Unreal Tournament: Blitz Level Design

The closest thing we had to spawn rooms at the time already loosely existed in the attacker base

The midfield was open while still providing some cover, and the flag carrier’s path was easy to catch up on and track if you were paying attention (instead of our current tagging system, we started experimenting with cameras at certain choke points to make sure the carrier couldn’t sneak by unseen)

There were three main routes into the defender base, two of which connected back together before hitting the capture point

Powerup and armor locations made for valuable secondary objectives that were contestable

While the attackers had spawn rooms, the defenders had none (limited lives weren’t a thing yet)

While open, the midfield was also incredibly linear – there weren’t many interesting choices to make on your way to the next area

Dropped flags often ended matches or provided the defending team a huge time advantage because they were so easily locked down (this eventually led to the backtracking mechanic of the dropped flag, which allowed for fun dynamic shifts and decision making around the flag instead)

Rally wasn’t a thing yet – the whole map felt like one big slouch across without any meaningful checkpoints or gathering spots to hit

Blackstone had a great overall narrative in its structural design and premise that was immediately more easily understood (battlements are a natural first perimeter, breaching a castle, etc)

It took from the open concept of Bigrocks midfield and expanded and improved upon it by adding a second lane (“Bridge”) next to “River” that allowed for different approaches and forced defenders to chose where to pay attention.

One of the core concepts born out of this map is the proximity and traversal between the options players get at the first choke point. In “Courtyard” defenders are able to rotate their numbers to anticipate shifts in attackers movements without being too far removed from each side.

We eventually made a conscious choice to only rely on jump pads for critical path gameplay to allow teams to move together. Lift jumps are still a valuable option but should be looked at as supplemental.

The redeemer was introduced as a side objective that is only available to the attacking team (it eventually ended up in the attackers’ spawn to prevent griefing and allow it to be a more consistent element in attacker play)

It introduced the raw form of combat bowls and choke points to the mode with 3 appreciable steps (“Courtyard”, “Antechamber”, “Throne Room”) that eventually led to the creation of rally points (which were first iterated on in this map)

With the introduction of rally points came the need to purposefully design spaces for them that allowed for enough space around them – which proved to be a challenge with the limited space and still requires more work to make them work effectively

The attacker lead up into the first combat bowl was too long, repeated spawning (even with rally) often felt tedious (and a bit mazey).

Choke points were very even in size, and especially deeper into the map were too easily controlled from one position.

The defender spawns were sitting in between the entrance to the defender base and the delivery point (and had only one exit for the majority of its development) which lead to a lot of spawn camping and frustrating cut-offs

The defender base had a high entrance that allowed for very volatile trick-jump-insta-cap scenarios that were not easily anticipated and observable, making for frustrating “what just happened” moments.

Staging area and safe space for the defenders. Provides the ability to heal and stock up on ammo. Only defending team can shoot through exit barriers.

Exits need to establish good flow into defender base and provide options to combat potential spawn griefers. Minimum of 2 exits (or 1 exit in the case of split rooms).

Since players are protected in their spawn rooms we need to be careful not to place the doors in direct line of sight of key areas (i.e. overlooking capture point)

Opportunity to thematically stage the level, affords freedom to do some set dressing since there is no combat happening.

Utilized to build or maintain momentum, fake out defenders, quickly rotate between lanes, and gather the attackers together to push.

Placed near (before and/or after) choke points. They need to be oriented in the direction you want rallying players to face as they teleport in. They are ideally situated on the outer edge of the map, adjacent to the major flow direction.

In most cases, rally points should be in a space that is open enough to be contestable while still offering a moderate amount of cover and/or evasive space.

Rally Points must have a strong landmark nearby (ideally integrated) that can be utilized for call outs.

Bigger and more open, arena-like spaces. Affords largest surface area for gameplay variance and experimentation.

The carrier is challenged to traverse these with the help of his or her team and *has* to be easily visible to defenders while on the move when someone is paying attention. Making these too porous and maze-like means a carrier can easily sneak through without ever being seen, which is bad. At the same time, we have to make sure that there is enough cover to dart between while still allowing sight lines through easily understandable corridors that are long enough for players to utilize effectively.

Multiple lanes that interconnect with each other and with choke points in ways that add advantages and disadvantages to taking each path.

Pickups (weapons/armor/powerups) act as sub-objectives for players.

It is generally advisable to not go too wide with these spaces to ensure the overall combat front is maintained and we don’t introduce a secondary perpendicular front.

Staging area and safe space for the attackers. Provides the ability to heal and stock up on ammo. Only attacking team can shoot through exit barriers.

Provides access to a Redeemer (spawns after 3 star time has elapsed).

Exits need to establish good flow into connected combat bowl and provide options to combat potential spawn griefers. Minimum of 2 exits (or 1 exit in the case of split rooms).

Opportunity to thematically stage the level, affords freedom to do some set dressing since there is no combat happening.

Blitz is designed for and played in 5v5 only

FR-TestMap is the go to spot for copy/pasting the basic level setup and getting started on a new shell

Traversal time from carried object spawn to delivery point should be no longer than 20-25s

Blackstone, Heist, and Highroad are our other shells that are currently on hold and may be revisited later. They don’t hit the same quality bar yet but may still be useful for investigation of what works and what doesn’t and/or serve as inspiration for improvements in your own designs.