Michael G's Progress/Work done Update

I've began building different areas now.

I have also built and textured indented walls so the environment is less samey within the game, the added variation increases immersion

The vent is now pretty much complete, allowing the player to enter it and hide from enemies.

Another Small light with a light shaft effect, this one however is flickering due to power loss, i've applied an animation to the shaft, light, and material.

I've Added some small lights to the stairs to grab the players attention and lead them in the right direction to explore.

I've also began adding clutter that has been shoved against the wall like it would be realistically, this adds some immersion to the environment.

Here again is an example of the new texture of the wooden garbage pile, you can really see the definition and depth in normal map.

I've put a small light behind the helpful man with a light shaft applied, with a floor light beside him also to make him stand out some more.

I Have Also Updated the Textures of the wooden garbage piles, the bump map did not have enough depth to it before, so i re-did it and it's now much more intense and realistic, as well, beforehand, the Diffuse lacked any dirt and looked too clean, so applied to grunge to it to blend in with the environment more.

These are new crates i have modeled and textured with a specular, diffuse and normal map using crazy bump.
the diffuse texture was completely made from 3 seperate metal textures and a custom made roll texture with an overlay metal texture on it, with some dirt and grunge to finish them off, it was done in Photoshop.

This area here features a small light which casts a shaft through the wooden panels that are used as a bridge to cross the gaping endless black hole beneath the player.

A Metal Panel Texture I Created

New Additions :

Light Shafts: I've found a light shafts script online and applied it to a selection of lights. the effect is wonderful and really adds to the immersion and atmosphere of the game.

Crates: I textured and built the crates in photoshop and Maya, the bumps on the textures were done by Filling a selected area, changing the layer to multiply, and adding Stroke, Outer glow, Inner Glow, Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow to the textures to give them the metal panel indentations

Indented walls: Built and textured by myself to add some structural variation to the environment.

Small Lights: Small light textured and built by me, so i can place them around the map conveniently 

Stairs

Environment building

New Footstep sounds

Giant hole with wooden bridge

Vent

Light Dust

Added Clutter

New Alien Floors

Response from the COTA team.

Today we had Gustavo, Luke and Charlie Scott come in to give us a critique on our game. We got some really awesome advice on how to improve our game, which we are going to use to help improve our game. 

From Gustavo:

Small Changes:

• The Floor lights are too close to the ground (they don't show enough of the floor detail as they are too low).
• A positive he claimed that "The alien is freaky man!" however, "Jesus I feel sick". We might need to adjust it to suit with the oculas to stop dizzyness. Apparently not having lights makes you more disorientated.
• Another oculas change, possibly alter the controls so that it rotates the player around instead of just relying on mouse. This makes it more immersive and only really relying in the moving forward/running/crouching. And maybe an in game calibration for the oculas so that you can set up and teach the player how to lean.
• Each week get someone else to check it, they always have a different opinion.

Big Changes:

• Should landmark certain areas - This is probably the most important advice so that the player knows how to navigate around the maze, as to were certain things are. We can do this by for example having a broken generator in the corner so the player knows "ah I go left by the generator to go that way" etc. As an example we already have, Gustavo recognised the middle bit and where the broken pipe was. 
• For when hiding from the alien - Tell the alien to NOT collide with a layer that is between the alien and the player (you can do this in the editor). It stops the alien ray-casting to the player (we can always message him for help).

Style Changes:

• You can't really see the floor - needs to be lighter so you can see where your going and also see details.
• The Ground is a bit flat - possibly add in some ditches and more obstacles to give the player another thing to worry about.
• Looks a bit repetitive - if we keep it dark we don't need to worry however a few people have mentioned to lighten it up (to see more detail). Even though its alien/scifi we should still have a few bent/broken areas. Make walls less straight.

Positives:

• He loves the monster sound and suggests a horrible scream when the alien gets close. "I love anything that sounds like a dinosaur"
• The creature is cool, and so is the environment/current lighting. However was a bit unsure about the rubbish piles, thought they weren't very effective/good.