Something from the back catalogue...

Something from the back catalogue here.

During my time working at The Creative Assembly in 2012 I took part in using the in house level creation tools to make a map that was then chosen to become part of an official pack of six maps to be selected to launch Shogun 2's Steam Workshop. I'm still happy with the map now although looking back on it I can already see things that I would of loved to improve or change. Here are a few screenshots of it.

For anyone interested in having a play you can subscribe and download the map here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=96995237

Mapcore Unreal 4 September Challenge Part 2

I took about a three hour break before I literally couldn't keep away any longer and came back to working on my challenge map. I took the main bridge out and replaced it with two that run along the walls, I think this is much better this way as it allows both teams quicker access to each others flag rooms via reaching the drop down points quicker. It also allows people on the lower floor a better view of the players above and more chances to take a shot at them.

I also removed the floor from the main room and replaced it with a bridge that connects the two ramps. I think this works much better as it brings all three floors into the conflict makes the level also more visually interesting.

One of my main concerns of the map earlier was that the flag points might be too easy to protect. Simply put your back against the corner wall and you could cover all three entrances to the room. To counter this I added an extra room where the corner used to be and a secondary ramp that connects to the original ramp. This gives the defender no real perfect place to stand and camp and also the attacker a second option for entering that room.

The secondary ramp is also visible from the top level however, to add more options for the defenders also.

That's it for today, overall I'm pretty happy with my progress in this challenge and hopefully by the time I submit I can have something truly exciting!

Mapcore Unreal 4 September Challenge Part 1

Starting my journey into Level Design has been fun challenging, it would however have been much more challenging without the help of the fine folks at www.mapcore.org.

As such I decided to take part in the current challenge hosted on the website which is to build a Unreal Engine 4 white box level.

I started by doing some "research". Research basically being an afternoon of playing Unreal Tournament (It's tough work you know? :P) and after that decided that the best thing I could do for this challenge would be to make a symmetrical capture the flag map. 

The map takes place over three floors as follows.

The basement floor that sits below the main area and is connected by two ramps leading to the flag rooms. The central area is a long narrowish hallway with ramps up either side and pillars blocking line of sight.

The ground floor, the ramps shown here actually lead up to the second floor. The bases and spawn points are separated from the flags slightly as I thought this could be interesting rather than having to storm right into the enemies main area. The middle of the room has a lower section that may be flooded to waist height with water slowing down anyone who takes this route. As it's the quickest and most direct route it makes sense to me that it should also be the most dangerous. As this doesn't leave much of an area between the two flag points however I might come back to this later and spread the map out a bit. The thin area at the back of each base leads up a short ramp to a vantage point that almost directly over looks the other teams ramp and base entrance area. Both of these areas also have line of sight on each other as well, so if one team is being pinned in their base they can use the same tactic to stop the other team.

Finally the top floor, each side contains a whole that players can use to drop down into the flag rooms which can be great for an ambush from either team as well as a good way of defending your flag at the last second. The bridge in the middle has line of sight down to either sides ramp area in the main room, and if the central area was full of water the player could easily jump down into it if needed. 

When all three floors are put together it should look like this...

And hey look... it does!

Here is one of the bases entrances, pretty empty at the moment will probably add some obstacles or something soon or maybe expand it backwards some to make it bigger.

Moving backwards from there you can see the ramp leading up to the second floor, currently it ramps up from the side as well although I might change this later by replacing it with a bit more wall to offer more protection straight out of the base. The doorway on the left leads to the flag area for this team. 

Pulled back even further now you can see the entire platform area of the red team from the blue teams identical platform as well as the two vantage points and the bridge running above. 

Inside one of the flag rooms, I was a little worried that someone could put their back to the wall here and defend it indefinitely but hopefully the ramp entrance from the left, main entrance from the right and the hole from the upper floor on the right should be enough to stop this being a problem?

This shot shows midway down the ramp mentioned above, going up the ramp from here would take you into the flag room, while going down to the left will take you into the basement level and the extended corridor.

In the far right of this shot you can see the ramp we just came down from in the screenshot above. This room is mirrored so that in order to make it up to the other teams side of the map you will have to cross right across the middle of this room at some point. 

Another view of this room.

Here is the bridge across the top room, I'm thinking about changing this to two bridges along the side of the walls though. Maybe in the next update?

 Overall I think it's going ok so far, my main concern is simply that maybe it's too small? Maybe it would work as a 4v4 map rather than anything much larger as it could just be chaotic. I'm also considering lowering the railings down slightly so players have more chance to shoot at each other or maybe removing some of them completely. I also think I will need to go through and add some general clutter like large boxes etc to break up the level a little bit.