FACTORY
Unreal Tournament Death Match Level Design
Certain areas of the map are designed around Unreal Tournament's wall jump mechanic. Players have multiple ways to go down a single hall way. They can walk straight down the middle and take cover behind ramps. They can run on the wall and jump from wall to wall and onto the tops of the ramps to get a height advantage. They can also run on one side of the wall and on the ramps and scaffolding.
Certain areas of the map are designed around Unreal Tournament's wall jump mechanic. Players have multiple ways to go down a single hall way. They can walk straight down the middle and take cover behind ramps. They can run on the wall and jump from wall to wall and onto the tops of the ramps to get a height advantage. They can also run on one side of the wall and on the ramps and scaffolding.
WALL JUMPING
Certain areas of the map are designed around the wall jumping mechanic. Protrusions from the wall allow the player to jump from wall to wall and platform to platform to move down a hallway very fast while maintaining a height advantage over players walking straight through on the ground. These areas give the player multiple options for how to move through the same area, and rewards them for using advanced mechanics.
SLIDING
There are small holes in the walls separating the three main sections of the level that the player can only fit through by sliding or crouching. This allows the player to quickly cut from room to room and sneak up on other players. Having alternate doors and pathways helps enhance the overall flow of the level and rewards players for using advanced mechanics.
COVER
Having walls, blocks, and other objects in the way help to break up the level. Without cover, players would be able to just sit in one spot and get an unfair advantage with longer range weapons. Having cover allows players to move up with shorter range weapons, while also forcing players to have to move around to get a better shot at players while using long range weapons. Cover is also a good way to break up long straight passage ways. It's boring if the player just has to hold forward to get through an area with no interruption. Making sure the player has things to look at and move around keeps them engaged.
ELEVATION AND VERTICALITY
Slight incline and ramps are used to break up straight flat areas of the map. If the whole map was on one flat elevation, the player would just be able to hold their gun at head height to always guarantee a head shot. Having small ramps helps make it more difficult, because has to readjust their aim both vertically and horizontally. Verticality is the idea of allowing the player to move through the stage vertically, rather than just having everything on one floor. I provide multiple areas of the map with open two story platforms and balconies so that players can fight each other between floors. This allows the level to be compact enough for players to find each other, but still spacious enough for players to be able to move around and take cover.
Factory Death Match Level
Factory Death Match Level
Assignment 03 1 Multiplayer Level Function, Flow & Form
Assignment 04 1 Multiplayer Level Set Design
POST MORTEM
What Went Right:
This was my second Unreal Tournament level, so I was a lot more comfortable with the tools. I also had a greater understanding of FPS design techniques, like using verticality, avoiding long straight halls, providing lots of cover and interuptions to straight paths, and using set design for story telling. I think a lot of this really shown through in the final iteration of the level. Lastly, I was able to design the flow of the level around the unique mechanics of the game and reward the player for using those mechanics. Having plenty of areas for wall running and sliding really made this fit in as an Unreal Tournament map.
What Went Wrong:
While working on some of the wall running portions of the map, I had to rescale and move things numerous amounts of times to get it to where the player was able to jump from wall to wall comfortably. I didn't want it to be too easy, so that more skilled players would get an advantage from these areas. I wanted to make sure there was some margin for error on it though, so that it didn't require perfect inputs to successfully pull off. This took a lot of resizing, testing, and resizing again to make sure the distance between surfaces were just right.
Take Aways:
More experience with Unreal was one of the major things I got out of this project. I got experience with the BSP tool, and learned how to better work with textures and lighting. The importance of taking the time to polish is also something I learned from this project. Getting the wall running segments of the map to be just right took a lot of slight adjustments and testing to get perfect, but without that polish these segments could have been really frustrating and tedious to players. Taking the time to iterate on it made these segments stand out as some of the best parts of this map.