Environment Design
Unity -> Ravenfield
I found a tutorial to make maps for a single-player first person shooter game called Ravenfield. I'd never used Unity before, and the only level environments I'd ever designed were in Roller Coaster Tycoon, Spore, and those times when I drew my own Super Mario levels as a kid. Fast forward a bit, and I have my first custom map, Happy Island.
Things you should know about Ravenfield:
The gameplay is a conquest/capture the flag style FPS. Every kill gets multiplied by the number of Capture Points your team controls, and then added to the overall team score. The battle ends when one team captures every base or when one team's score is 250 points higher than the other's. (pictured)
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Process
I knew what I wanted to do from the start, the challenge was I didn't know how to do any of it... yet. In this section, I'll describe my plan and do my best to provide a behind-the-scenes look at the steps I took to make it a reality.
Pictured are a few early sketches and models of what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted two islands, but I wasn't sure how many bridges should connect them or where those bridges should be. The circles are Capture Points. I thought an odd number would be best, because otherwise the battle could remain stagnant as equal weighted kills would get "traded" without any progress towards victory. However, after playtesting I decided that an AI stalemate might be exactly what I needed. I added a sixth capture point to balance out the two sides, thereby making the player's actions the sole imbalance. This new capture point also provided an interesting cover area in the valley rather than just a forest.
Also pictured below is an image I shared with the Ravenfield Map-Making forum. The members help each other solve problems that they're having and give suggestions and feedback. It's a great community that shares a lot of ideas and assets. After just a month in the community, I went from asking questions to answering them.
Result
In its first 50 days on Steam, the map recieved a total of 2814 unique subscribers with a final total of 2440, an 87% retention. It also received 100% positive reviews.
Here are some of the comments about the map:
- "...this island made me happy..."
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- "Cool map"
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- "overall very solid map. it designed very well..."
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- "This map is really under rated I loved every bit of it. Great pathfinding, size, creativity, and it actually felt like a real place and not just another game map. The only thing is the palm tree hitboxes but other than that it is awesome... Still it is an amazing creation, my favorite thus far."