Project1v1 – Gearbox Internship

Position

Level Design Intern – Gearbox Software

Development Time

7 Weeks ~ Aprox. 50 Hours

synopsis

Project 1v1 combines the action of fast-paced 1v1 first person combat with the metagame strategy of a collectible card game. Responsibilities involved building and testing multiplayer map layouts that extenuate the games unique strengths in a short amount of time.

Maps

Canyon

design goal: limit elevation advantage

  • Sight blockers were added to limit the view of those above from those below.
  • Another method for reducing the advantage of the catwalk was lowering it to give the other player more means to engage from the ground.
  • Finally, the catwalk was bent into a horseshoe to make a sneak attack from either side easier.

Following these changes players felt less safe on the top floor encouraging more frenetic matches when compared to the camping seen in previous versions.

sealab

design goal: establish strong context without sacrificing gameplay

  • Sealab was designed around its theme of being an underwater dome.
  • Building an asymmetrical layout in a circle proved difficult. Initial versions of Sealab were highly symmetrical and open allowing players on the elevated middle platform to easily take out all those around them.
  • To fix this I worked on removing certain loops from the map while bolstering the speed of other player loops.

Encouraging players to move up top instead of around in a circle helped break up the monotony of early versions and resulted in a better paced experience.

post mortem

What went well

  • Researching and deconstructing existing content to build design vocabulary
  • Drawing layout of existing maps to understand design metrics
  • Laying out maps in other engines before time in studio to optimize construction
  • Playtesting student maps and early and often to better understand what works and doesn’t

what went wrong

  • 3 hours a week made adding contextual elements and setdressing to the maps difficult
  • Complex BSP subtraction led to corrupted geometry a few times during the project
  • Sealab was ambitious and visually interesting but lack of sightlines meant it never played as well as Canyon

what I learned

  • Movement mechanics and combat mechanics can completely change how you approach map design
  • A successful layout is visually balanced and interesting in the blockout phase
  • Taking a project from concept to polish requires a lot more time than 50 hours allows for 2 arenas.