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Dungeon Foyer (Terraria)

My first map release, the "Dungeon Foyer" from Terraria.


This was quite an undertaking. Not only did I have to relearn how to use Hammer(I haven't used hammer in 8 years), but I had to familiarize myself with making textures for brushes for Hammer, and how to properly construct props for advanced lighting. It actually took longer to make this dungeon in Hammer than it did to make Skeletron himself.

This dungeon room was more or less a prototype in how reasonable it would be to throw together maps for Terraria, and by extension any other Original IP maps I might make in the future. It was a bit of a hassle to work on, and it required delving into quite a few source features I had never messed with. I imagine you could make some pretty amazing Terraria levels if you had the assets to do so. Maybe I'll make texture content packs for this express purpose, though that would likely be a ways off.

This level is essentially a mix and match of the exterior entrance and interior foyer from the Dungeon. The interior foyer is the room which sits above the long drop into the innards of the Dungeon. Of course, simply replicating the room from the game was a fool's errand, as I would have ended up with a simple box room with a hole and a door. I expanded on the design a bit, and drew inspiration from other games that utilize a crypt/dungeon motif, like Dark Messiah, Dark Souls, and Diablo. The result is something that feels uniquely epic and foreboding, but still retains some of the atmosphere that Terraria's Dungeon invokes.

The major additions are the "detail" models, the giant wooden door, and the stone mural on the floor. I decided that a large dungeon with a large boss deserves a large epic doorway, with a small cutout door made by the Clothier. The interior is also decorated with gel torches, clay pots, and various wooden platforms left by previous adventurers.

The stone mural on the floor... I could write pages about it. I originally wanted to have some kind of foreboding centerpiece for the room, something that would both intrigue and inspire dread. Of course, that was back when the plans for this map were far more ambitious, with traps, and stairs, and that sort. The mural was one of the few pieces that carried over from the design phase, as it was too cool to pass up.

I figured that Skeletron isn't actually related to the Eye, Eater, or any of the other bosses, as he has a unique summon mechanic and doesn't have any comparable loot drops. The actual floor design depicts the Dungeon as a safe haven for a ancient race/old humanity. Skeletron was a valiant guardian(or perhaps sacrificial protector) from an age old past, that sheltered humanity from an early corruption. Skeletron in the mural is depicted in iron armor, wearing an ancient iron helm, welcoming the various races(now the skeletal inhabitants) into the Dungeon, away from the influence of Cthulhu and his corruption. Now, in the present, he is simply a shell of his former self along with the inhabitants.

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-Comes in torch-lit and no-light versions.

-Hammer apparently hates my mural, and refuses to light it properly. I explored quite a few workarounds, mostly using lighting origins, visibility groups, and chopping it to pieces, but the results were always bad. You'll have provide some SFM lighting to fix a few of the Hammer light errors.

-The mural piece supports normal mapping. However, Hammer does not allow normal mapping on static props baked into the world. If you want high definition normal mapping on the mural, you'll have to add another one in and place it on top of the one in the floor.

-While scaled to Skeletron, the Dungeon is still a bit small for him. Just assume Skeletron has the ability to move through walls like he does in Terraria. He's a spooky ghost skeleton after all.

-I used the "burning_torch" burning player particle effect for the torches.

-All non-detail props and textures are optimized for gameplay. Feel free to use them in your own maps.

-The brick texture is "Green Slab", based on the actual Terraria brick. It supports ssbump mapping.


Includes:
terr_dungeon.bsp
terr_dungeon_nolight.bsp



The "Dungeon" depicted above, is a locale featured in the game "Terraria", and is the intellectual property of "Re-Logic".

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