Unreal Development Kit | Mario Enchev

Detonation Protocol

Genre: Tactical Shooter

POV: 1st Person

Type: Multi-Player

Platform & Engine: Windows PC & Unreal Engine 5

Team Size: 1

Duration: 1 months

Functional and Testable

The Level Design follows the same principles of Valorant & CS's competitive maps meaning it has an acceptable scale that affords teamplay/coordination and is also adjusted to the mechanics and playstyles each game has.

Beginner & Expert Friendly

Because of its simplistic design, the map is approachable to all kind of skill leveled players no matter if they are beginners who are still learning how to play the game or an expert who wants to min/max every aspect of the map for tactical mastery.

'Gameplay First' Design:

The most important aspect of a competitive shooter is knowing the route of a level map. Players have to find it easy to navigate around a map and know where each site is and how to get there. The second important aspect is the clarity of the route, therefore all geometry is placed correctly to ensure players know where all obstacles are and where each path leads to.

Goals & Restrictions

My goals with this project were to:

Learn more about Multiplayer FPS Level Design.
Spend more time practicing, refining, and solidifying my level design pipeline.
Design a competitive map that would fit naturally within the Valorant/CS community who are interested in a tactical shooter and have all kind of skill levels.
Have fun in creating a level and playing it

I added restrictions on this project because I wanted it to be the best suitable for the players:

The map size must be standard and in some way comparable to the other Valorant/CS maps.
The map must not contain any interactable gimmicks i.e. no teleporters, no ziplines, no interactable door etc.
The map's difficulty must be simple enough for the beginner players to understand but also has enough substance which can be mastered at higher level.
Must have at least 2 bomb sites and not one.
Map must require the right amount of distance and space for both teams to begin and enter each bomb site.

Map Layout

Here is the map layout and its different sections.

I started my project by doing an extensive research on some of the maps both Valorant and CS had made. Despite playing these two games for the last 20 years, I still had to re-examine every map through a Level Design point of view in order to better understand how these maps were built. When looking at these maps I had to ask myself and also understand what playstyle(s) and strategies does each map support, what makes each map different from one another and how does that provide a different gameplay experience? I then had to look at the maps and see what the best possible routes were for the players to take and if both sides of teams would find it difficult to either attack or defend. I looked at various of top down maps from both games to understand how the spaces were constructed. I took note of features such as the paths, engagement/clash points, choke points, spawn barriers, and bombsite locations. I did this because I wanted to visually simplify and see the map flow without seeing the boundaries of the map.

Design and Creation Process

2D Map

When creating my 2D map, I wanted to make sure I implement a few important things which I noticed while looking at the other maps from Valorant and CS.

I had to ensure I followed all of the restrictions I made on this project.
I had to ensure my map followed the fundamental design pieces for competitive tactical FPS maps:
- What are the timings for engagement points? Which players will reach certain points of a map faster? Who reaches choke points faster? Who rotates from bombsite to bombsite faster? (generally, Defenders should be the ones to rotate slightly faster than Attackers).
- How many chokepoints do I have in the map? Where are they located?
- Do my choke points support all play styles? Does it support strong execute strategies as well as lurking players?
- Do my choke points reward strategy or teamwork? Does it support both?
- Are my choke points balanced? Are they too tight or too wide?
- How many routes exist for each side? Are they balanced?
- How many entrances/exits exist for each bombsite? Where do these entrances/exits come from/lead to?

Blockout, Iteration & Feedback

After blocking out my first layout by following the 2D map I made I realized my layout had a massive issues after getting feedback:

No verticality: The verticality of the map was not done correctly and even though I had 5 ramps this was still not enough and would not make the gameplay interesting and dynamic. One person also said this after looking at my first design. "Generally, rather than just having height difference in connecting corridors between spaces, bringing tangible verticality into your key spaces, being a more core integrated part of it, can make it more interesting and dynamic"
B Long cubby: The distance between the attackers and defenders for B long was to long and attackers were finding it difficult to reach site. I decided to shorten the distance and also move cubby closer to the site so its easier for the attackers to take cover before entering site quicker.

1/8

Closing Thoughts

After working on this project and making a lot of key decisions it really helped me in understanding and expanding my current knowledge on how multiplayer maps are developed. I'm glad I kept the map complexity simple as it allowed me to focus on the fundamentals rather than trying to create something entirely unique and overly-spectacular. Creating maps for multiplayer FPS has made me aware that even the smallest of changes have the ability to affect the overall gameplay experience for the players. In the end it was a very fun experience because I had fun making something I love.

Year: 2024