COD Inspired Battle Royale
This map was a collaboration between myself and Liam Brennan. We worked together through every stage of development from paper planning to building the map in engine.
It began with planning out an abandoned military base. This map would feature 8 unique points of interest [poi] and in between gameplay to tie the whole place together. It began with researching old bases and coming up with a realistic set of 8 locations, 4 of which you will see below. Next was researching and gathering references for each poi to make them as realistic as gameplay would allow.
After the research had come to an end the locations were divided amongst Liam and I. Soon after I began working on 2D layouts to flush out the ideas onto paper. After a few reviews I began working in engine where the grey blocking and finalizing began.
The POI's
Under Development
Under Development
Living Quarters
Under Development
Below you will find each finished level in a more detailed spotlight.
Living Quarters
Backstory and Intent
The Living Quarters represents a home away from home. It's a place where soldiers can take a break from their duties and relax. Working out, swimming, having a chat with their fellow comrades are a few of the activities that are easily accessible in this space. The Living Quarters is designed to be homey and comfortable because the last thing you want is to feel like you are working when you are meant to be relaxing. I also needed the space to be in a state of ruin. I wanted it to resemble what was left of the living quarters and allow players to wonder what this building would be like if it was in its original form.
The intent with this space was to create a close quarters location with a multitude of angles forcing players to be cautious. Allow playing to utilize their expertise of the location to discover new angles and ways to play the location to the best of their abilities. This space will reward players who frequent the location and learn its many routes to ambush unexpecting opponents.
Approach
In the initial stages I began researching different military barracks. From my findings I saw the buildings often used every ounce of space. Even if the buildings were small, many soldiers would be able to fit in a few buildings. Beds and furniture all resembled each other as functionality often came before the visual appeal. If danger was approaching it had to be easy for soldiers to leave their rooms and be ready for battle.
The exterior was designed with large walls that kept the space away from the soldiers every day duties. Various activities surrounded the buildings providing various activities for soldiers when they weren't on duty. Simple activities that were fun, but also had an opportunity to build strength and endurance to build upon the soldiers physical abilities.
During the later stages of development I began to break down walls and scatter debris around the building to convey a sense of destruction and weathering to the building. Large projectiles that may have ripped holes in the side of the buildings, and explosives that blasted furniture across the rooms are all features in this location to show it was previously attacked and abandoned.
Challenges
One of the biggest challenges I faced was creating unique gameplay in each room. Since each space will be made up of the same assets I had to find others ways to alter the play space so it didn't feel repetitive. I believe I achieved this by altering the playable shape of each room. Cutting some rooms in half, or completely altering the shape with big pieces of debris covering an entire corner created new spaces for players to fight in. Opening up walls so players gained access to the outside or adjacent rooms without having to exit the building entirely helped with the uniqueness of each play space.
Another challenge I faced was cluttering up play spaces. Players are expected to move and engage quite quicky. When rooms and exteriors are cluttered with too many assets players have to spend most of their time navigating the space in front of them over shooting and surviving their encounters. I solved this problem by placing assets with more intention. Instead of filling spaces simply to fill them I took a minute to go over the room, and made educated decisions as to where the most optimal placements for assets were.
4 sets of 4 images showing how the project developed overtime.
