Giving Life To Levels

[DwayneA]

Someone who reviewed "Shrapnel City" (the first level in the LOI remake I am working on) on blood.freeminded said that it "needs more life". Can someone please explain what it means to give a level "life"?

[Slink]

It wasn't me, but perhaps he/she meant more "ambiance"? Make it more immersive! Sounds, things going on, environment stuff...

[Tchernobog]

What I really liked about Build engine games, and Blood in particular, was the extra interactivity they offered over many of the other shooters of the time. Like walking through a hall and seeing some art on the wall or some strange object, and Caleb making some sort of comment, or a monster breaking out of wall if you do a certain thing, or being able to go some place and do some stupid pointless thing just for the hell of it.

I know that can be difficult to implement, but the payoff is usually great. A vocal main character I can understand being out of the question, but some custom art such as those in Cryptic Passage could be a nice touch. Not sure how the level in question actually plays though, as I have yet to play many Blood mods yet, as I never seem to have gotten around to it. Still, with both the LOI update and Death Wish, I may have to change that quite soon.