Test Purpose
This project was a personal test to improve my ability to design, iterate, and grey box a level within a four hour time frame.
Within that time frame I aimed to create a first person shooter level for 1 vs 1 game play. I aimed to have an even balance of verticality, cover, and lines of sight for each player. Beyond this the level was designed to be asymmetrical for instant visual clarity as to where players had spawned and how they would navigate toward their opponent.
Below the final sketch fab scene of the level can be Interacted with in 3D.
Balancing Spawn Locations
The images seen to the right show the changes in verticality in pink as well as line of sight breaking cover objects around the scene in green.
Players are represented as the two blue pegs within the scene and are shown within their spawn points.
Navigation was balanced to give equal time frames from spawn zones to the most probable combat zones.
Both players had close to hand access to high ground and a degree of initial cover to mask their opening movements.
Managing Strong Points
The building is a strong point within the map as it offers comprehensive cover. To balance the strength of the location, it has obstructed lines of sight on the rest of the map.
Multiple entry points further reduce the strengths of the building to avoid it becoming a camping point.
Exterior Verticality Balancing
All high ground has line of sight upon other high grounds. This takes away a player's ability to gain advantage through holding an elevated position.
To further balance the tactical value of verticality the level included lateral cover objects to break lines of sight. These came in the form of the large awnings on the stalls which are highlighted in green.
Finally, high ground was balanced into an outer ring of the map. Timings from the spawn points to the nearest high point were also balanced.
Creation Tools
The scene was grey boxed in Autodesk Maya. This was for faster creation, object snapping options, and unique assets when needed.
Maya also allowed for an insurance on the scale of each asset, and measurement of negative space within the scene.
Timings were tested to reach areas of the map in a more simplified version of the scene which was created in Unreal Engine 4.
Project Evaluation
I feel that the project was a success given the tight time frame it was developed within. The project keeps an even balance between high ground, cover, and lines of sight whilst offering players the potential to break line of sight on one another. This line of sight breaking potential to get the drop on an enemy is far more achievable at the building end of the map than the market however.
To balance this I would add objects within the stalls of the market that fully obscure line of sight. I would also add a piece of cover at player height to the first level of the market overlook walkway. These would balance the chances for players to escape one another in all areas of the map and avoid the building becoming a strong point due to the weakness of the market.
Finally I would alter my process, in future I would work entirely within a game engine and make use of a pre-scaled asset package to allow more of my time to be focused on the design iteration.
