I love the SNK games and this is probably the hardest I've had to dig up ref for anything, what a chore, wow. At first I was thinking Samuria Shodown, then I started hunting around and there wasn't much I could find of the stages that I loved so much when I would play it, SOOoo... I went with another favorite The Last Bade.

Here are my options:

1) The Last Blade: Fort Stage
The day before the battle, nicely lined up cannons, intact tower, maybe even a fruit or fish cart where the dogs are... and of course some happy little clouds in the distance.

2) The Last Blade: Graveyard Stage
This would be converted to a summer day time scene. Tree in full bloom, green grass, and hut/temple not trashed but in good shape.

3) The Last Blade: Yuki-Machi's Stage
I would earthquake the hell out of this... I know I know I'm horrible but screw ya and your Political Correctness.

3) The Last Blade: Zantetsu's Stage (Picking this one, yes that #3)
Not sure what I would do to this one yet, maybe transform it into a sunken ship... dunno yet... but I really like it.



4) The Last Blade: Village Stage
Winterize it, probably add a village off in the distance or some other kind of focal point.

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Progress Images from oldest to newest. Check later pages for more info.
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Knocked together ref


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Block out in 3dsmax


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Into Source


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Into UDK


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UDK Progress




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Finals

Beauty 1


Beauty 2


Construction


Materials

one two and four are all kinda boring (as far as your redesign ideas go). Both threes are much more interesting.

I like 3.

...both of them. :x

I iz grud countar...

Yea 3 and 3 are the ones I've been leaning toward. The Yuki-Machi Stage (village at night time) is the one I first thought about doing. It was just brought up that some people might have a severe reaction to earthquake damaged Japanese architecture...

I personally think number one would be the most interesting, to compare it with the original.

Meh, you do you, boo boo.

Out of the two, the sunken ship seems more original. The earthquake could easily turn into yet another post apoc. scene, so the final product may come off contrived.

I don't think people would be offended by the earthquake unless you purposely make it look racist somehow...

PogoP, That's what drew me to that stage, it could be contrasted pretty easily. But I think its a big scene with a lot of work and that's starting put me off to the idea =/

Ok, I'm starting to lean toward the sunken ship idea, but I'm not sure it would make much sense in a fighting game... but then again people fight on airplane wings all time so why not underwater? The fighting area might be inside a glass tank or the wreck is behind some ultra thick Plexiglas or something.

It seems like there is a lot I can do with the lighting and ambiance of the ship wreck idea.

3 it is... but I'll sleep on it and decide between the two. Thanks for the input guys!

Damn, I really wanna see 2 in a bright street fighter 4 style like that stage under the bridge.

I think 3 and 1 are the strongest ideas, but you're absolutely right, I was thinking the same thing about them fighting underwater.. maybe they're fighting at an aquarium?

what about having the ship in the process of sinking? Water spilling into it through the cannon holes, ceiling half ripped off. Make it like they were being boarded and it all went to hell maybe. It would make since for having a battle there as well.

Originally Posted by fearian

Damn, I really wanna see 2 in a bright street fighter 4 style like that stage under the bridge.

I like them all and might do a few of them just to flesh out and update my portfolio, after 4-5 years it needs a lot of lovin...

I like pratus's idea of the ship half sunk, it does a good job of leaving it open to being a fighting stage without going super contrived to force it to make sense. But having it in the act of sinking means I miss out on things like barnacles and other encrusted bits of junk... It also stays a little too close to the source material (just add water?) so what if it ran aground a few years ago, partially submerged? I get to encrust things and it still works as a stage.

Super quick and nasty mock up, hopefully you get the point, water, encrusted stuff, caustics, god rays and old wood with a few misc props...

I really like the idea of the half sunk ship, could work with the rules I guess. Looking forward to seeing some really cool water in your stage =)

yeah sunken ship all the way dude !

could be in a tidal zone - they are fighting at low tide so theres only a little water about but the walls are still dripping with seaweed and barnacles.

love the water coming in, nice twist.

one of the best levels in any fighter, can't go wrong with this approach. maybe some of the crates and supplies can be floating?

Nice I really like the half sunken ship. Looks like we're thinking a lot a like, I planned on doing something similar with my stage

Thanks guys.

Got up a little early this morning and started blocking stuff in and doing some preliminary lighting, work and life have been kicking my ass.

2D drawings don't always play by the same rules so the proportions are off, meh close enough I guess... Don't want to fall behind which I'm starting to do...

great idea. lighting this thing should be fun with all the reflections. Should have plenty of good ref from Dead mans chest.

That's fancy. Plan on doing anything cool with the water?
You should check out pirates of the caribbean some, might give you some ideas for the insides. I think there was a few "water" scenes in there.

Out of your ideas this is the best one. Go go power maaarkyyyy

PS: Are you planning on doing anything superawesome with the water?

This is looking pretty cool. I am excited to see how you handle the lighting in here!

Great composition so far.

After spending a week learning/fighting with UDK I decided to go with Source since I know it better. I importing the blocked out chunks into source and its full of lighting errors and a quick compile but I should probably post some progress...

I've been working:
- Water (A LOT of water work left to do).
- Some base lighting 3 lights plus some slight HDR from the skybox.
- Some tile textures just so I can do some lighting, 1 wood and 1 plank wood are applied to everything.

Probably good enough for now, need to jump back in and start modeling/detailing some of the final pieces.

Hey, Mark. Nice to see you progress! The composition is nice but the tiling on the floor, though obviously wip, still messes with perception of scale for now.
With a bunch of water effects and some more debris and props this would be awesome. Are you planing something for the foreground?
And yeah, just an idea, some caustic reflections on the ceiling would look really cool.
Good luck!

edit:
http://wn.com/water_caustics_in_source
found this, just in case

Hey d1ver those are some good ideas, the caustics in that scene are just animated textures, I was hoping that they had some kind of projector that could do the same effect, I'm still looking into tho there seems to be a few promising leads.

I'm thinking of transforming it a bit, from a sunken ship to a sunken ship that was converted into a pirate base or at least a place they would stash supplies.

The stage would travel left and right and include beach/dock to the left and to the right would lead into the pirate base.


Whats left:
Unwraping and materials
Caustic effects on everything (still using just 3 place holder tiles)
Model, crows nest on a small rocky out cropping out in the water.
Model barrel (ooo thats a hard one heh)
Model cargo netting/ropes/rigging
Model light and other misc props to fill things out.
Sun Rays.
If time permits a foliage pass.