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LEVEL DESIGNER
SPECIFICATIONS
Time Frame: 4 Weeks
Genre: FPS
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Additional Tools: Blender,
Inspiration: Counter strike, Call of duty,
Assets used: Basic blockout tools
GOAL
My goal for this project is to make an FPS map with two different game modes in mind Conquest and capture the flag. The challenge is to make changes and iterate on the base map I made and make two maps from the original with the specific game mode in mind.
BEFORE AND AFTER OVERVIEW
PAPER SKETCH
When I started the process, I wanted to make the map a bit like a mirror and that’s way this early paper sketch has the Terrorist and counter terrorist spawns so identical. I thought it would make the balancing process a bit easier. And it did however the map was so identical, so it was a bit boring. I changed it up a bit to make the places a bit different, but it was a good starting point
CT - Counter Terrorist | T - Terrorist
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FIRST BLOCKOUT
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FINAL - OVERVIEW'S
CONQUEST MODE
CT - Counter Terrorist | T - Terrorist | A - Conquest Point Alpha
B - Conquest Point Bravo | C - Conquest Point Charly
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CAPTURE THE FLAG
CT - Counter Terrorist | T - Terrorist
A - Counter Terrorist Flag | B - Terrorist Flag
PRE - PRODUCTION
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GATHERING REFERENCE MATERIAL
I started my process by gathering inspiring images, so i could get a ide over what i wanted to make.
Reference materials and source of inspiration was the beginning of this projekt.
My reference library largely consisted of images from Call of Duty maps and Counter strike maps.
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RESEARCHING THE GAME MODES
I started by looking up existing popular Capture the flag and conquest maps and researched on what the positive and negative parts was about them and tried to keep those parts in mind when I started my fist paper sketch
ITERATIONS
BLOCK OUT PHASE
I knew this was going to be a long process and that it would take time before I started to get some real results In. So first I started by blocking out my paper sketch and tried to see if the scale and length of the map was good. I started to play test early so I could get everything right from the start
It was a big help that I could download a Multiplayer Template, so I didn’t need to implement the game modes and AI myself to play test.
After many iterations I started to get satisfied with the base of my map,
I ended up with this
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SIGHTLINES & ROTATIONS
To be able to balance this map it was important to think about rotations and sightlines to control the flow
By limiting and controlling the line of sight the players sees wherever the players are made the balancing much easier. And thinking about what path the players are going to make and controlling the time it takes for the players to go from one place to another was important to balance the different teams.
* Conquest Mode Rotations From A to B to C and between examples *
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CALLOUTS
To make places on the map unique and easy to remember will help the player to learn the map fast. It will also make it easy for the player to create callouts and then make it easier to communicate where the enemy is.
However, we level designers are always one step ahead of course and have callouts in mind when we make maps to make our progress easier.
* Base map with basic first sketch callouts *
CLOSING THOUGHTS
This project was a learning experience in which I got to delve deeper into FPS level design
I'm not entirely happy with the result and If I had a couple more weeks to work on the project I would start getting it to a more whitebox state and probobly art my Callout places a bit so they are a bit more recognisable.
I would probably also consider making more changes to my conquest game mode and iterate on C.
In conclusion this was a great project in which I learnt a ton. I could definitely see myself working on FPS maps in the future.
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