and get a smile from the boss for my efforts.

I do want to see Hellgate look as gorgeous as possible, and I believe we're at a good stage with the monolith level. It's around 90% completed, no new textures to produce and guess what? Andy has finished scripting the game, so it's becoming a lot more like HalfLife in terms of doors opening and new places to go to. It's spooky, but this game is shaping up more and more each day, and I love that process.

Ernie is working on the network code for - shock, horror! Online play!! Online deathmatch play!! The deathmatch mode is looking ultra-sexy now, which is always a relief. There is only the VM menu to produce on the front end, plus VM code. I'd love to have an animated burning skull on the VM unit, I really would... Toks is working flat out on character stuff now, plus props for the Lava level Andy has almost completed. The city level needs lighting and some textures to readdress, but that's almost sorted out. The graveyard is taking shape, I need to do loads of geometry for my half of the swamp level, and the Ice level is.... err. Not done yet. We do need a stereotypical ice level, though.

Mark is producing FMV for some bits of the game, though I'd like to forget the fact we might have to do FMV. Why can't we just use the sodding in-game engine like many DC games?! 4 Wheel Thunder's FMV uses the in-game course geometry and it works a treat. Well, dear reader, prepare for 3 months of panic, stress, and general slow increasing of my belly as you embark with me on the journey of soul-stretching and god knows what else..!

Can't wait.

Oh, and I'm currently enjoying Zelda 64, Resident Evil 4 - gorgeous looking game..! and looking forward to my FREE (FREE!!!) copy of Chu Chu Rocket. God, I love Sega.

The whole sodding monolith level is completed. Warts 'n' all, events produced as seperate segments, and although there are a few VERY minor things which could be produced on the level, it is more or less finished. I still have to add some Jester Level materials - basically materials which can have attributes like "No Collision", "UV Scroll" (for texture scrolling), "Don't Draw" and (ahem) "Hurty Pain". The lava will be UVed and Hurty Pained. I need to talk to the programmers about this, because we can have stalictites on the ceiling which can have a non-colliding material. I mean, if you can't get up to the stalictites, why bother making them collidable?

The city had that problem - lots of geometry equals lots of collision data. So, we can make materials non-collidable, draw a box around some parts and then make the box collidable and a no draw object with its material. With me so far? There's also a lot of vertex volume lighting knocking around the level, so it's a case of no-collision for that, too. I've also worked incredibly insane hours for the monolith level to be completed, even to the point of sleeping on the sofa and waking up to see Lee (one of the management) with a "I've been there too" look. It was actually quite scarily enjoyable, so perhaps my job is an ideal one. Or I'm just plain insane.

Mock up of the first build of the Deathmatch front end stuff. Yes, I know the exhausts shouldn't be gold... :)

Next week we have to have a demo knocked up for prospective publishers to have a look at. The monolith level is out of the way, though there is talk of getting sections from each level and putting them in the whole level, going from one inclosed segment to the next. A good advert for the whole feel of the game. The graveyard level is just about built, with John needing to add textures. Andy has also done underground sections of the graveyard, textured and vertex coloured. We are also currently in the process of adding environmental stuff to the game. Already Ernie has added rain which needs some tweaking, plus we need to add animated water with splashes, etc. I wonder how easy it would be to add reflection? Hydro Thunder faked reflection sometimes and did so really well indeed.

The event stuff is fantastic, though, because now there is an added dimension to the levels. Doors have magically appeared, switches have been created, plus some cerebal stuff has also been produced. And it's all been built! Ahahahahaaa!

We had a section of the city level in the Dreamcast at last, and it was weird at first because all the wall textures were strobbing something rotten. The UVs were too well scaled. So, a day of reworking and vertex colouring later and - voila! Andy worked a minor miracle on the city. The colour scheme was the same as the underground sections of the Graveyard - blues, aquamarines and oranges, though it worked incredibly well with the rain effect in the city, subdueing the tone. We could well have a sunset in the making as well, which would make the city incredibly moody. I can't wait! There's going to be a skybox added to it as well, cloudy sunset.... hmm. Could be nice. There's going to be a Nomad Soulness to the city, without the chronic fogging. (Heh heh). Mark is working on FMV and shouting us all for models of the demon bikers. At least the ice demon biker is finished. Toks is also working flat out on character stuff now, leaving me... doing more and more stuff. Yipe!

So it is all going well. Except I still haven't built my half of the swamp because of all the level management I've been undertaken. Though now I'm starting to work insane hours, this should mean I can start making even more progress on the game. These hours are Tuesday-Wednesday and Thursday-Friday with an optional weekend which I can either take at home, or at work. For the very last month, the office is going to be completely lived in, with the Music 3 boys also working like hounds, while we all develop that chronic symptom of "developer belly". My belly is already groaning from the muffin eating, though there is still more to come..!!

Oh, and the Dreamcast-to-Dreamcast link up is working 100%! Another thing is that I've played Chu Chu Rocket online, and lo! It's bloody fantastic! We're going to base our networking on the way Chu Chu does, hopefully, because Sega are very interested in having our game online. I relaly wish that we can have more time to produce the game and fine tune it properly. I knew Metropolis Street Racer was set to be online in substance at least due to the longer development time. We need that longer development time, though management are convinced that PS2 is going to be the all-conquering hero and DC is going to cough dust. I really don't think so - DC is going from strength to strength, E3 has also proved this, and for online gaming, DC is unbeatable.

But I know one thing for sure - we're in for one hell of a crazy 11 weeks...!