Billy Smith

So this map was made for the design test that got me the multiplayer level designer job at Ready at Dawn. It turned out to be a lot of fun to make and came together pretty well I think.

I modelled it all up in Blender and walked around in UE4 to feel it out.

I used a triplanar vertex colour shader/material in Blender and UE4 and simply exported/reimported a single FBX of the map to iterate. In UE4 I had to do a 2.2 gamma correct for the colours to match.

The outline was to make a CTF map in a defunct rail yard for what basically sounded like the description of a generic third person shooter, and so in the week I worked on it I played as much Uncharted 4 multiplayer as I could to keep myself in the right mindset and help me think in the right kind of scale.

Not being totally sure of the games sandbox, where I have shotguns placed on the map are essentially standins for a mid tier pickup weapon but I’d probably end up rethinking where it’s all placed upon seeing the actual sandbox anyway.

I went with crouch cover height = 1 unit+/- a bit

Standing cover = 2 units

And max climbable height = 3.5 units

I made the jump height high enough that I could pretend climb up ledges and slightly angled the ladder to be able to jump up those.

Here is a link to a UE4 build if you want to walk around it yourself which I would encourage to really get a feel for the space.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vsj2pTtf17iEryGgzQRwY73q_gkdixCN/view?usp=sharing

The 1+2 keys on the keyboard teleport you to the initial spawns.

Below is a screenshot of my pure ref file of some ref I gathered to spark ideas and get things moving.

I knew going in that with Multi Flag being the focus, I wanted to make something symmetrical and that it was probably going to be a rotational style/inverse sym.

Below are some initial scribbles and thoughts after glancing at some reference to start thinking about the map. Most of it was discarded but it got things moving.

After the first day of working on the map I posted some pictures to twitter for #blocktober

Was nice to have a solid foundation right away and was feeling good about it, the rest of the week was pretty relaxed just refining things and chipping away at it sporadically till it became what it is today which is something I’m excited to hopefully actually play one day.

Below is how it ended up from above.

In terms of basic idea for how it might play out, running the flag straight through the middle will be the quickest but also the hardest for a team to lock down with the most angles enemies can approach from.

The long routes around the perimeter of the map will likely be the safer bet especially when your team controls/occupies part of the map.

They should also provide areas for respawning out of the flag’s way not right on top of it and off to the side when an attacking team is pushing.

The more predictable “safe” routes being the longest also provides the most opportunity for interceptions of a flag run which is one of the most exciting parts of the mode.

Potential for last ditch stopping the carrier a step away from scoring is also why I have the flags out in the open, not tucked in a corner.

I’ve leaned towards starting out with potentially too little cover over too much as it’s super easy to add more if it’s needed and would become obvious instantly upon playing.

I’ve also tried to keep as much as I can structural to avoid the paintball field chest high wall feeling so many third person shooter maps take on.

A lot of focus was put on making the different parts of the map feel distinct enough for easy callouts without relying on weapon spawns to help players get familiar with the map.

In particular I wanted the different flanks/routes to be really easy to call out and understand, “coming through alley/forest/carpark, etc”

Due to the rotational/inverse symmetry of the map I wanted to make sure each side of the map felt different in the blockout right away which one team having a river and the other a cliff behind them came from. On the river side I also added some puddles to the forest along with a waterfall.

I also got very particular about the angle of the sun to aid in these differentiation in sides.

Definitely room to take it further with simply colour coding the warehouses with accent colours or having one be more worn of overgrown than the other and all that but it’s a start.

Looking down at the carpark from the stairs in alley that connect to the bridge into the top of warehouse.

Carpark behind the bases looking towards alley

Middle courtyard from alley.

In the forest looking toward big tunnel.

Heading up to the big tunnel from the distant right path in the above pic.