First Person Shooter Multiplayer Map Deconstruction

Halo 4 "Ragnarok": A new take on the classic "Valhalla" map.













 On this map, each team has a spire that serves as their player and vehicle spawn point. Each spire comes equipped with a Mongoose, Warthog, Mantis, Ghost and Banshee; as well as a selection of weapons. The river provides an unrestricted route between the two bases with advantage of rocky outcroppings for cover. However, those same rocks can be a disadvantage if the player is caught in an attack from above. The north bank has a relatively sparse amount of cover but gives the player access to a turret installation with a unique vantage point. The southern bank provides a dense amount of cover including the remains of a crashed pelican dropship and short cave systems. This route allows for stealthier approaches. The map is separated into two halves to help facilitate an ease of communication between players, with the retaining wall and Pelican remains marking the middle.

Final Biome Still

UPDATE: Old version, I completely reworked this

Biome Reference and Blockout

     For my evocative biome I decided to do a winter taiga that instills the viewer with a feeling of wonder and curiosity. The scene will take place a little after midnight with northern lights flitting through the sky. I also intend to incorporate a sci-fi element in the form of an alien world on the horizon, as if the viewer were in a forest on a gas giant's moon.

Inspiration and References

The alien looking trees and soft rolling snow is what i intend to draw from this. However, the trees I intend to make are Alaskan Cedars.

The Common Snowberry. This will be one of the plants in my biome, although because it is a winter setting the plant will be devoid of any green leaves.

This is the Alaskan Cedar, I intend to make them covered in piles of snow, the entire tree bending under the weight.

An example of an aurora, caused by photons being emitted from oxygen and nitrogen molecules which have become ionized by solar winds.

Yep, that's Jupiter. The gas giant in my biome's sky will be loosely based on this swirling soup of hydrogen and helium.

LEVEL BLOCKOUT

 

Here is a rough blockout of my biome in unreal engine 4.

 

The first pass of my biome's assets done in Autodesk Maya and Zbrush.

 

First progress shot. The majority of the blockout meshes have been replaced, and I finally started figuring out ue4's landscape editor. Complex shaders are still nonexistent.

Tutorial Level for 2d Sidescroller

Star Wars (NES), Level Analysis by Kevin Reichwein

This game's tutorial is fairly short, but manages to teach the basic controls in that amount of time. It starts the player off in a safe location, ahead is raised platform. It only takes a few button pushes to figure out how to shoot and jump, that's the platformer's bread and butter, no? Jumping across the platforms the first trouble spot the player encounters is green goo dripping from the ceiling. It's generally safe to assume that stuff like this will hurt, but stepping into it's path confirms it pretty quickly. The timing of the drips is pretty regular so it's easy to just dodge between them. Next, the game introduces the player to the hazards of stalactites. Like in Super Mario Bros., this character jumps higher the longer the button is pressed. The trick in this, however, is to make sure you don't jump TOO high (if you do, you get caught on the stalactite and fall into a pit of death). It may take a couple tries, but after the player has mastered jumping the precise height required, the game starts combining mechanics. By the end of the level, all skills required to play the game have been learned!