Ruins - Unreal Tournament
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Capture the Flag (4 vs 4)
This map focuses on the player's ability to quickly change lanes. Since the game mode was Capture the Flag I wanted to give flag runners the ability to juke anyone chasing them. I also wanted to give flag chasers and flankers the ability to come at the enemy team from a variety of angles.
I also wanted to challenge myself by creating an asymmetrical layout. This map gave me the perfect opportunity to test my abilities to balance a layout while making each location feel unique and impactful.
Development Time: 2.5 MONTHS (2017)
Map Flow
The map has a standard 3 lane design, which is commonly seen on CTF maps. However, instead of separating the three lanes I wanted to create a sense of fluid motion throughout the map. There are a lot of ways that players can change which lane they are playing in, which is extremely helpful when the flag runner is trying to get away. Since UT does not have a sprint function I wanted to design a layout that would allow players to juke their opponents and elevation if they wanted to play a little more on the sneaky side by using the river through the mid.
Cover
To help the overall experience I made sure to take into account the mechanics and play style that UT comes with. Since UT is not really a cover-based shooter, I didn't want to encourage crouch cover. Instead, I mostly placed full cover to allow for fun and dynamic gunfights. Players loved shooting around tall cover such as pillars so I want to expand that feeling in various locations. The places where waist/chest high cover exists is to help defending teams restrict the flow of the enemy team. To help counter the half cover, I designed breaks in the cover that would allow a player to use the river underneath to change lanes and surprise the enemy.
Different Elevations
I wanted to keep the elevation pretty even throughout most of the map but make it influential in the areas that needed it the most. The bases are at the 2nd highest elevation, the intention was to reduce the amount of turtling that team could do. Instead, I had two sniper towers near the bases that could watch 2/3 of the map but not see the other snipers. The positioning was great for attacking but always made it difficult to hold because anyone could flank the players from the bottom lane or the river. The top of the river allows for players to access the top lane and be protected from the sniper sightlines while giving an opportunity to take the flag. The bottom of the river allows for players to access a flanking vantage point on the sniper towers.
Gameplay Video
Development Process
The beginning direction of this map was to have a night time setting where players could use shadows to tell if players were sneaking around the map. The assumption was that with this theme players might be more tactical on how they.
After some internal play testing it was quite obvious that the night time theme simply made it difficult to see. The theme discouraged map movement and the combination of grass with the ruins did not make sense so I changed it to a desert canyon theme. I also decided to get rid of the one big hill on the left side because players felt isolated from the rest of the map and felt like it took too long to traverse. I replace the hill with two sniper towers.
After some play tests I identified that there was a good deal of elevation missing in the bases. Sure there is a sniper tower but there is nothing on the opposite end of your base to allow for elevated game play. I decided to place the blue flag on the 2nd floor of a new but quite open building. The red side had a similar change where the flag was placed on a sandy hill in the middle of the red base which is surrounded by mostly gated walls.
After have some play tests I wanted to mess with the idea of having a semi-symmetrical layout. I wanted to challenge my ability to design and balance a map. I knew it would not be easy but I started messing with the layout of the bases.
The desire was to keep the map small and simple at first. The original assumption was that I was only going to have 2 months to conceptualize and create the map.
After spending a good amount of time iterating on the design I was able to nailed down what felt like a pretty close design that was balanced. I wanted to make the paths pretty equal but I wanted the bases to have very distinct designs. Part of the drive was to ensure that players never felt lost on the map.