Introduction:
The focus today was mostly on level design, adding more things for the player to maneuver through in order to reach the next area.
Stairs:
I learned that Unreal Engine has built-in stair creation using the Modeling Mode. It was super simple to create a staircase of pretty much any length, height or even adjusting the number of individual steps.
Bridges:
The main focus of this tutorial was to add some height to the level, so after creating the stairs I created a bridge using a megascan mesh. Initially I used a block shape, but I wanted to make it look at least slightly more realistic, so I replaced it with a megascan I previously used in the very first lava area. I resized it to turn it into a bridge for the player to cross and reach the next map area.
Conclusion:
I’m not spending anywhere close to enough time on level design to make it pretty, but I have a basic understanding of how to use the tools to make it more realistic. I don’t plan on spending much time on level design itself as my focus is on learning the tools and completing the tutorial. I can see how sketching your maps on paper would make this process go a lot smoother. There is where my Wife’s artistic skills may come in handy in the future (our kids are also really good at art!). Should be fun later on when I’m working on my own ideas, to incorporate their art into the game