A walk through the Depths Below

I have spent the evening and the morning grappling with build issues, which may or may not be the apocalypse of my game, but for tonight I’ll be installing and walking through this new asset by Sidearm Studios, called “Depths Below”.

Robert Roeder is the artist who created this work. He worked on iconic games, designing some of the most beautiful levels in the medium. Now he has teamed up with Sidearm Studios. He has really created something special this time.

It is a professional quality hubworld, or dungeon, which will make any game more beautiful.

Hey, by the way, if you want something nice and professional to go with your new trophy asset, why not pick up iClone7???

I have seen video of it, but I have never looked through it, my mind is already whirring when I think of what exactly I will be doing doing with this level. *bell* I know what to do now, the game is already taking shape in my head, but that is neither here nor there, let’s install first. What do we see??

Beautiful,

Just beautiful….

Buy it here, you will not regret this, Baskin assures it.

Migrating Assets from One Project to Another

Before I do anything with this and start picking it apart, I need to import this level into my game, so that I may spin machinations with it. Give me a few minutes, go to the content folder in content browser, and select anything you wish to migrate to your project.

Right Click -> Migrate -> OK to select all -> Then navigate to the content folder of your project. ‘Select Folder’.

Boot up your game.

While we’re waiting, you can also check out Gamedev.gg, our subscription service, where you can learn how to make your own games.

And here we have it

On a side note I’m happy to see there is no override to my gamemode, I don’t want to boot up my game and see some elaborate matinee sequence, I want my game mode.

Well that’s my hub world…..

That’s exactly what I needed for my game. Many Doors will lead back to here.

That’s actually a non-trivial thing I like in my game worlds, I like lots of doors. Doors lead to other levels, a level with many doors, takes you to many places at once. I like lots of doors, and they have some beautiful ones’s here.

Oddly I can already see how Depths Below fit’s into my game. The hub world can be accessed from many places, you will go through different doors and be taken to different major levels, but most of the doors will be locked at first. There’s a skeleton character in here, let me find her,

I’m going to make this character into a shopkeeper, eventually…. At first you will just walk up to her, and she will spout off a few lines of dialogue spoken by yours truly.

I began to plan and scheme

Here’s where the main character [name withheld] will be hanging out. The level will be populated with various NPC’s, both hostile and passive, who you may kill. She will be issuing quests from here, sending you to other parts of the world, to complete missions, and come back for your reward.

I also noticed,
Now where was it?

This sword, that’s a nice touch. Maybe when the player croaks I’ll have them respawn over here. And that door will lead out into the first world.

Then as you unlock more, this door will take you to the second world. I need this guy to talk:

I am already gleeful when considering the amount of mischief I can get up to in this place.

There will be people in the cages.

This unlocks later.

Some cool treasure chests here:

The third world will unlock here, a lot further into development. I look at this, and just feel inspired, this will carry my game several steps forward, I need to pick out some music for it.

I stand in awe

This is honestly one of the most, if not the most beautiful asset I have ever seen. I think this takes the cake, to be Frank. This would not just not be out of place in the best games in the industry, this is actually higher quality.

I am in awe of this.

If you’re developing in Unreal, you want this. Get this. It is GOOD.

I cannot recommend the Depths Below enough. This asset will make my game so amazing, and yours will be even better. Get this, fast. With the speed of a thousand gravities, get this asset, it’s amazing.

Actually I’d describe it as “Outlandishly Good”.

Robert Roeder and Sidearm Studios have outdone themselves this time. If you’re looking for a top quality asset for your Unreal Game, this is the way to go, I cannot even imagine how nice this will look in Unreal 5, on a new machine.

Modular Parts

I almost forgot, a big part of this review is going over the modular parts, to build a level from scratch with the resources from this asset. I’m not sure I can achieve anything relating to the quality of the original environment, but let’s see what we can do.

The pieces are very nicely constructed, they fit together well and you can easily just start building with them.

In no time at all, I have a little level built here, perhaps it will be good enough to include in my game.

Alright let’s add some lighting

I am neither a master of light, or a professional level designer, so this is the best I could do in a short time. I will continue working on it.

Props…. not the pieces, props to Robert Roeder

I find these pieces very easy to work with, and they can make the scene look really interesting and full without too much effort. If you put in some effort, well we’ve all seen what Robert did with these pieces. Whew!

Which gives the room a really nice look, it’s just so pretty, in a kind of simplistic feng shui sort of way.

As I continue my work, the stone walls curl in a sphere, meeting at a towering wooden door designed for a giant. Then I made a giant, the giant cannot attack me due to it’s hitbox or something, but I can sure attack the giant, and it’s fun to kill. However that scene contains development secrets for my game so I can’t show you yet, and yes this will be a level in my game.

I am very happy with this asset, both the brilliant mausoleum scene, my new hub world, and the modular pieces themselves. It is top quality work, and it will jump start your game.

Check it out!