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Unreal Game Development
Unreal Game Development

Ashish Amresh
Alex Okita

A K Peters, Ltd.

A K Peters, Ltd.
Natick, Massachusetts
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2010 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

Version Date: 20110714

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4398-7122-5 (eBook - PDF)

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author
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ers of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not
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I dedicate this book to my parents, Latha and Amresh, who
for years have patiently withstood all my whims and fancies
and to my wife, Kiran, without whose unquestioning support
this book would not have been possible.
—A. A.

I thank my mother, Sandi Okita, for always supporting me.

—A. O.
 Acknowledgments
When Camp Game was started seven years ago at New York University (NYU), it was
by and large an experiment to see what teenagers would come up with if taught state
of the art video game development skills. The magic created by the students each year
eventually convinced us that that the camp curriculum needed to be shared with a
larger audience. This book is an effort to help educators create similar magic by intro-
ducing the process of video game development into their schools.
First and foremost we would like to thank the students and their parents for partic-
ipating in the camp game programs at NYU and Arizona State University (ASU).
Secondly, we would like to thank the instructors who have lectured over the years at
Camp Game, namely Dov Jacobson and Tim Fielder at NYU; Ara Shirinian, Geoff
Wall, Robert Srinivasiah, Clark Morrisaint, Joseph Grossmann and Arnaud Ehgner
at ASU. We would like to specifically thank Ara and Geoff for helping us with proof-
reading and content editing. We would like to thank the sponsors of the program
over the years, especially Mark Rein, Mike Capps, and Tim Sweeney at Epic Games,
Steve Singer at Nintendo, Paul Skiera at Adaptive Curriculum, Mark Buchignani at
Rainbow Studios, and Maureen Higgins at Autodesk. We’d also like to thank Stan
Miskiewicz, Alejandro Gil and the rest of the folks who I worked with at Black Point
Studios for years of great work with the Unreal Engine, and also to wish the best for
Justin Miur and Martin Murphy formerly of Midway Games. Finally we would like to
thank Alice Peters and her team at A K Peters for believing in us and helping us pave
the way for this fantastic curriculum to be accessible to students all over the world.

vi
 Table of Contents

Acknowledgments�������������������������������������������������������������������� vi
Required Tools�������������������������������������������������������������������������� ix
Introduction: So You Want To Make Games������������������������������� xi

I. Design

1. Coming Up with a Plan ����������������������������������������������������������� 3

2. Level Design ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 19
3. Leading the Player with Lighting ����������������������������������������� 47
4. Terrain �������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 59
5. Managing Levels ����������������������������������������������������������������� 67
6. Events and Triggers: What’s Kismet? ������������������������������������ 91
7. User Interfaces and Menus ��������������������������������������������������111
8. Refining Your Work ������������������������������������������������������������ 131
9. Special Effects and Cutscenes ������������������������������������������� 139
10. Animated Characters in Cutscenes ������������������������������������ 161

II. Art

11. Art, “The Unreal Way” ������������������������������������������������������� 173

12. 3D Design and Autodesk 3D Studio Max ����������������������������� 175

vii
 13. 2D Images and GIMP �������������������������������������������������������� 195
14. Using Max with GIMP ������������������������������������������������������� 207
15. Process and Methods ������������������������������������������������������� 223
16. Making Better Materials ��������������������������������������������������� 229
17. Props and Objects ������������������������������������������������������������ 245
18. Dynamic Objects �������������������������������������������������������������� 255
19. Weapons �������������������������������������������������������������������������� 273
20. Cascade and Particle Systems ������������������������������������������ 283
21. Character Rigging ������������������������������������������������������������ 297
22. Character Animation ��������������������������������������������������������� 317
23. The AnimTree Editor �������������������������������������������������������� 337

III. Programming

24. Why Learn Unreal? ����������������������������������������������������������� 353

25. Introduction to Unreal Script ������������������������������������������� 357
26. Mutators ������������������������������������������������������������������������� 369
27. Mods ������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 379
28. Weapons and Characters ������������������������������������������������� 385
29. AI ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 391
30. Finishing Touches ������������������������������������������������������������ 395

viii
 Required Tools
This book uses the Unreal Engine 3 to teach game design. We cover both the Unreal
Development Kit, better known as UDK, and Unreal Tournament 3, or UT3. UT3
can be downloaded via Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/). UDK can be
downloaded at http://www.udk.com/. UDK is updated monthly and many changes
and advancements have been added to it. UT3 hasn’t been drastically updated since
its release but most of the tools found in UT3 are still in use in UDK. Both UDK and
UT3 are based on Unreal Engine 3 or UE3 (licensing information available at http://
www.unrealtechnology.com/).
Some of the tutorials found in this book were created using UT3: at the time of
the authoring of this book, UDK was not yet available. But this book can be used with
either UDK or UT3; while UT3 may have features that visually differ from UDK,
much of the functionality remains unchanged. As a beginning student learning to
use the Unreal Engine, you will not need to know the details of the latest releases for
UDK. Many of the additions to UDK simply add new tools on top of the engine’s core
functionality.
When you install and play most Unreal Engine–based games, the Editor is already
present: the game is also the Editor! Simply adding “editor” to the command line of
the shortcut to the game will launch the game in editor mode. These sorts of topics
will be covered in greater detail when we begin.
In addition to Unreal Engine 3, you’ll also be required to use some 3D authoring
software. Unreal Engine has very primitive modeling tools but these are not meant
for building characters, vehicles, or props. For these sorts of complex models we’ll
be using 3D Studio Max, a leading 3D-modeling software produced by Autodesk.
A 30-day free trial is available at http://autodesk.com/. Alternatively, software
like Blender 3D, an open source 3D modeling application available at http://www
.blender.org/, can be used.
To complete the tutorials, you’ll also need 2D image-editing software. For the tuto-
rials in this book we’ll introduce you to GIMP, a popular open source 2D image-edit-
ing software available for free at http://www.gimp.org/. You may already be familiar
with Adobe Photoshop (see https://www.photoshop.com/), which also works well.
To complete the programming section of this book you can use any text editor.
Unreal Engine 3 uses an interpreted language called Unreal Script, or UScript for
short. Unreal Script is similar to Java but has a lot of custom programming conven-
tions specifically designed for multiplayer games. Though we don’t recommend using
Notepad, you don’t have to have anything more than that. But we recommend text
editing software capable of syntax highlighting. For this we’ll be using WOTgreal, a
text editor with syntax highlighting specifically designed for Unreal Script and avail-
able as freeware at http://www.wotgreal.com/. UltraEdit, available for purchase at
http://www.ultraedit.com/, is another available text editor.

ix
 All content, tutorials, and resources used and created in this book are available for
download at http://www.akpeters.com/unrealgamedev. The site also includes tools
for instructors, including lesson plans and class presentations.

Preferred Tool Alternate Tool

3d Art Autodesk 3ds Max*, Maya Blender (freeware)
Assets www.autodesk.com www.blender.org
Adobe Photoshop GNU Image Manipulation
2d Art
www.photoshop.com Program (freeware)
Assets
www.gimp.org
WOTgreal (freeware) UltraEdit
Programming
www.wotgreal.com www.ultraedit.com
Unreal Editor of Unreal Development Kit
Design Unreal Tournament III www.udk.com
(included)
* A free 30-day trial of 3ds Max is available from Autodesk’s website.

x
Introduction: So You Want To Make Games
Who This Book Is For

I remember one of the first times I ever laid eyes on a video game. It was 1986, and I
was ten years old. My mother had foolishly allowed me to loiter around a small video
arcade at a Montgomery Ward department store as she went about her shopping busi-
ness. It was foolish for her, of course, because it would take some considerable effort
on her part to finally pry me away.
Quarter-less yet curious, I was perfectly content to gaze into the screen across
some teenager’s shoulder. As I stood there, everything else in the department store
just faded away. The room, the arcade cabinets, the people—none of them existed any
more as my complete attention was on Mario, in Vs. Super Mario Bros., traversing this
strange world of pipes and creatures.
I didn’t fully understand what I was seeing at the time, certainly not in terms that
I understand now, but the memory of that game was burned into my head so com-
pletely that I can remember the exact screens and sequence of this strange kind of
emotional drama unfolding in front of me: not drama in the sense of a soap opera or
of someone losing his temper—but the emotional weight of what was actually going
on in the game, exaggerated by the novelty of it all. Mario stands up on a pipe, as
the bad guy below wanders back and forth. How is the player going to get past this?
Mesmerized, I watched him skillfully jump down from the pipe and take care of the
bad guy by a few deft dodges and jumps. The action was rudimentary, but to see a
video game like this for the first time was exciting! Before I could take another breath,
Mario jumped up onto another pipe, and this time there were two bad guys below—
now this was a serious challenge! But the pair of Goombas, as I later learned the bad
guys were called, were too much for the brave player, and my introduction to Mario
had come to an end.
And so began what developed into a teenage obsession with playing games, which
eventually turned into a lifetime obsession with designing games. In those early years,
I had no idea how I was going to do it, or even if I was smart enough to do it, but I knew
for sure that I wanted to make games. While seeking my own path toward becoming
a video game designer, without anyone to guide me or show direction, on that day in
 Montgomery Ward began 16 years of muddling, dabbling, dreaming, and a myriad of
tiny failures and successes.
If you can relate to this story—if you love playing video games, if you crave to
learn how to make them but you don’t know where to start, what to do, or even what
is involved in making a game—then this book is for you.

I Have No Skills (Yet), and I Must Make Games!

To get everything out of this book that we have put in, we don’t expect you to have
any programming ability or knowledge. You don’t have to be an artist or know how to
draw, and you most certainly don’t have to be a game designer. This book was written
for aspiring game makers who know that they want somehow to be involved in mak-
ing games but aren’t sure what role they want to specialize in. Even if you’re uncertain
whether making games is something you seriously want to pursue in the first place,
this book will help you solidify your goals one way or the other.
For the most part, all you need to start out with is an interest in creating video
games. However, having said that, we have made a few assumptions about your ability
when it comes to using computers.
Our lessons and tutorials go over every important operation step by step, and we
will spend a great amount of detail explaining how the various tools we use to create
games work; but you should already be able to perform everyday tasks on any recent
Windows computer without difficulty. If you check email on a regular basis and know
where your files are on your computer and how to use them, you shouldn’t have any
issues whatsoever.
If using computers is new to you, then we recommend getting up to speed with a
basic Windows user book either before or in conjunction with working on our material.
This book mirrors the curriculum we use at CampGame, a six-week summer pro-
gram organized for high school students at The New York University and Arizona
State University that has been running successfully for over five years. Students enter
with no prior knowledge of game making whatsoever, and through the course of six
intensive weeks, they finish as teams of budding game developers who have already
completed fully functional games with their own designs, code, and art.

What Can You Accomplish in Six Weeks?

Video games today are a big and serious business. Commercial projects frequently cost
tens of millions of dollars and employ several dozen of development staff, including
designers, programmers, artists, producers, and testers at a minimum. What’s more,
most game projects take at least a year of full-time effort among the staff to complete,
and it’s not unheard of to see this development cycle consume two or even three years
of time. We’ve come a long way since Atari 2600 of the early 1980s. Projects in those

xii
days usually employed a staff of just one programmer. Incidentally, this programmer
also happened to be the game designer, the artist, the sound designer and engineer
all rolled into one.
All of this may sound quite intimidating. After all, if it took a year for a skilled
jack-of-all-trades to complete a crude Atari video game, what can you hope to pos-
sibly accomplish in just six weeks, starting from scratch? For our program, the key
is in the various widely-available tools we employ (more on this in the next section)
and in a tight focus on the essentials of the game development process. Let’s face it:
No matter how smart and talented you are, it’s simply not possible to make the next
Legend of Zelda game in this span of time. However, you will have the tools and ability
to create something of that scale afterward if you so desire.
Another way we make efficient use of our program, at least in the CampGame
curriculum, is that we divide the course into three major tracks. In the first few weeks,
we teach every student the basics of each track: Design, Programming, and Art. From
that point forward, we ask each student to choose one of these specializations and
spend the majority of the remainder of the program focusing their work on that track.
Another essential part of the CampGame program is that we eventually divide the
class into teams of four to six students, each having at least one designer, programmer,
and artist. The teams spend the second half of CampGame planning and implement-
ing their own game projects. Of course, in such a compressed space of time, our stu-
dents also learn quite a bit about planning and prioritizing. The stark reality of game
development is that you never have enough time to make everything that you want.
The commercial nature of game making means that you have only a limited time in
which to finish your projects, and so decisions about what not to work on are usually
just as important as those about what to work on.
You can approach this book in one of two ways: as an individual study, or as part
of a team of at least three people—a designer, a programmer, and an artist. If possible,
we recommend that you gather up some of your friends who are just as interested in
game making as you are and work through this book in the CampGame way: impose
time limits on yourself as indicated in each chapter, pick your specializations, and use
the lessons as tools for completing your own project in six weeks. Although going
solo at your own leisurely pace is certainly a viable approach and will teach you a
tremendous amount, working through this book with a team and time limits will also
give you experience in team dynamics and prioritizing—elements that are absolutely
crucial in the real world of commercial game development.

Technologies and Tools We Use

Tools are the key to efficient game development. Over the years, game developers
realized that even if they made several rather different games, they frequently had to
do the same work over and over with the creation of each game. Back in the old days,

xiii
 there was a lot of this kind of repetition. Today, however, there are all kinds of tools
(which is just another word for a computer application) available that automate the
boring, repetitive stuff in game development.
If making a game is like building a house, the tools we use allow us to design the
shape, looks, and composition of each room just by saying what we want and where
we want each piece to go. The electrical wiring behind the walls, the plumbing, the
insulation, the foundation of the house, the air conditioning system—all the required
bits that nobody notices when they walk into your home—all that stuff is automati-
cally taken care of by our tools. In this way, we can spend all our time actually making
an interesting, beautiful house.

Preferred Tool Alternate Tool

3d Art Autodesk 3ds Max*, Maya Blender (freeware)
Assets www.autodesk.com www.blender.org
Adobe Photoshop GNU Image Manipulation
2d Art
www.photoshop.com Program (freeware)
Assets
www.gimp.org
WOTgreal (freeware) UltraEdit
Programming
www.wotgreal.com www.ultraedit.com
Unreal Editor of Unreal Development Kit
Design Unreal Tournament III www.udk.com
(included)
* A free 30-day trial of 3ds Max is available from Autodesk’s website.

Each specialty has its own tools, which are detailed in the table above. While we
will focus on one particular, preferred tool for each category of work that needs to
be done in our development cycle, we’ll also list alternate free tools that provide the
same or very similar functionality. You don’t have to purchase any additional software
to complete all the work in this book, but having access to the preferred tools will give
you an advantage, as they are also industry standards.
Some tools are used to create (or export) original assets, or files, while others take
those files, or import them, and allow you to make compositions that make up our game.
The way all our tools work together is called our work flow or tool chain or pipeline.
In our pipeline, we use 3ds Max to create our three-dimensional (3D) models
and characters and GIMP to create textures, or two-dimensional (2D) images that
will be applied to the surfaces of those 3D models, as well as any art in your game
that is 2D. We’ll use WOTgreal to help us write our program code. Although you
could use any text editor to accomplish this, WOTgreal has some nice features to
make the whole process easier. Finally, we’ll use Unreal Editor, or UnrealEd, in several
important ways. With UnrealEd, you can import all the 3D and 2D assets and code

xiv
we created with the other programs and place them into your game’s levels. UnrealEd’s
main role is that of a level editor, but it’s really much more than that. It’s where all of
the pieces come together to form your complete product, and it’s even used for creat-
ing certain art elements that are not (strictly speaking) game design-related, such as
particle systems, materials, and animated matinee sequences. But we’re getting ahead
of ourselves here.

The Game Development Cycle

Your exposure to the game development cycle in this book will be just a hint of what
usually happens in game development studios the world over. Nevertheless, it’s good
to have even a basic understanding of what happens when a studio tries to make a
game. We’ll present to you a simplified look here, as anything more is beyond the
scope of this book, but if you are interested in the details of project planning and pro-
duction there are all kinds of volumes out there to satisfy your curiosities.
Game development is a fascinating process. Most kinds of commercial projects
or products are a bit like building a bridge—it’s been done thousands of times before,
so there is usually a practiced and standard way of doing things. Your bridge might
have a fancy design or some fancy paint; but for the most part, all of the variables are
known before you make the bridge, and so you can fairly easily say that such a bridge
will take so much time to build, and you’ll rarely be too far off from the reality.
The reality when it comes to making games, however, is much different. Even for
experienced developers, making a game, in many cases, is a bit like trying to figure out
how to make a bridge when you’ve never had to build a bridge before. What’s more,
you’ll have to build your bridge while trying to figure out how to do it at the same
time. But that’s not all. As you’re building, the pieces you’re using might change shape
from one day to the next. You might even have to go back and break apart bridge sec-
tions you thought were already finished. At this rate it won’t be very long before you
stand back and ask yourself, “What kind of crazy bridge project is this, anyway?”
There are simply too many unknowns in game making to treat it like making a
bridge—at least at the start of a project. Traditionally, game projects are divided into
three main phases: preproduction, production, and testing.
Essentially, preproduction is when you decide how you’re going to make your
game. Production is when you actually build it, and testing is when you make sure
that it works the way you intended. You finish one step, and then you move onto the
next. Simple, right?
The model is simple, but unfortunately it’s not good for making games, because
it assumes that once you’re done with one phase, that part’s all done, and you move
on and never look back, kind of like building a bridge. If you make games in this way,
you might work on your game for a long time before you realize that your original
techniques are now causing you a lot of problems, and you should really have done it

xv
 a different way. So now you are stuck with the dilemma of tearing down part of your
game and re-doing it, or sticking with these inefficient, unwieldy techniques. It’s dif-
ficult to appreciate exactly what this feels like before you’ve actually experienced it
firsthand, but it’s something that every game developer goes through.
So what now? Well, the ugly truth in game making is that pretty much all phases
of the project are happing all the time during the project. You might do most of your
design (as part of preproduction) in the beginning of the project, but really you will
be designing all the way up until the end. You might do most of your testing at the end
of a project, but really you will be testing your game all the time, even just after the
first few lines of code you write.
This approach, where you are doing all parts of the process at every step over and
over, is called an iterative process; and it very accurately captures good game-making
habits. In an iterative process, you test each bit of progress you make to make sure it
works. Then you stand back, look at it, and re-evaluate your plan. Maybe you decided
in the beginning that your character in a game will have five lives. Now, after you have
finished a couple of levels, you find that five lives won’t work so well—you decide that
your character needs to have a life bar instead. In this way, you stay flexible, and your
current design or plan is nothing more than that: it’s what you plan to do currently.
You can change the plan as your product develops.
The key for you, the aspiring game maker, is not to get too stuck on one way of
doing things. Be open to changing your plan, and you may find your project much
better for it. However, this isn’t an excuse to make sweeping changes or to do some-
thing completely different every week—you’ll never finish a game that way. You’ll
have to decide whether your game character has lives or health bars or some other
system as quickly as is practical. But with an iterative approach, you make and settle
on this decision once you have something working, instead of just thinking in your
head what might be good. In the end, each decision about what you want to change
has a cost associated with it. If you think the change is worth the cost, go for it!

Project Roles
Whether you are following this book as part of a team or just by yourself, eventually
you will want to pick an area of specialization. More than ever, game development
studios primarily look for specialists to join their teams. Although it’s absolutely valu-
able to have knowledge in each area of expertise, complete generalists will usually
have a difficult time getting hired. In this book, we distinguish between three special-
ties: designer, programmer, and artist.
Each of these roles can be broken down into even more precise specialties. If
you want to pursue a career after learning the material in this book, it would be wise
to select a specific area of expertise that best fits your talents and focus on develop-
ing that particular skill. For example, just in the category of artist, there are concept

xvi
artists, modelers, texture artists, animators, particle artists, and so on. Designers can
be level designers, interface designers, game designers, and mechanics or game play
designers. Programmers can be AI programmers, physics programmers, graphics pro-
grammers, or game play programmers, for example.
This list may be quite daunting—it’s quite all right if it is. You don’t need to know
which one of those roles is “you.” As you try out the various tracks and lessons in this
book, you’ll start to get a feel for what you’re naturally good at and where your pref-
erences lie. Feel free to start any track you wish, although if you intend to ultimately
make a complete game, you’re either going to have to go through all of them yourself
or find team partners who are willing to specialize in the other areas.
By now you probably can’t wait to dig in and start making a game! In the next sec-
tion, we’ll jump right into Unreal Editor and show you how to build a playable level in
less than a couple hours! Let’s begin. . . .

xvii
Part I: Design
Coming Up with a Plan
What Game Do You Want to Make?
1
The Unreal Engine 3 was first built to create a first person shooter, but you’re not lim-
ited to building an FPS. The Unreal Engine has been used to create J-RPGs ( Japanese
role-playing games), top-down shooters, fighting games, racing games, and even
MMOs (massively multiplayer online games). Flexibility is something that the Unreal
Engine affords that very few game engines do. Most game engines that have been used
to make popular games today have focused so much on their particular game that
modifying the engine to create any other type of game is practically impossible.
Also available on the market are more generic game engines that do afford the
same flexibility but are also hindered by being very heavily dependent on a program-
mer to get anything at all working. Character animation in particular is a highly com-
plex problem. Blending animations and constraints turn into a highly programmer-
heavy solution. Unreal Engine has built-in artist-friendly tools that solve this problem
without a line of code.
The same goes for materials, particles, level events, cinematics, and much more.
The tools are what make Unreal Engine so much more advanced than any other game
engine out there. Most if not all engines require a programmer, artist, and designer
to work on every asset together to get anything done. Unreal Engine is one of the
only engines that allow a designer to work independently of the artist, and the artist
independently of the programmer, and still accomplish nearly every required task to
make a game together.

What to Expect
After the next couple of chapters, you should have a good grasp of what’s involved
in designing a level and building with primitive shapes to get the flow you’re looking
for. Then you’ll learn to move on to adding scripts and events to your level to make it
react to your player.
In the past, game engines depended on BSPs, or binary space partitions. BSPs
were a method used to limit the number of polygons drawn to the screen. In short, if
 you’re starting a level in one room, the game engine should not be calculating, render-
ing, and thinking of events happening in the last room of the level until you get closer
to it. BSPs were a nice way to reduce the number of objects and events that the engine
would be thinking of at once.
Modern use of BSPs has changed with different rendering techniques. In a fully-
built and scripted level, the detail that is generated by BSPs can actually perform more
slowly than the same scene built as a static mesh. Keep in mind that it’s important to
know the differences in how each is made, and the benefits of both. Starting off, we’ll
build an interesting scene with the BSP tools found in the Unreal Editor.
Once the scene is complete, we’ll learn how easy it is to make changes with the
BSP scene; we may not immediately see the performance difference between a BSP
scene and a static mesh version of the same scene, but the details that can be achieved
using 3ds Max’s tools versus the Unreal Editor are incomparable.
Once the BSPs are finished and the level’s flow is complete, we’ll convert them
into static mesh elements and learn how to export the various shapes with different
pivot points for placement. We’ll get into what a pivot point is, so don’t worry about
that right now.

Reverse Engineering the Unreal Tournament Maps

Getting Around in Unreal Editor
The Unreal editor is a fairly unique environment. The viewports are engineered to
somewhat mirror 3ds Max as well as some of the basic manipulation tools. Navigation
in a scene is meant to emulate the same experience as playing a level, but with a bit
more control.
The editor’s windows are split into two halves: the level editor and the asset editor,
also known as the Generic Browser. But really, the purpose of the Generic Browser is
to edit and create assets to be used in the level, so its function is more for your level’s
assets.
Within the editor there are dozens of other sub-editors, each one focused on a
specific task. The FaceFX editor and tools, the material editor, the particle editor
known as Cascade, and the physics editor known as PHaT are all available through
the Generic Browser. In addition, one of the other editors that can be opened from
various menus is Kismet, the level scripting and event handler; from Kismet, you can
create a matinee node, which is the cinematics and level animation tool.
It’s quite a remarkable set of tools! There’s a reason why so many developers have
chosen to go with the Unreal Editor for its artist- and designer-friendly pipeline. As
a designer you’ll need to focus on just a few of these editors, primarily Kismet and
Matinee, the event scripting tool and the animation tool, respectively.
Design

4
UncookedPC vs. CookedPC: What’s This All About?
Once you begin working on your levels, you’ll be working in the MyGames direc-
tory in your MyDocuments directory. In this directory there will be another direc-
tory called Unpublished. Its name basically means that the files in this directory
aren’t ready for distribution to your mass of waiting fans. If objects are found in the
Uncooked directory, it means that these objects have not yet been optimized and
might contain extra data.
Cooking a package removes editor-only data and any objects that haven’t been
used in your level. Placeholder textures, materials, and various leftovers that might
have been left behind from various testing will be excluded from the package once
it’s cooked.

An Introduction to the Unreal Ed’s Level Editing Tools Project

There are a few ways to open Unreal Tournament’s editor. The first method is to create Figure 1.1
a short cut and modify it, and the other is to create a .bat file. The .bat file has
a few advantages, which we’ll explore later when we need to, but for now we’ll
go with the more simple modified shortcut.
Navigate to . . .
C:\Program Files\Unreal Tournament 3\Binaries
or to whichever directory you’ve installed Unreal Tournament 3; then select Figure 1.2
the UT.exe icon.
Make a new Shortcut with the UT.exe and open the Shortcuts
properties [Figure 1.1]. Add editor to the end of the target line
[Figure 1.2].
Double click on the short cut, and the editor will open rather
than the game. That’s it! The full line should read something like
this, assuming that you installed the game onto your C: drive:
C:\Program Files\Unreal Tournament 3\Binaries\UT3
.exe editor
Alternatively, if you’re a bit cleverer, you could create a new
.bat file and add “Start ut.exe editor” to the first line to the .bat file
[Figure 1.3]. When you’re done, rename the shortcut or .bat file to Figure 1.3
UT3_Editor.bat so it’ll be grouped near the exe. Other options can be added
to the .bat file a bit more easily than editing the shortcut. Using the .bat file,
you can add a level name and automatically jump into the level when the .bat
file is run. In addition, some things, like recording game sessions as individual
frames, can also be done through the .bat file.
Double click on either the .bat file or the shortcut and you should get the edi-
tor splash screen [Figure 1.4]. Awesome, now we can start making our own levels!
Chapter 1

5
Figure 1.4

Unreal Editor: A Tour

The level editor is where your level is constructed [Figure 1.5]. Game play and events
are created for each level in the Kismet sequence editor. Objects placed in the level
editor are usually sourced from the Generic Browser. We’ll start with the most obvi-
ous file menus on the level editor part of the Unreal Editor.
Figure 1.5
Design

6
The Tool Bar
The first set of icons contains your regular new file, open
file, save and save all icons. These are followed by
the undo and redo buttons.

This little obscure slider is used to change what is called a far clipping
plane. By default this slider is set to far; by opening a level, you can
observe the effect of this slider by moving the control to the left. Switch
the perspective view to wire frame and play with the slider. This will bring in the far
clipping plane so you don’t have to see everything placed in the level. We’ll get to how
to change the perspective window’s viewing options in a bit.

This next set of icons is related to object manip-

ulation in the level. The first icon switches the
tool to selection; the next two allow you to
move objects around in the scene. The follow-
ing icons are related to rotating an object and
then changing the size of an object.

The popup menu is related to how the manipulation gizmo, as it’s called, is ori-
ented. By default this is set to “World”; this means that the translation gizmo is always
going to point with its coordinal directions aligned to the world. Switching this to
“Local” will orient the gizmo to the object that is selected. So the object’s y-axis might
be pointed in another direction different from the world once the object has been
rotated and fit into a level. This is a useful option when placing objects in a specific
orientation that might not be in alignment with the rectangular grid of the “World”
coordinates.

Search for actors is a fairly useful button

that opens a find tool, allowing you to hunt for
an item somewhere in the level. With the Search
for field left blank, this dialog will show you a
list of all objects in the level. Selecting an object
listed in this dialog and clicking the Go to but- Figure 1.6
ton will jump the editor to the selected object
in the level. Additional ease of use allows you to
open the Properties dialog without even jumping
to the object. This dialog makes it a bit easier to
find and edit objects in your scene [Figure 1.6].
Chapter 1

7
 Of course if you find a bunch of objects that you don’t need or can’t find and know
aren’t supposed to be in the level, you can select them here and delete them.

The first icon in this set is used to change how the Level editor viewport
fills your monitor. The next cluster of icons is used to cut, copy, and
paste various attributes from the Properties editor.

These two icons are very important. The first opens the Generic Browser, the
asset manager for Unreal Editor. The Generic Browser is where many of the
assets are created and edited. The next button opens the Kismet editor. Kismet
is the level scripting and event manager built into Unreal Editor. It allows the game
designer to create game flow and to create animations for elevators and doors.

The next set of icons contains technical items that allow you to view
the level in a slightly different way. The first button turns on and off
the triangles that make up all geometry in the world, in particular the
BSPs that make up the level designer’s level building tool kit. The second button, the P
icon, locks prefabs together. Prefabs are useful for duplicating a collection of objects.
The third button shows the graph. The last button is used to snap an object to a char-
acter socket. We’ll get into what that means later on in the book.

This set of buttons is used to

rebuild the level. Rebuilding
geometry is not always auto-
matic when you’re working with BSPs. Lighting and AI path finding are the following
three icons. The last button in the set rebuilds all of them at the same time. The fol-
lowing popup menu allows you to connect to an Xbox or PS3 dev kit, should you be
a licensee and have a dev version of the engine. This will allow you to communicate
in real time with the console. The next icon turns on the selected mode from the
popup.
The Joystick icon is the PIE, or Play in Editor button. This is the best way to test
your scripts and play your level without having to quit the editor and open the level
in the game. The last icon here will cook your working packages and prep your game
for publication.

The BSP Tools

These buttons are used to create the various shapes used to build your level design
BSPs. In general these are going to be used only to rough out the layout of your level.
Past the first construction of the level design, BSPs should be deleted from the level
as static meshes are built to replace them. Terrain is a bit different in that it’s a new
technology to Unreal Engine 3 and has been optimized to use in the game. These
BSPs also create special volumes to tell the scripts to change the camera and trigger
events.
Design

8
 This set of buttons at the top of the tool bar contains your editing tools.
Camera options are provided for moving through the level. Geometry mode is
an older function left over from Unreal Engine 2; it allows you to modify BSPs
on a per vertex level. Then you have a new Terrain button followed by another
older Texture placement tool for use on BSPs.

This set of buttons is used to create various shapes of BSP brushes. Brushes can
be thought of as a shape that you can move around your level and fill in with
geometry. Each button has a different set of parameters that can be modified to
change the shape of the brush before it’s added to the level. Right click on the
button to open the options dialog.

This set of icons is used to cut out, add, and divide the added BSPs. In general
it’s easier to stick to Add and Subtract. The other two icons are used to create
more complex shapes by merging only sections where two BSPs intersect or to
cut off where one of the BSPs intersects.

These two tools are used to add special BSPs that are used to trigger events and
change certain properties of the world. Specific examples are water volumes,
which tell the engine to change the properties of any character in the volume
to be swimming. These volumes can also trigger events in Kismet; we’ll get into
more specific examples in a coming project.

This last set of icons is used to hide and show various selections in the editor. To
select multiple objects, you can move to one of the orthographic views and hold
Ctrl+Alt+LMB to draw a selection box. After a selection is made, you can press
the various buttons to hide your selection or hide the unselected objects. You can
then unhide all or invert which objects are hidden.

The last set of tools, found

at the bottom, allows you
to numerically enter vari-
ous changes to a selected
object. Then you’re allowed to activate grid snapping and spacing. This is followed
by activating rotation snapping and angle. Last, you can change the percentage of an
object’s scale. You have the option to have the editor automatically save, and you can
change how often the level is saved.
Once you’ve gotten into more advanced features of the editor, you can enter com-
mands into the command line in the level editor at the lower left.
Chapter 1

9
 Viewport Options

Starting at the left, you have two icons that change how the level is updated as you
move around. The joystick tells the viewport to update any dynamic object in real
time, including objects such as particle systems or animated mesh objects. The light
bulb is used to deactivate dynamic lights while moving through the level. Levels with
unbaked lights can get pretty slow after a certain size.
The next set of icons is used to change the rendering style of the viewport. We’ll
go into more detail with these as needed. The next set of buttons, labeled P, T, F, and S,
correspond to Perspective, Top, Front, and Side. The next significant icon is the
box used to maximize the viewport followed by a useful but quite possibly confusing
look through tool.
The black triangle button is a popup menu that changes what types of objects are
shown in the viewport. The last three blue buttons are used to change the speed at
which you can shuffle though the level.
A few of the functions were skipped over, but we covered the most useful tools
related to the viewport. Additional information will be covered in later projects as
needed.
The Generic Browser
The Generic Browser is where many of the assets used to build a level are found
[Figure 1.7]. The rest of the data that make up characters, items, weapons, and props
Figure 1.7
can all be found in the Generic
Browser. In addition, many
of these assets can be edited
and created here. New materi-
als, physics assets, particle sys-
tems, and many other lumps of
data are created starting in the
Generic Browser. All of the data
created here are saved as UPKs,
or Unreal Package files.
The top-left panel is defaulted
to show all resource types. If
you want to only show specific
types of resources, you can click
on options like Material, and
the Generic Browser viewpane
Design

10
will only show materials. The rest of the resource types will be hidden. In addition,
there are several other ways to manage how to view the resources found in the Generic
Browser.
The first three icons will toggle the view from text listings,
text listings with the icon of the selected item and the default;
then icons only. The hand with the wrench will show only the
items used in the opened level. The last RT icon will update the icons as changes are
made to the item in view. The small icon in between the items in use and the display tog-
gles is the grouping button. This button will group similar types together. Otherwise
the items will be listed in alphabetical order.

The next set of icons will change

the shape of material objects.
Then there’s another search icon
for finding objects in the various loaded UPKs found in the Generic Browser. Next is
an update icon followed by a popup menu that changes the size of the shown icons.
The last filter text field will allow you to show only items in the browser pane that
matches text entered into the field [Figure 1.8].
Figure 1.8

Newer builds of the Unreal Engine (like the one included with the Unreal
Development Kit, which gets monthly updates) also include various other ways to
store, search, and manage items in the Generic Browser. Organization is important
with any game project, and the Generic Browser is going to be your main method to
store and manage your game resources.
Chapter 1

11
 If you look at the other tabs across the top of the Generic Browser window, you’ll
also see a ton of other editors: Actor Classes, Groups, Level, Referenced, etc. There
are a lot of different ways to see and manage your level and your resources. A major
part of building a good level is keeping the level fast. A level with too many poorly
placed objects and badly constructed Kismet events will be slow and clumsy. To dis-
cover the offending objects and scripts, you can use Primitive Stats, Dynamic Shadow
Stats, the Scene Manager and the Log to locate them.
Figure 1.9
The Properties Editor
Each object placed in a level has many editable properties; each
property can be edited through the property editor. Many of the
attributes are the same across nearly all of the placed objects.
Attachment, Collision, Display, and Movement are
fairly common among nearly all placed objects. Most objects
that will appear in the level will also share lighting and physics
parameters. Something you might notice is that all of the roll-
outs found in the Properties dialog are arranged alphabeti-
cally. This might not be the most convenient way to organize this
dialog, but once you understand how the various attributes are
arranged, you might be able to locate some items a bit more easily
[Figure 1.9].
The movement roll-out contains the object’s placement
in the scene, even though it’s not actually currently moving.
Almost all objects placed in the level are instances or clones of
objects found in the Generic Browser’s asset list. The data for the
object isn’t saved in the level; only the object’s instance informa-
tion and its placement data, as well as any specific attributes, are
stored in the level.
If you need to copy attributes from one object to another,
you can have more than one property editor open. To open a
second dialog, turn on the Lock icon (located on the top left
of the property editor window), and then either double click or
press F4 with another object selected, and a second property
editor dialog will open. This will allow you to copy and paste
attributes from one dialog to another.
Design

12
 Dismantling Unreal Tournament Project
The levels are saved as a .ut3 map format; you can save maps using different exten-
sions after editing your mod’s .ini file settings to recognize your changes. For instance,
UDK uses .umap The assets and objects that are used to construe your level are saved
as a .upk file. These UPKs, or Unreal package files, contain the actual static mesh vertex
data as well as textures and other sources of data that are going to be used in your level.
Here I’ve opened DM_Deck.ut3 and zoomed all the way out on the top view
[Figure 1.10].
You can see a large sky-dome object. There are several different methods to create
sky-domes, and DM_Deck has a few interesting tricks. The pair of planes to the top
right of the dome are objects placed to create the sunset.

Figure 1.10

Chapter 1

13
Figure 1.11

Figure 1.12
Design

14
 Figure 1.13
Zooming into the actual playable part of the level you can
tell that there’s a lot of geometry in the level [Figure 1.11].
These are almost all static mesh objects.
If you jump down into the perspective view, you
can fly around and take a look at how the level is built
[Figure 1.12]. One of the first things you might notice is
that there are a lot of point lights scattered about the level.
Many if not most of them are set to the static mesh light-
ing channel. That most likely makes no sense right now,
but don’t worry about that. We’ll cover lighting channels
later on when we start lighting our own levels.
Pick a light and open the properties [Figure 1.13].
Make note of the light’s brightness and color. Keep some
of these options in mind when you begin to set up your
lights.
To find out how the level works, we’ll open the Kismet sequence for this level.
Kismet is what operates the various voices taunting you. The elevator platforms in the
level are operated by the two simple sequences on the lower left of the Kismet editor.
We’ll take a closer look at these in a bit.
If you look at the Sequences dialog on the lower right of the Kismet editor, you
can see that there’s a sub-directory which contains another Kismet sequence [Fig-
ure 1.14]. This is a way to organize a lot of Kismet sequences in a level and helps keep
the Kismet editor easier to view once a lot of complex sequences have been created.

Figure 1.14

Chapter 1

15
Figure 1.15
On closer inspection of a Matinee node, you can see
which objects Matinee is manipulating [Figure 1.15]: Base,
Doorleft, Door Right, and so forth. Double-click on one of
these circular nodes, and the editor will focus on the object
[Figure 1.16]. Kismet is tightly integrated with the level edi-
tor. The data that is being modified in Kismet is directly tied
into the objects in the editor. Right-clicking on the object and
selecting an option called “Synch to Generic Browser” will
show you which UPK the object’s data lives in, the generic
browser or asset manager, which we are already familiar with.
Clicking on the Mission_Banter sub-sequence will
open the banter sub-sequence. The number following the
sequence name indicates how many nodes are found in the
Figure 1.16
selected sequence. The Mission_Banter sequence contains
data and events that are triggered by various events in the
level. You might also notice that this is where the SCYTHE
and the KRALL are unlocked when you complete the mis-
sion [Figure 1.17]. Ooh, cheats!
A completed level will have a lot of nodes. To remain
in control of your project, you’ll want to keep your Kismet
sequences organized and neat.

Figure 1.17
Design

16
 What Have We Seen So Far? Review
Unreal’s levels are made from a spider web of events and tons of art assets. To create
such a detailed world, you need to start off simple and build up. The path taken to pro-
duce detailed worlds like these is referred to as the pipeline. The tools in the Unreal
Editor are in use by many studios worldwide and for good reason. These tools pro-
vide the level designers and artists freedom to implement new ideas and see results
quickly.
In the previous generation, video game development relied on programmers
to accomplish many tasks. The more in depth the artist and designer tools are, the
more programmers are allowed to focus on more complex problems of AI and game-
specific mechanics. It’s debatable if the Unreal Engine is the most efficient engine out
there, but it certainly helps accomplish quite a lot out of the box.
When you’re just starting out on a new game project, the Unreal Engine 3 pro-
vides a powerful set of tools to accomplish quite a lot. However, it’s also quite a beast
to learn. More than just a level editor, Unreal Engine 3 has animation tools, effects
tools, and sound tools. This is just the beginning, and there’s a ton to cover.

Chapter 1

17
Level Design
2
Filling Space with Stuff to Do (Your Game Here)

Starting off with an empty open space and filling it with a game is a daunting task.
Opening a completed level and sifting through the thousands of elements that make
up a level can also be overwhelming. Stepping through the process slowly will help
you create a complete game level filled with all the necessary elements that create a
fun gaming experience.
A good method to get the most you can out of a level is to find a specific element
and find out how it’s made. Select any element in the scene and open the properties
editor. Take notes about what is checked on and what is checked off. For each object,
find which UPK the static mesh is found in. Open the object and find out where the
materials are found.
In the Generic Browser, you can open the Referenced Assets tab and discover how
many ties one object has to another object. Even a simple static mesh is connected to
materials, textures, lights, and physics properties. These physics properties are then
tied to sounds and particle effects. One thing leads to another, and as a designer it’s
important to remember how these things are connected. It’s all quite zen, actually.
As a level designer, you should take your experiences as a gamer and think about
what you have fun doing. Then give your player the same experience. As a designer, it
is not your duty to punish the player for not understanding your level design. Instead,
you should work to make your level as clear as possible.
Ladders should look like ladders, dangerous areas should look dangerous, and
each attribute given to objects in your scene should be readable. To help accomplish
this clarity, a Squint button is a simple tool to help make sure your level’s detail
doesn’t hide what’s important to the player [Figure 2.1].
In this example, you can see a brighter spot in the middle of the perspective view
framed by slightly brighter objects. This pattern should lead the player into another
space using broad shapes and forms that add contrast and focus different from the
usual dark and dirty hallway.
The Squint button takes the perspective camera and blurs what’s in view. The
concept is that small details will get blurred away and only the large obvious structures
 will be clear. Consider it like a myopic filter for the perspective camera. If you’ve made
an important feature in the level too small, it will not be obvious to the player, who
might not even notice it.
One of the best solutions to highlight a feature of your level is to actually high-
light it. Drop some lights on the feature to brighten it up. This doesn’t have to be com-
pletely obvious, but picking a specific color or pattern in an area where something
important is hidden is a great way to help players find what they’re looking for.

Figure 2.1

What to Expect
Level design is a fun, challenging effort that takes a specific personality to get it right.
Iterative game design allows the game designer to find and refine elements that are
fun and enjoyable to play. You must want to entertain your player; that’s your goal as
a game designer. Something that the game designer must remember is that the level is
for the player, not the designer, to enjoy. There’s a difference.
Before getting too deep into building a complete level, it’s best to start off with
a focus, a design goal. After you’ve learned how to build and design levels using the
Design

20
Unreal Editor 3, you should apply your efforts to very basic and simple goals at first.
Then find a way to add and layer on complexity to your design when you’ve mastered
the basics.

Level Flow
Level flow and progression can be broken down into some very basic types. The three
basic types are linear progressions, circular progressions, and radial progressions.
Knowing how to understand these progressions will help you write and design how
you want your level to flow. Creating a simple flow chart on paper will help commu-
nicate to your fellow team members how you want your player to interact with your
game.
Linear progressions are usually story-driven events that happen in a rigid
sequence. The order of the sequence cannot be changed as the players make progress,
uncovering events as they come to them in the course of the game. For these types of
sequences, a simple story board can be drawn to show how the level will be created
and what animated sequences and objects will be needed to entertain your player or
players.

An example of a linear game play setup is starting off the level without a red key,
discovering a red key, and then finding a door that requires a red key to open it. The
path is linear and not too exciting, and the players know pretty much what to expect
when they discover a door. In some cases this can be a good way to introduce new
elements to the player.
Circular progressions are either long or short linear progressions that lead back
to the beginning of the sequence. Usually, when players return to the beginning of
the circular progression, they have obtained something which changes how they can
proceed and escape the chain of events.

Here’s an example of a circular progression: when the players begin a level, they
find a door that requires a red key which they do not have; they then move to the
next room and find a red key; they can then go back to the red door to open it. In this
sequence there are only two events that are circularly connected, but the length of
time and numbers of events that are required to find the key and then make it back to
the door are up to the designer to make the game play more interesting.
Chapter 2

21
 Last but not least are radial sequences. These are like multiple circular events that
all lead back to the same place. The difference here is that the player can jump into any
one of the branches from the central point in any order and not change the outcome.
These types of designs become more complex with each additional branch added
from the same start point.

For example, the players might start off with a door that requires both a red and
a blue key to open it. That means that they would have to go find both keys before
returning to open the door.. The door doesn’t require that the keys are found in a
specific order, just that the two keys are in the players’ possession.

Building a Level
Once you’ve decided how your level is going to be laid out, it’s time to start building. Once
you start building blocks of objects and start making your level, you’ll want to explore
the space and see for yourself how the size of the space feels. BSPs and lighting will
help you create the basic flow to your level, and the Play In Editor tool will help you
get a feel for your level’s flow.
If you were forced to build your level in 3ds Max, the time of iteration would be
drastically increased, and the refinement of flow and timing would take longer to
make it feel right. Thankfully, using the editor’s tools, you can fill in space and develop
the timing to make your level really feel polished. Once the level flow and timing are
to a point where the game play is fun and exciting, the BSPs can be replaced with
more detailed and interesting static meshes.

Working with Design and the Level Development Pipeline

BSP is the acronym for binary space partitioning—gibberish, I know. BSPs, as they
are called, were created to solve the problem of visual occlusion. In other words, BSPs
were used as a very fast way to solve the problem of what players could see at any
given time as they wandered through a level. These days, video cards can render highly
complex scenes using tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of polygons and never skip
a beat. In addition, there are many new and better ways to deal with scene complexity
that do not require methods like BSPs.
The second version of the Unreal Engine made extensive use of BSPs, as did many
engines of that era. The Unreal Engine’s third version has moved away from BSPs and
Design

22
makes use of other modern visual culling methods to decide what to render to the
screen. In fact, using BSPs exclusively in the Unreal Engine 3 can actually cause a
loss in frame rate, as the BSP method of rendering is actually inferior to the modern
rendering system!
However, BSPs still have a place in the Unreal Engine 3. As a designer, you might
expect to use tools like 3ds Max, or Maya, maybe even XSI, to design your level. At
some game studios that is the case, and indeed for some other game engines their use
may be required. As a designer, you’re not expected to build complex photorealistic
structures, roads, and props, but you are expected to create the flow and layout of
your level.
To use software like 3ds Max to simply create spaces, tunnels, and doors would
be a somewhat slow process. Even if you were skilled with the software, the process
would look something like this:
Build objects  export objects  import objects  place objects
 play level  repeat . . .
BSPs in the Unreal Engine can help skip a few of these steps. Iteration is the key
element in any good game design. Coming up with your level’s timing to keep things
exciting is your task as a designer. Creating contrast in space to make large rooms feel
open and small rooms feel tight is important, but neither should hinder game play.
These sorts of changes require playing, testing, making changes, and playing again.
The BSP pipeline would look more like this:
Build objects  play level  repeat . . .
In comparison, this shorter pipeline allows for more testing of your level and much
less work in exporting, importing, and placement. However, we run into the problem
that BSPs are still a deprecated technology, and Unreal Engine 3 doesn’t want to ren-
der the entire world as BSPs. In addition, BSPs don’t allow the user to create highly
detailed scenery and props. So what’s a designer to do?
We’ll want to replace our BSPs with static mesh elements. After you’re finished
or at least mostly satisfied with your level design, you’re going to want to have your
level artists dive into the level and start replacing the BSPs with finished art. The level
artists will work on a separate level layer to allow you to continue to make tweaks and
changes to the level. We’ll talk more about how levels can act as layers in one of the
following chapters, but for now you should feel safe in that you can work on the level
design at the same time as the artists do.
What you want the artists to do with the level needs to be communicated clearly.
One of the ways to clearly tell artists what goes where is to mark up the level with
special materials. In a later project, you’ll learn how to make some simple materials so
that your artists can see what you intend to do with your level. For instance, if your
plot requires your player to find the brick building, and the artist places a glass and
steel building where you asked for brick, it’s no one’s fault for not knowing what’s
going on. Simple measures can be taken to avoid these situations.
Chapter 2

23
 You’ll also want to make your levels easy to modify. Keeping in mind that you can
use the same level for a death-match game, a capture-the-flag game, or any other game
play option, it will be easier if you learn how to use the level manager and streaming
levels. In a nutshell, a level in Unreal doesn’t have to be an all-in-one set of data. A level
can be made up of many small sub-level objects that all load in at the same time. One
level can have your game play logic, another can have its geometry and static meshes,
and yet another can contain all of the level’s lighting. If you want to make changes, it’s
as simple as loading a different streamed level.
Excited? Sure? Now, let’s get started!
Project A Box with a Light
The three most basic elements that make up a level are something to stand on, a
means of illumination, and somewhere to start. The most basic level that can be built
is a hollow box with a light and a player start node. We’ll start off with something like
Figure 2.2 that in order to get into the groove of building with BSPs. You want to start with a
new level. Making a new level will prompt you with this new
level Geometry Style dialog. In general, select Additive. For
reasons we’ll go into later, Additive should be your default
selection [Figure 2.2].
Next we’ll right click on the Box Brush builder icon
in the BSP tool bar on the left of the level editor. This will
open the following dialog [Figure 2.3] and allow us to build a
Figure 2.3 basic room. Fill in the following settings,
remembering to check Hollow. This will
automatically carve out a space inside of
the box for us to stand around in.
This will create what’s called a builder
brush. A builder brush can be described
as a shape that will be filled in with geom-
etry when the brush is applied to the
world. Right now there is no actual game
play geometry in the scene [Figure 2.4].
Too add this shape to the scene, we use
the Add button from the BSP tools.
This CSG: Add will then fill in the
builder brush with geometry that exists in
the level [Figure 2.5]. A catch here is that
a few of the regular hotkeys you might be
used to are a bit different here. By press-
ing Ctrl+S, which would normally save
your level, you will instead perform a
Design

24
 Figure 2.4

CSG: Subtract. If you do that now, you’ll subtract the added geometry Figure 2.5
from the level, negating your efforts and adding garbage data to your level.
You can delete unwanted BSPs from your scene by selecting them in the level
editor view and using the delete key. By the way, CSG stands for constructive
solid geometry.
Immediately after filling in the builder brush, you’re not going to see
much. There are no lights in the scene. To resolve this, we’ll change the per-
spective view to Unlit using the icons at the top, which change how the level
is viewed. Now we can see our new BSP. Move the camera to the inside of our
little box-shaped room so we can add a light [Figure 2.6].
Chapter 2

25
Figure 2.6

Figure 2.7
Design

26
Other documents randomly have
different content
Herbert shook his head sadly. He was silent for a few moments, and
then said with much gravity:
“You mean very well, but you cannot mend matters in this instance.”
Mr. Anderson left the house looking very forlorn. He was anxious to
help Herbert, and keenly felt his inability to do so.
Tomlin had been sent out on an assignment that took him to a
remote part of the State. He remained away for a week, and Herbert
was alone during all that period. Tomlin returned unexpectedly one
evening, very anxious to hear the latest news regarding his friend
and the papers. Herbert came in late that night. His white face,
drooping mouth and hopeless eyes told their own story to Tomlin.
However he tried to disguise the feeling that was within him, and
said with assumed cheerfulness:
“Well, old boy, how have you made out in my absence? Have you
tried any of the other papers?”
“Yes,” said Herbert, “I have.”
“Which one?”
“Everyone,” said Herbert with a bitter smile, “at least everyone that
is worth considering.”
“Well, what are your prospects?”
“I have no prospects.”
“No prospects—not even in the future?”
“No,” retorted Herbert, the anger in his heart making him raise his
voice to a high pitch; “not even in the future. To be plain with you,
Tomlin, they all know about the circumstances under which I left the
Argus, and they refuse to have anything to do with me. I am
blacklisted. Do you understand that? I am blacklisted, and a
disgraced man.”
The tone of Herbert’s voice no less than what he said shocked
Tomlin very much; but he made no reply, and the two friends sat
there for many minutes staring mutely at each other.
 CHAPTER XVIII
WHEREIN A BLACK SHEEP SHOWS A DESIRE TO CHANGE
HIS COLOR

One morning not long after the conversation which has been
recorded in the previous chapter, Tomlin said to Herbert:
“See here, old chap, you are not going to throw up the sponge—I
know you’re not. You’ve got too much grit and pluck for any such
thing as that.”
“What do you mean?” asked Herbert, staring at him in an
unmeaning way.
“What do I mean? I mean that you’ve got to employ strategy. When
a soldier gets in a tight fix with the enemy, he uses the brains with
which he is endowed for the purpose of extricating himself. So it is
with the lawyer, with the business man and with mortals generally—”
“What in the world are you driving at?” interrupted Herbert.
“I know what I’m driving at,” replied the other. “Listen to what I
have to say, and then try to answer me intelligently. Can you write a
good Sunday newspaper story?”
“Can I? Why you know—”
“Of course, of course I know,” cut in Tomlin, “I only asked you that
question as a matter of form. I want you to go out and get a first-
class special story. Write it up in your most attractive style, typewrite
it on the machine we have in this room, and give it to me by this
time to-morrow.”
The hearty manner of his friend furnished just the sort of inspiration
that Herbert needed at that particular time. He went out during the
day and visited the various places where he would be likely to obtain
material for a special story. It grew quite late and he was still
without anything upon which he could base the sort of article that
would answer to the vivid description furnished by Tomlin. On his
way back to his room he stopped at an Old Man’s Home to enjoy a
chat with the superintendent, who had been his friend while he was
on the Argus, and had sometimes rendered him valuable assistance.
“Anything doing about here, Smith?” he asked.
“No,” replied the superintendent, “not a thing. This is the slowest
week we have had for a long while. It’s as dull as dishwater.”
“Sorry to hear that,” responded Herbert; “I thought in a large
community of this kind something was always happening.”
“No,” responded the other, “nothing worth printing. I’ve got a good
joke on one of the old fellows upstairs, however. He was knocked
out by a bat last night.”
“By a bat?” queried Herbert.
“Yes. You see the old chap was a colonel in the Civil War—one of the
bravest men that ever led a regiment. Well, while he was reading a
bat flew into the room, and the things that happened during the
next half hour were funny enough to make a sick cat well. The old
colonel picked up his cane and chased that bird all around the room.
The light bewildered the bat and caused it to flounder around so
blindly that half of the ornaments in the room were broken. The
colonel thought he had it at one time, though, and lifted up his cane
to give the bird its death blow; but he missed by a hair, and instead
of killing the pesky thing, he smashed two big vases that stood on
the mantel-piece. Then when he made another lunge at it his stick
went through an oil painting which I believe has been in his family
for nearly a hundred years. It was daylight before that bird was
thrust out of the room, and when the first streak of dawn penetrated
into the apartment the floors and walls resembled some place which
had just finished an unsuccessful siege with the enemy.”
“Why, that’s a pretty good story,” cried Herbert quickly, “and if you
will give me the privilege of talking to the old colonel and the chance
to look at that room, I will thank you to the day of my death.”
The superintendent was only too well pleased to do this. Herbert
obtained a picture of the valiant soldier, and borrowing a camera
from one of the inmates, made a photograph of the dismantled
room. He hurried home, and before midnight had succeeded in
grinding out an exceedingly interesting special which was entitled
“The Story of the Union Soldier and the Bat.” He turned this over to
Tomlin in the morning, and when they met in the evening again that
young man said with a considerable degree of self-satisfaction:
“Your story is accepted and will be printed, and you will be paid for it
on the first of the month.”
“But I—they—” began Herbert.
“Oh,” interrupted the other impatiently, “I know what you are going
to say. I know that you are blacklisted, but that has nothing to do
with the case. A man must earn a living, and you have a right to
your bread and butter. Besides this is a justifiable deception. I am
going to keep on selling your stuff as my own as long as you have
wit enough to write. The articles will be typewritten, and the editors
who buy them from me will not know the difference except,” with a
little laugh, “they will be a little more brilliant than the kind I am in
the habit of writing.”
“You think it’s all right?” ventured Herbert.
“Of course it’s all right. Where’s the harm? No name is signed to the
articles. The newspapers get the worth of their money. The readers
are satisfied. You are reimbursed, and I am gratified. What more
would you want?”
Herbert soon came around to this way of thinking, and then and
there started in on another article, which proved equally as saleable
as the first. Elated by the success of these two articles, he planned a
series of Sunday specials, chiefly sketches of odd phases of life in
New York City. He was industry personified, and worked so adroitly
in gathering his facts that his identity was fully concealed. One
morning, just as he was about to leave the house he received a
letter; and on tearing open the envelope, found that it was dated
from a small town in the northern part of Connecticut. It was as
follows:
“Dear Herbert:
“I would be an ingrate of the meanest type if I did not
write to you and acknowledge the great debt which I owe
to you now, and which I will continue to owe till the day
of my death. I fully realize that if it had not been for your
interference and kindness I would have been arrested,
and myself and the members of my family disgraced. But
sometimes bad beginnings have good results, and the
merest incidents prove to be the turning point in a man’s
career. I am satisfied now that the little episode which
occurred at the post office a few weeks ago is going to
prove the making of me. I know that I have been indolent
and worthless; that I was foolish enough to contract bad
and vicious associations, and that I have been guilty of
many disreputable things. Somehow or other I went along
doing these things without thinking of the meanness that
was involved in them. Looking back upon them now, I can
see very readily how little incidents repeated many times
led to bad habits, and how these bad habits were
gradually undermining my whole character.
“I do not ask you to believe me, but I am going to tell you
just the same, that from the instant you gave me the
kindly warning in the post office building I made up my
mind that if I were given the opportunity I would lead a
better life in the future. I am now making this effort with
all the courage at my command. It’s a hard job, but I
believe that I am going to come out a winner. I have
secured honest employment in this little town, and I
intend to remain here till I am fully satisfied that I am fit
to associate with manly and self-respecting persons like
yourself. Kindly consider this letter sent in confidence, and
not to be revealed till you hear from me further.
 “Very truly yours,
“Arthur Black.”
Herbert was delighted with this missive. It repaid him for the great
sacrifice he had made—not for Arthur Black—but for his sister. His
first thought was to call on Mary and assure her that her brother
was alive and well; but upon mature reflection he abandoned this as
being unwise. From that day, however, Herbert put more heart into
his work. He still depended upon his voluntary contributions to the
newspapers, and while he longed for a permanent position on the
staff of one of the large dailies, he felt that he would have to bide
his time before he reached such a desirable post.
During these days he often thought of his father, and more than
once he recalled the dramatic scene when his father and the strange
visitor were seated at the table together in their little home at
Cleverly. He had frequently resolved to run out the mystery of that
night, and now he vowed it with more than usual vehemence.
Everywhere he went he tried to discover some signs of the queer
stranger. It seemed a hopeless task, but he resolved to persist in it
till the end. One evening, while he was walking down Cortlandt
street, his gaze was attracted by a big, broad-shouldered man who
was walking along the street four or five yards in advance of him.
There was something very familiar about those bulky shoulders. He
looked again, and as his glance traveled upward he suddenly
realized that the man had a shock of bushy red hair. Recognition was
instantaneous; it was the man he had been looking for for so long.
He pushed his way through the crowd, and at one time was almost
able to reach the mysterious person by stretching out his hands; but
at that critical moment a heavily laden truck intervened, and the
queer one gained several yards on him. It was evident that he was
making for the ferry house to take the boat which ran to Jersey City.
Just before they reached the pier the bell began to ring its warning
signal. The crowd hurried. The man with the red hair and the bulky
shoulders ran rapidly towards the boat, with Herbert after him
panting for breath.
“Hurry up!” shouted the gateman to the approaching crowd.
The big man redoubled his speed, and just as he entered the ferry
slip and got aboard the bell rang for the second time, the iron gate
was slammed to with a bang, and Herbert found himself standing on
the wharf, gazing at the boat churning its way towards the shores of
New Jersey.
 CHAPTER XIX
PERSISTENCE HAS ITS REWARD AND HERBERT FINALLY
MEETS THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER

Herbert Harkins was now consumed with a burning desire to meet

the mysterious stranger. He had an actual interest in clearing the
memory of his father; but above and beyond that he was now filled
with a boyish curiosity which insisted upon being satisfied. The
thought of the stranger occupied his waking hours, and even
disturbed his rest at night. When he was out of doors he stared at all
the big men he happened to meet, in order to discover, if possible, a
burly man with broad shoulders and a shock of red hair. At times this
peculiar quest seemed so absurd that he felt like abandoning it
altogether; but such periods of depression were invariably followed
by a resolution to persevere till he had accomplished his desire.
This sort of thing went on day after day without bringing any
practical results. Just when Herbert was beginning to tire of it, the
thought flashed across his mind that publicity was frequently a way
of obtaining things that could not be found by ordinary efforts. In
other words, he flew to the personal columns of the daily
newspapers for assistance. The result of this was the following
advertisement which appeared one morning in the New York Herald:
“Will the stranger who called on David Harkins at Cleverly very late
one night about five years ago kindly send his address to H. H., care
of General Delivery, Post Office. By doing so he may be the
instrument of redeeming the memory of a good man.”
Herbert was very much pleased with the phrasing of this
advertisement. There was an air of romance about it that appealed
quite strongly to his youthful fancy. The day after its appearance he
hurried to the post office with the expectation of receiving a letter,
but he was doomed to disappointment. No reply of any kind had
been received. On the second day he called at the post office again,
and this time was rewarded by the receipt of a very much soiled
postal card. The writer informed him that he had called on David
Harkins at Cleverly about five years ago and would be glad to meet
the person who was in quest of information. The address given was
that of a low-grade lodging house on the Bowery. Herbert felt a trifle
disappointed at the tone of this communication, but nevertheless
resolved to run it out to the end. He visited the Bowery that
afternoon, and was received by a short, stout man with a very red
nose and a somewhat husky voice.
“You sent me this postal card,” said Herbert, exhibiting the square
piece of manila board.
“Yes,” said the other, with a leer, “what is there in it for me if I give
you the information you are after?”
“I don’t know that that has anything to do with it,” said Herbert.
“Oh, yes,” retorted the other, with a chuckle, “it has everything to do
with it, my young chappie. I’m a business man.”
“A business man?” queried Herbert.
“Yes, sir, a business man. My motto is, no cash no information.
That’s plain enough, isn’t it?”
“Too plain,” said Herbert, picking up his hat and starting towards the
door.
“Hold on!” cried the other, jumping up; “I don’t want much from you,
and I’ll tell you anything you wish to know.”
“I have no doubt of it,” replied Herbert; “but unfortunately you are
not the man I want.”
“Oh, yes, I am,” insisted the other eagerly, “I’m the man that called
on David Harkins at Cleverly.”
Herbert shook his head and shrugged his shoulders; then as if it
were an afterthought, he turned to the seedy-looking person and
said:
“Do you insist that you are the identical man who called on David
Harkins?”
“I insist,” repeated the man, trying to draw himself up in a dignified
way.
“Now, I am sure that I have no business with you,” said Herbert,
“because it so happens that the man who called on David Harkins
had bright red hair—it was bushy, too, while you are almost bald-
headed and your hair is black.”
The fellow snickered a little at this, and said:
“I lost me hair durin’ a very bad attack o’ fever.”
Herbert could not forbear smiling himself.
“I suppose the color turned, too, at the same time.”
“Yes,” answered the man, “it did indeed. You needn’t laugh.
Scientific men will tell you that a man’s hair often changes color in a
single night.”
“Well, good-by,” said Herbert, “I’ll leave you to settle that with the
scientists.”
Three weeks passed by after this amusing episode and Herbert
received no further replies from the personal that he had inserted in
the Herald. He was reading the paper one afternoon, and while
running his trained eye down the many columns of small
advertisements, happened to see his own name in print. He looked
closer, and this is what he read:
“If Herbert Harkins, son of the late David Harkins, of Cleverly, New
Jersey, will make his whereabouts known to the undersigned, he
may learn of something to his advantage. Write without delay to
Captain Thomas Janson, Anchor Inn, Jersey City, N. J.”
Feverish with anxiety, Herbert immediately sent a letter in response
to this advertisement. Within forty-eight hours after that he received
an answer, written in a large, sprawling hand, inviting him to call on
Captain Janson at his domicile in Jersey City. He responded without
delay. He found Anchor Inn to be an obscure hotel in a deserted part
of the town. It was a popular resort for seafaring men. Upon inquiry
for Captain Janson, he was informed that the Captain had removed
that very morning to a new two-story house which he had erected
on the outskirts of the city. He had left a message for Herbert,
however, giving him explicit directions where he could find his new
domicile.
Herbert listened very carefully, and then made his way to the
address that had been given him. He found it to be the quaintest
looking house it had ever been his good fortune to gaze upon. The
front of it was shaped like the prow of a boat, and under the eaves
of the house was a wooden effigy of a mermaid, shaped and painted
like those used upon sailing craft in the Eastern waters. He rang the
bell, and the call was answered by a colored youth dressed up in
blue clothing, with brass buttons, to represent a cabin boy. He was
ushered into a small, low-ceilinged apartment which resembled the
captain’s quarters upon a boat. The beds on either side of the room
were fitted up to resemble bunks. The windows had been so
constructed that they were perfect reproductions of port holes. A
little desk, a brass-rimmed clock, such as can be seen in the cabins
of pleasure yachts, a coil of rope, a large marine glass, and cheap
colored pictures of the admirals of the United States Navy adorned
the walls of this strangely furnished room.
Presently the door of an adjoining apartment opened and a big,
brawny man, with the rolling gait of a sailor, entered the room. His
face was as red as a boiled lobster; his hands were thick-skinned
and broad. He had wide shoulders and—this detail made an
immediate impression upon Herbert—he also possessed a heavy
shock of red hair. The identification was complete. This man, beyond
a doubt, was the person who had been with his father on that
eventful night.
“Avast there, my hearty!” shouted the newcomer, putting out his
broad hand to meet the outstretched palm of his caller; “what are
you doing aboard my craft?”
“My name is Herbert Harkins,” said the young man, “and I came
here in response to your letter.”
The seaman stopped short with an exclamation on the tip of his
tongue. He stood in the center of the room with his hands on his
hips and rolled his head from side to side as he stared at Herbert
with unblinking eyes. The scrutiny appeared to satisfy him.
“So you’re Dave Harkins’ boy, are you? Well, you look like him; you
look like him just as he appeared when he was a young man. You’re
different from him in some ways, but the resemblance is there just
the same. You’re more like a chip off the old block than the old block
itself. Now, boy, take a seat on that steamer chair there, get out
your log book and tell me all about your journey through life.”
“All right, sir,” replied Herbert, taking the proffered seat; “I’ll do so.”
“By the way,” interrupted the Captain, “before you talk about
yourself, tell me about your father.”
“You know that father is dead?” began Herbert.
“Yes, I know that,” answered the other, “but I want some details
about it.”
“All right, I’ll try to give them to you.”
“By the way,” he interrupted again, as Herbert started to talk, “will
you have a glass of grog to wet your whistle?”
“No, sir,” replied Herbert, “I don’t drink.”
“Good for you; you’re a good deal better without it; but an old salt
like myself couldn’t do without his pipe and his grog, especially in his
old days.”
Herbert then proceeded to tell the old sailor all about his father, and
when he spoke of the mysterious midnight visit and the cloud of
false rumors that had arisen therefrom the Captain’s face clouded
and he walked up and down the floor of his little cabin shaking his
fist.
“The lubbers!” he shouted, “they ought to have been tied to the
mast and given a dose of a cat o’ nine tails.”
Having finished this part of his narrative, Herbert then proceeded to
tell the story of his own life, and at its conclusion the old salt put out
his brawny hand, and taking Herbert’s, gave it a hearty grasp.
“Your story is mighty interesting. I’m mighty glad to hear it, and I
think I am in a position to be your friend.”
“I am glad of that,” responded Herbert, “and I’m very curious to find
out the real meaning of that midnight visit.”
“I’ll give it to you, my boy, and in mighty quick order. I was a
boyhood chum of your father. We grew up together, went to school
together, and one never had a thing that wasn’t shared by the other.
I had no idea of the sea in my youth; but shortly after I got to be a
boy of about your age I was entrusted with a sum of money
belonging to another person. I was a sort of trustee. In an evil
moment some fellow came along and showed me how it would be
possible to double the money without any risk. I tried it, and lost
every cent. While I was in this condition, I was called upon to make
an accounting of the trust money. In my extremity I went to your
father and explained everything. He gave me every penny that he
had in the world in order to make good the loss, and my reputation
was saved and I had learned a lesson that I have never forgotten
since then. I was a wild boy in my younger days. I owed a great
deal of money, and finally determined to take to the sea as a means
of cooling down my hot blood. During the next ten years I sailed
over every part of the civilized globe. I became a master and traded
extensively in the Chinese seas. I was fortunate, made money, and
finally came home to retire upon my savings.
“The first man I thought of,” said the Captain, leaning back in his
easy chair, “was Dave Harkins. I determined to hunt him up and pay
him the few hundred dollars he had so generously given me at a
critical time in my life. I got to Cleverly late at night; the hotel was
closed so that I was unable to secure accommodations there. The
thought struck me that I might find Harkins at home. I went to his
house, and fortunately found him at a moment when he needed my
help just as I had formerly needed his. I compelled him to take that
thousand dollars, and I made a condition that he was not to tell of
my whereabouts until I got ready to make myself known to the
world. I wanted to clear up all of my old debts and to rehabilitate
myself before my old friends before I revealed my identity. After
leaving him I went to New York, and carrying out a program that
had already been arranged, went abroad to settle up some business
interests that I had in Liverpool. I came back, only to hear that
David Harkins was dead. I was told that the family had moved from
Cleverly, and accepted the report without attempting to verify it.
Years went by, but I was never quite satisfied. I hunted around in a
vague sort of way to find Harkins’ boy. Only last week it occurred to
me that a personal in the Herald might bring some results, and
thank goodness it did, because here you are with me in the flesh.”
“I am very grateful to hear all of this,” said Herbert after the old
sailor had finished; “I can assure you that it makes me very happy
indeed. I never doubted my father at any time; but it is a great
satisfaction to have the whole matter settled and to have these
painful rumors dispelled as you have dispelled them.”
The Captain arose from his chair, took a turn or two around the
room, and then putting his arm around Herbert’s shoulder, said:
“My boy, we’ll dispel them in such a way that they’ll never be heard
of again. Mark one thing down, and mark it down plain: I’m your
friend, and your friend for life.”
 CHAPTER XX
IN WHICH A STAIN IS REMOVED FROM THE MEMORY OF AN
INNOCENT MAN

Herbert remained with Captain Janson for several hours. The man
and the boy were mutually attracted. After some further
conversation regarding David Harkins, the sailor said:
“Now tell me your story.”
Herbert did so as briefly and as modestly as possible. He told of his
difficulty with the Argus; but discreetly avoided all reference to
Arthur Black and the manner in which he had saved him at the
expense of his own position.
“My boy,” said the Captain, when he had concluded, “it’s all right;
don’t worry about these little things. The first thing we have to do is
to straighten out the memory of your father with the people of
Cleverly. You know how these stories stick in small communities. My
boy, we’ll hoist sail and bear down on the port of Cleverly at once,
and when we land there we’ll let the natives know a thing or two.
We’ll let ’em know that David Harkins was one of Nature’s noblemen,
and now that he’s gone to Davy Jones’ locker, he has left a friend
and a son who will take care of his memory.”
The following day they both took the train and went to Cleverly.
Their first visit was to the office of the Cleverly Banner, where
Captain Jansen was introduced to Noah Brooks. The editor and the
sailor had not talked for ten minutes before they became fast
friends. Presently they were joined by Horace Coke, the lawyer, who
had always been a friend of the Harkins family, and who was
delighted with the turn things had taken. After a general
conversation in which all hands joined, the sailor suddenly pounded
his hand on the desk, and said earnestly:
“Messmates, I’m here for a purpose, and a specific purpose. Dave
Harkins was an honest man. I want everybody else to know that
fact. How can I do it?”
Noah Brooks scratched his head for awhile, and then said musingly:
“You might print a story in the Banner, telling all about your visit that
night, and explaining how you came to give him those ten $100 bills.
How does that strike you?”
“Pardon me,” interrupted the lawyer, “but that doesn’t strike me very
favorably. It would look forced. Besides everybody knows that
Brooks is a friend of Herbert Harkins, and some people might be
inclined to think the story was a little overdrawn.”
“Yes, that’s so,” admitted Brooks, “but I hardly know how you can
get around it in any other way. Besides, I would do this thing freely
and voluntarily. It is not a question of expense or money.”
“Money!” shouted the old sailor, “who said anything about money? I
want you to understand that money is not to stand in the way of this
business. There isn’t any expenditure that I could make that would
help the memory of Dave Harkins that I wouldn’t undertake.”
“Do you mean that?” asked Brooks.
“Of course I mean it. By the way, while I am here I would like to do
something for this town of yours. What do you need just now?”
The lawyer laughed at this.
“You talk like a millionaire.”
“Well,” responded the sailor, “I am not a millionaire, but I’ve got
enough to live on and a little over, too, and if I can make somebody
else feel happy I’m going to do it.”
“You asked me just now,” said the lawyer musingly, “what you could
do for the town.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Well,” responded the other, “a little fountain in the middle of the
main street wouldn’t be a bad thing. It would be the means of
slaking the thirst of both man and beast. We had one there some
years ago, and it was mighty useful; but it’s worn out now, and we
have no means of replacing it.”
“What will it cost?” asked the sailor.
“Not more than two thousand dollars,” responded Mr. Coke; “that
would finish the whole thing in first-class style.”
“It’s a go!” shouted the sailor, jumping up; “get the thing up in good
shape, and get it up as quickly as possible.”
Then and there specifications were drawn up, advertisements given
out and the draft of a communication made to city councils. Within
thirty days the whole thing had been completed and was ready for
dedication. On the morning fixed for the celebration it slowly dawned
on Herbert’s mind that the sailor and the lawyer had a fixed purpose
in all that they had done, and this purpose was only now beginning
to unfold itself. He got his first inkling of this when he noticed the
little silver plate on the side of the fountain, saying that it been
erected by Captain Thomas Janson to the memory of his lifelong
friend, David Harkins.
Mrs. Harkins wept a great deal when she saw this plate, which was a
very good thing for her, because it relieved her pent up feelings and
enabled her to recall memories of the dead without doing her any
serious injury. Herbert, on the other hand, was flushed with
conscious pride. A committee of the city councils had the affair in
charge, and they made Mrs. Harkins, Herbert and Captain Janson
the guests of honor. The Mayor of the city made the speech
accepting the fountain, and then Captain Janson, as the closest
friend of David Harkins, was called on for a few remarks.
The speech that he made that day was one of the most remarkable
that had ever been delivered in the town. It told the story of the life
of David Harkins, and how he had once befriended the speaker
during what he firmly believed was the crisis of his life. He then
related in great detail how he had come to Cleverly late that night
and forced his old friend to accept the ten $100 bills. Thus, without
making any direct reference to the ancient rumors that had
flourished in the town, the stain attached to the memory of David
Harkins was removed in the most effective manner possible. John
Black and his daughter were present at the ceremonies, and at the
conclusion of the set speeches Mr. Black arose and paid a fervent
tribute to the integrity of David Harkins. Altogether everything was
done in the most complete manner, and the affair was a great
success and a red letter day in the history of Cleverly.
The story of the event was told in a full page report in the current
issue of the Banner. To the delight of Mr. Brooks, Herbert had
volunteered to write the report, and it proved to be one of the best
pieces of reporting that had ever been done for the local paper.
Captain Janson was the hero of the occasion. He remained in
Cleverly for about a week, and he spent his money so lavishly and
with such utter unconcern that he came to be looked upon as a
modern Monte Cristo.
During his stay he formed quite an intimacy with Noah Brooks, and it
was not very long before the whole-hearted sailor and the eccentric
editor were almost indispensable to each other. Sitting in the Banner
office one day Janson said:
“See here, Brooks, Cleverly looks to me like a good port in a storm.
It strikes me that it would be a pretty good place for an old worn out
hulk like Captain Janson. I’ve got a great notion to gather my stores
and anchor here for the rest of my life.”
Brooks thought so, too, and said he felt satisfied that the Captain
would never have cause to regret making the change in his dwelling
place. The sight of the two old men sitting on the porch exchanging
stories of the varied experiences they had undergone during their
stormy lives was a picture not to be forgotten very quickly. At least
Herbert Harkins thought so, and when he finally took the train for
his return to New York the pretty little scene remained engraved
upon his memory.
 CHAPTER XXI
IN WHICH A TELEPHONE CALL PRODUCES SOME
UNEXPECTED RESULTS

Herbert returned to New York from Cleverly in the gayest of spirits.

He was happier than he had been for years, and was filled with a
desire to communicate this light-hearted feeling to everyone that he
met. The fact that the long standing cloud had been removed from
the memory of his father made him forget his own troubles for the
time at least. A week before everything had appeared dark and
gloomy; but now the dawn had arrived and the earth assumed a
cheerful appearance. With the light-heartedness of youth, he looked
forward to a future of prosperity and uninterrupted happiness.
The time was within a month of Christmas, and before leaving
Cleverly he had exacted a promise from his mother that she would
come to New York on the eve of the festival and stay with him over
the holidays. He was already mentally planning out the treat that
would be given her on her arrival in the metropolis. It was in this
mood that he hurried to his apartments. He found Tomlin at home,
and opening and closing the door boisterously, shouted:
“Hello Tomlin, old fellow! I want you to jump up and shake hands
with a very happy man.”
Tomlin did jump up and did shake hands with his friend; but he said
nothing, gazing on the other with an expectant air. Receiving no
response to his silent inquiry, he asked:
“Have you fallen heir to a fortune?”
“No,” said Herbert, “something better than that.”
“Have you obtained a permanent position on one of the big papers?”
“No,” replied Herbert, and this time a little sadly, “not that.”
“Well, what in the world is it?” asked the other.
“Simply this,” replied Herbert, speaking hurriedly and with some
feeling; “after a number of anxious years I have succeeded in
clearing the memory of my father from a stain that has rested upon
it ever since his death.”
Very rapidly he sketched the events that had followed one another
from the time he had read the little personal in the Herald until the
unveiling of the memorial fountain in Cleverly.
Tomlin whistled.
“This is news indeed, and I never knew a thing about it. Why didn’t
you tell me?”
“I owe you an apology for that,” said Herbert contritely, “but I was a
victim of circumstances. After my interview with the old sea captain I
missed you, and found it necessary to go to Cleverly immediately.
Besides that I had a strong desire to complete the whole business so
that I might give you the story in full when we met.”
“Don’t mention it,” said the other heartily, his eyes glistening with
the pleasure he felt. “Why the thing has the flavor of a romance
from real life. Say, it would make a bully story for the Argus.”
Herbert raised his hand in protest.
“Don’t think of such a thing, Tomlin!” he exclaimed. “I am not
desirous of any publicity just at this time. I wouldn’t have Blakeley
even hear my name or to see it, at least not for some time to come.
I know that he feels very bitterly towards me, and I realize that he
has a real justification for that feeling. Some day I may be able to
win back his good opinion.”
“I hope so,” fervently ejaculated Tomlin; then as if the thought had
just struck him: “Why not make the attempt now?”
“It is not possible now,” said Herbert in a positive tone, which
conveyed a distinct desire to close the subject.
“By the way,” said Tomlin, “you will have to get down to work.
You’ve been wasting a lot of your time when you should have been
toiling for your bread and butter. I’ve got an order here for three
specials, and you will have to turn them out before the end of the
week.”
“I’m your man,” responded Herbert enthusiastically. Then looking at
his friend fondly, he added:
“Say, Tomlin, how can I ever repay you for your goodness to me?”
“By never speaking about it,” was the crisp reply.
Herbert started in immediately and began working on the specials
that had been ordered for the following week. He had to go out for
several days and nights in succession in order to obtain the material,
but once that was in hand he worked quickly and industriously. One
of the articles was a graphic description of the entrance to the
Brooklyn bridge at the rush hour in the evening. The subject was not
new by any means; but Herbert handled it with such cleverness and
originality that it made a very readable page in the Sunday issue of
one of the enterprising newspapers. Another of the specials was a
description of Chinatown at night, couched in such phraseology as to
make the reader believe that the scenes so graphically described
were taking place in the heart of one of the cities of old China
instead of actually being enacted in the midst of the American
metropolis. The third article gave the impressions of a man who
went to the very top of one of the highest buildings on Manhattan
Island and viewed the surrounding country.
The Argus office was only a few blocks from the lodgings of the two
young men. While Herbert was hard at work one night, Tomlin
rushed in unexpectedly, and said in agitated tones:
“I’ve got a sensational tip that I want you to run out for me. I am
tied up on another story now, and there is no one in the office. It
may be nothing, or it may be a good thing; but if you are willing to
tackle it I will guarantee that you will not lose anything by the
operation.”
“Don’t talk about losses,” said Herbert impatiently; “tell me what you
want.”
“Well,” said the other; “I was around at the precinct police station a
little while ago. The telephone bell rang while I was in the room. The
house sergeant was sound asleep, snoring like a log, so I took the
liberty of responding to the call. When I got my ear to the receiver a
very feminine voice said:
“‘Is this the police station?’
“‘Yes ma’am,’ I replied, wondering what was coming next.
“‘Well,’ said the sweet voice again, ‘a burglar has broken into our
house and I have him locked in the sitting room, and I will be very
much obliged indeed if you will send an officer here at once to take
the man into custody.’
“Just in the most matter of fact manner imaginable,” cried Tomlin.
“Could anything be more picturesque or interesting? Here is a
woman who is not afraid of a burglar. She calmly telephones for the
police to come and arrest him. I think that’s a peach of a story, and
if you have any red blood in your veins you will grab your hat and
coat and start off on the story before I am able to say ten more
words.”
This was precisely what Herbert did. In less than a minute’s time he
was at the door, and turning to Tomlin, said:
“Where’s the house? What was the number?”
“The cabby knows all about it,” said Tomlin, pointing to a stout man
who was sitting on the high seat of a cab in front of the door.
“What’s that?” asked Herbert.
“That’s the cabby,” replied Tomlin; “you don’t suppose I would come
here without furnishing you with all the conveniences necessary to
do the job. There’s a policeman in plain clothes on the inside of the
cab. All you have to do is to go with him, help him to make the
arrest, and then write up the story. I’ll call here again in an hour and
get the copy. If it proves to be a beat, I’ll give it to Blakeley in the
morning and quietly let him know that you have sent it in as a partial
act of retribution for the scurvy manner in which you treated him on
that other big scoop.”
“Tomlin, I wish you would stop talking about that,” said Herbert
impatiently; “but I’ll do the best I can with this story.” And with a
farewell shout he jumped into the cab, pulled the door to with a
slam and was whirled in the direction of upper New York. The cab
driver had evidently been given an extra fee for speed, because he
lashed his horse unmercifully, and the vehicle went whirling up
Broadway at a gait which terrified chance pedestrians and aroused
the ire of sleepy policemen. Once the hub of the wheel struck
another team that was coming down-town, and for several seconds
Herbert felt that their team was about to be wrecked; but by some
lucky chance the wheels became extricated and the cab once more
resumed its upward and onward journey. Finally, after many minutes
had passed, it turned off the main highway into a side street.
Herbert noticed by glancing at a lamp on the side of the
thoroughfare that they had turned into West 69th street. Presently
the cab stopped, and when Herbert and the officer had alighted, the
cabby, pointing towards a brownstone house with the tip of his whip,
said:
“That’s your house, boys.”
Herbert looked up at the dwelling, and something familiar about it
arrested his attention. He looked again to make sure, but there
could be no doubt about it.
It was the home of John Black. Herbert stood on the sidewalk for
some seconds, half dazed at this entirely unexpected discovery. He
wondered curiously what fatality it was that had brought him to this
house on such a strange errand at such an hour of the night; but
presently he aroused himself. Speculation was in vain; action was
necessary. After a few whispered instructions to the officer, he
walked up the high steps and rang the bell.
 CHAPTER XXII
PROVING THAT BAD PERSONS, LIKE BAD PENNIES, ARE
CONSTANTLY REAPPEARING

After ringing the bell of the house, Herbert waited for a long time,
but there was no response. Instantly his whole being was thrown
into a fever of impatience and unrest. He imagined all sorts of
terrible things. His mind was filled with terror. What if he had arrived
on the scene too late? What if some crime had been committed in
the dead of the night? Curiously enough, during that mental review
he never thought of John Black or his wife. The one person
constantly in his mind was Mary Black.
He rang the bell a second time. This time it was done fiercely,
angrily. He listened eagerly, but received no immediate response,
and then consulted with the policeman upon the advisability of going
to the rear of the house and breaking in. While they were talking a
sound was heard at the parlor window, and the next moment it was
thrown open. A head was pushed cautiously out of the window.
Herbert recognized it at a glance. It was Mary Black. He was on the
top step now, and leaning over, said quietly so as not to alarm the
girl:
“Mary.”
She started at the sound of a familiar voice, and peering out into the
gloom, exclaimed in genuine surprise:
“Herbert Harkins!”
“Yes, Mary,” he answered; “what is the difficulty?”
“Oh, I’m terribly frightened,” she cried, “someone has broken into
the house. I don’t know who it is, except that it is a man. I was
reading in my room when I heard a grating sound at the kitchen
door. Presently it was opened, and footsteps could be heard going
into the dining room. Then all was silent for awhile. I came down the
front stairway about half way, and leaning over the banister, looked
in the dining room. The fellow’s back was to me. He was seated at
the table calmly eating some cold meat that he had taken out of the
refrigerator. He had a couple of bottles of papa’s wine, also, and was
drinking that with great relish. Scarcely knowing what to do, I crept
back to my room. Both papa and mamma had gone out for the
evening, and I had no idea when they would return home. While I
was in my room, in an agony of fear, I heard the fellow come
upstairs. He went back into the library, and securing a large
tablecloth, filled it with the silverware and other valuable things that
he had carried from the dining room. Then he sank back into a large
arm chair and calmly went to sleep. It was then that I conceived the
idea of sounding the alarm. I pulled the doors of the library to and
locking them securely, came down to the hall, where we have a
telephone, and notified the police.”
“Good!” exclaimed Herbert at the conclusion of this narrative, “you
have acted very discreetly. Is the fellow still asleep?”
“No,” she replied; “he evidently awakened a few minutes ago,
because I hear him in the room. He has discovered the fact that he
is a prisoner, and I am sure will either jump through one of the back
windows or break open the door.”
Herbert immediately sent the policeman to the rear of the house,
with instructions to arrest anybody who might attempt to escape
from that part of the property. Another patrolman fortunately
passing by at this time, volunteered to guard the front of the house,
while Herbert went in to grapple with the intruder.
Mary was quite solicitous for Herbert’s safety, as was only natural.
“Please be careful,” she said; “he may be a dangerous character.
Don’t you think you had better send one of the officers up?”
“No,” said Herbert, “I think I’ll tackle this job myself.”
He felt some apprehension, but being a man, did not propose to
display it before a girl for whom he had so much regard as Mary
Black.
He crept up the stairs silently, armed with a pistol which Tomlin had
thoughtfully provided. He heard a great knocking on the doors of the
library, and going there immediately, turned the key and threw them
open. The man within, surprised at this bold movement, retreated to
the rear of the room. There was no light, but Herbert could see his
figure dimly moving in the gloom.
“Surrender or you will be shot!” he shouted sternly.
For answer the burglar drew a pistol from his pocket, and aiming at
Herbert, pulled the trigger. There was a flash of light and then all
was silence. Herbert felt a tickling sensation like a pin prick on the
back of his right hand. He lifted it, and noticed that the bullet had
just grazed the top of his hand, which was already bleeding.
Smarting with anger, he raised his own pistol and fired. It went far of
the mark, but it produced results, for a heavy bass voice coming out
of the darkness shouted:
“Stop shooting, and I’ll surrender.”
Herbert put his pistol away, and striking a match, lit the gas. The
burglar was crouching in a corner of the room back of a book-case.
His clothing seemed to be in tatters. Herbert strode over to where
he was and grabbing him by the arm, pulled him out. The man
turned round with a whine:
“You’re not going to hurt me, are you?” he said.
Something in the voice attracted Herbert at once. He scrutinized the
bleared face and recognized in it the countenance of Harry Adler.
The discovery aroused his indignation.
“You scoundrel!” he shouted, raising his voice in his anger. “What do
you mean by coming here and trying to rob these people. Aren’t you
satisfied with the injury you have already done to this family? You
have taken their boy away from them, and now to cap the climax,
you are low enough and despicable enough to come and try to rob
them of their property.”
“What family?” asked Adler, looking up at the young man with a
sullen gaze.
“What family?” ejaculated Herbert, “do you mean to say that you did
not know that this was John Black’s house?”
“No,” was the reply with an ugly leer. “I didn’t know it was John
Black’s house. I was hard up; I had to get something; I needed
money. This looked like an easy thing. How could I tell whose crib I
was trying to crack?”
“Well,” said Herbert bitterly, “you put your head in the noose this
time all right You’ve been caught red-handed, and you’ll go to jail
without doubt.”
“How do you know this?” asked Adler, with sudden defiance.
“Because the house is guarded back and front,” was the reply;
“because I have caught you in the act and you are my prisoner now,
and I don’t propose to permit you to escape.”
The burglar looked at his antagonist in a blank sort of way for a
moment, then a glitter of intelligence and cunning suddenly
illumined the fishy eyes and the sodden face.
“If you permit the police to take me up to-night you’ll regret it to the
very end of your life.”
Something in the man’s manner and in the tone of his voice arrested
Herbert’s attention. Some instinctive feeling seemed to tell him that
these words were not mere bravado. He turned to the culprit:
“Why? Why do you say this?”
“Because,” exclaimed Adler, in a shrill voice, “if you have me arrested
I’ll squeal. I’ll tell the truth and the whole truth about young Arthur
Black. He came to New York with me as my partner. He was
concerned in that dirty get-rich-quick business. I’ll turn State’s
evidence, and if I go to jail he’ll go with me, and you can bet your
sweet life that the Black family will be mighty unhappy before I get
through with them.”
Herbert was the picture of distress. The man watched him with a
leer. With all his defects, Adler possessed acute intelligence and he
realized that Herbert was more deeply interested in Mary Black than
he was willing to acknowledge. Knowing this, he felt that he had
struck his captor in his weakest spot. It did not take Herbert long to
decide. Turning to the unfortunate man, he said:
“Suppose you are released, what then?”
“Then mum’s the word,” replied the burglar, “I’ll not squeal; I’ll go
about my business and let you and your friends go about yours.”
“Wait a minute,” was Herbert’s comment. Going to the foot of the
stairs, he called for Mary Black. She came up very much agitated.
She peeped in at the burglar, who still lay in a heap on the floor, and
shuddered at the sight. Herbert whispered to her.
“Mary, this man deserves to be arrested and imprisoned; but I have
a great notion to let him go. He is an old Cleverly boy. It’s Harry
Adler. He never did amount to much, but it might be an act of
charity to permit him to go in peace this time.”
Her eyes brightened and the color returned to her face. In her
enthusiasm she took Herbert by both hands, exclaiming:
“I agree with you thoroughly, and I think you’re simply great to act
so generously with a man who is at your mercy.”
While this conversation was going on the policemen who had been
patiently waiting in the front and rear of the house, tiring of their
long watch, came inside and walked up the stairway. As they joined
the group, Herbert turned to the man who had accompanied him,
and said:
“Gentlemen, this is all a deplorable error. This gentleman is a distant
relative of the family. In the confusion he was taken for an intruder.
The family is very much mortified, and hopes that nothing more will
be said about the matter.”
The policemen smiled at this and bowing their heads in
acquiescence left the house, chuckling in audible tones. Such scenes
were not unfamiliar to the members of the metropolitan police force.
As soon as they had gotten out of sight, Herbert turned to Adler, and
in a tone freighted with anger and contempt, exclaimed:
“Go!”
The man looked up out of the corner of his eye as if to assure
himself that there was no treachery intended, and then slunk
downstairs and out into the street.
As he withdrew Mary turned to Herbert and then suddenly gave a
terrible scream.
“Why, what’s the matter, Mary?” he cried anxiously, rushing over to
her.
“Oh that, that!” she exclaimed, pointing to his right hand, which was
now almost covered with blood; “you have been shot. You are
wounded.”
Herbert, who had forgotten his slight injury, looked down at his
discolored hand and gave a laugh.
“Oh, that’s nothing,” he cried; “if you will get me a little hot water
and a bandage, I think we can straighten that out in short order.”
She proceeded to do this, bustling about with much intelligence and
vivacity. The wound was dressed and she was in the act of binding it
up when Mr. and Mrs. Black returned. They were amazed to see
Herbert Harkins there, and still more thunderstruck when they
learned the story of the attempted robbery. John Black was grateful,
but he shook his head as he said to Herbert:
“You should not have released the man. He is a menace to society,
and may attempt the same crime against other citizens.”
Mary spoke up at this point, saying:
“I disagree with you, father. Herbert was right. He might have been
mistaken, but he was merciful and that after all means much in this
unfeeling world.”
Herbert was delighted at such praise, and bidding her good-night
stooped down and kissed her hand in the chivalrous manner of a
gentleman of the old school.
The act appeared to please the girl, for her face crimsoned and
stooping down, she picked up his wounded hand and gave it a kiss.
“You deserve it,” she said impulsively, “because you have acted the
part of a hero.”
 CHAPTER XXIII
IN WHICH A BAD MAN REACHES THE END OF HIS ROPE

Herbert walked home from the Black residence that night. He did not
care to ride. He wanted to have the opportunity to think over the
exciting incidents of the last hour, and felt that he could not do so
with any satisfaction to himself unless he was alone. The clocks were
striking one o’clock in the morning when he finally reached his
lodgings. The gas was burning in the little sitting room, and Tomlin
was there in an attitude of expectancy.
“Well?” he said, with a questioning look. “What was the result of
your adventure?”
Herbert’s jaw fell. It suddenly dawned upon him that he was once
more placed in the attitude of a delinquent. He had unconsciously
forgotten all about Tomlin and the fact that he was supposed to be
out on an assignment. The thought mortified him very much. He
looked into Tomlin’s clear eyes, and what he saw there prompted
him to be candid. There was no use in attempting to beat about the
bush; he would tell the truth and tell it as simply as possible; so he
sat down and related all that had occurred from the time he left
Tomlin early in the evening until the present moment. Only upon one
phase of the story did he attempt any disguise, and that was when
he related the threat which had been hurled at him by the burglar.
He told his friend that a person who was very dear to Mary Black
was in Adler’s power, and that the robber had threatened to expose
this person and involve him in disgrace if he was not given an
immediate release. When Herbert had concluded his narrative,
Tomlin leaned back in his chair and gave vent to a hearty laugh.
Herbert could not understand the cause of his mirth, and said so.
Tomlin laughed again, and then said:
“I don’t suppose you see the humorous side of this thing; but it
appeals to me very strongly. See here, Harkins, this thing is
becoming marked with you. It begins to look as if you had gotten
into the habit of falling down on all of your assignments.”
“I do feel a bit silly about this,” began Herbert, “but you see the
position I was placed in. You see it was this way—”
“No explanations are necessary,” interrupted Tomlin in his familiar,
hearty tones, “explanations are not of much use anyhow. Your
friends don’t expect them, and your enemies wouldn’t believe them.
I’m frank to say, however, that you did just what any man with red
blood in his veins would have done under the circumstances. In fact
I would have acted just as you did.”
“Then you don’t feel badly over it? You don’t blame me—”
“Not at all,” interrupted his friend once more; “I only ask you to
promise me that you are through with this chivalrous business, and
that if you intend to stay in the newspaper profession, you will quit it
right here and now, and that hereafter when you are sent out on an
assignment you will cover it and write it like a sensible man. Do you
promise, Herbert?”
“I promise,” said the other meekly.
Thus ended the episode of the attempted robbery. Two days later
Herbert started out early in the morning in order to make a tour of
the hospitals for the purpose of finding some material for special
articles. The first institution he visited was the Samaritan Hospital,
with whose superintendent he was on terms of intimacy.
“Got anything to-day?” he said to that official.
“Not much,” was the yawning reply, “at least not much out of the
ordinary. I don’t think we’ve anything here that you would care for.”
“Any deaths to-day?”
“No; but we have a queer sort of fellow here who was shot last night
while trying to break into a house up-town.”
“Is that so?” remarked Herbert carelessly. “I don’t suppose there’s
anything unusual in the case?”
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