Industrial Valley
Q4 2019
University Year 1 - Intro to 3D Engines
An original map created for Unreal Tournament as part of learning how to use Unreal Engine and its adjacent Unreal Editor tool.
Showcase video
View from the flag base
View leading downhill towards the flag from the centre of the map.
Interior shot of the sniper's nest.
View from the flag base
As part of our introduction to using 3D games engines (Unreal Engine), we were tasked with designing and constructing a map for the FPS game Unreal Tournament. This involved learning the baseline principles of designing a multiplayer level for a team vs team combat scenario.
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Design process
Initially I started with an octagonal-shaped environment, one that took place in a grassy plain separated by some rocky outcroppings with a team base symmetrically on either side encapsulated by a small moat.​
Scrapped level design idea
After blocking out this design idea in the engine and configuring the objectives alongside some core pickups, I began playtesting with the provided NPCs that populated either team. This was when I noticed a flaw in my level design from their behaviours.
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Every single time, like clockwork, the members of each team would navigate in a line directly from their spawn, around the left-hand side of their territory, over to the enemy flag and turn back through the same route. They managed to do this in unison without encountering the enemy team.
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Perhaps this flaw in design was exaggerated purely by the optimal robotic thinking of the NPC behaviour, but it was indicator enough to me that I should quickly begin prototyping a better style of map. This one was too open and on the large side for a 5 vs 5 CTF game mode.
Official UT minimaps
I analysed some more Unreal Tournament levels and noticed how essentially every single official map had some core design principles that I'd missed in my very first design. The general shape of each map is long and slim, but not overtly so, just to the point where opposing teams are guaranteed to encounter each other in their pursue of the enemy flag.
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In addition, these maps employ good use of curves in its pathing, guiding the flow of the teams towards their core objective. At various points in the map there would be numerous routes to take to offer strategy, but occasionally there will be choke points where one team has to really put in the effort to pressure and overwhelm the enemy.
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Second proposal
Keeping in mind what I had analysed, this time I formulated the top-down design for a roughly S-shaped map that was longer, slimmer and of course still perfectly symmetrical. Above shows the diagram for the team divide & key locations on the left, and on the right shows the elevation & level interactions. In a later iteration I decided to ditch the secondary elevators on the left-hand side of each team's spawn exit, for sake of simplification.
Pickups & weapon placement
Anticipated player pathing
Intensity heatmap
Pickups & weapon placement
More design diagrams including pickup placement, player pathing, and intensity heatmap (where I anticipate a lot of fights to go down).
Here shows an in-development screenshot of the level blocked out using BSP / geometry brushes. I was depicting how I wanted to sections of the stage to appear with some pullouts and moodboards.