The new Unreal Tournament is being made in front of people in nearly real-time. You're able to watch design ideas move from concepts into reality. The game's main new stage, Outpost 23, has come a long way since its artistic sketches, and it's really fun to watch the transition happen.
The folks behind the stage recently got together to talk about it:
Building a level starts with an idea, which then becomes concept art...
...to rudimentary polygons...
...to much nicer polygons with textures and other flashy pieces...
...to implementing the subtle details, like flourishes of animation...
...to letting people play it, and blow each other up...
I think I need to go play some Unreal Tournament.
You can reach the author of this post at patrick.klepek@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @patrickklepek.