JOAN FORTUNY
LEVEL DESIGNER
Kiasar Extended
Multiplayer map oriented as Battle Royale experience, original map (Kiasar Railroad) being enhanced and reworked to fit this criteria.
Designing the map
The DLC End Game, map's max size before falling to the void is 6x6km2, what players would play in this version would be around 2,5x2,5km2.
Vanilla offers 0,6x0,6km2 map's size, I had to think very carefully about each zone's purpose and distances so players wouldn't get bored traveling the area.
The first step was to take a look what the terrain was already offering, I saw a lot of interesting areas that could lead into good fights once the level would be finished so after that I started to think about the map's layout.
Players can actually go further beyond the "virtual" out of bounds, but the circle will catch them before they reach that point.
Development
Everything in this project was community made, from Venice Unleashed to UI, coding, and the Map Editor. (which is the tool I used to Level Design this map)
The map editor was, and is, an evolving community tool. There were many issues that they had to be resolved while I was developing the map:
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40 minutes to a load a save
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many crashes when placing assets
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screen freezes
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client disconnections
But thanks to our amazing team these critial issues were fixed and allowed me to develop the map with no constraints.
As soon as I started the design of the map, I had to face the first problem. The map editor didn't support any method to modify the existing terrain or create a new one. That's the main reason we also chose this map; because it was already offering what the team and I wanted to see on the map - a mountainous forest with a lake or ocean near by.
One thing I wanted to make sure when designing the map layout was that the players would know about its history; each zone should have a story to tell and a purpose.
The first iterations of the level layout showcased a carrier in the middle of the lake that the players could reach by swimming or driving boats (carrier as the blue circle and dots as boats), we ended up discarding this idea after a few playtests because the players didnt have enough time to utilize this area. Aditionally, having the carrier this close to the shore felt strange despite experimenting with different distances.
I also started to think where the POIs of the map would be placed. (In red)
Harbour
Harbour is the naval military point of Kiasar. From the start, the first iterations gave really good feelings both for the team and on playtests, but I still faced some issues. I wanted to connect it to the main road next to the harbour, but due the afformentioned difficulties with terrain editing, I tried to give the impression of a real road by adding decals. The result wasn't as great as expected.
What I ended up doing is placing concrete blocks in a way that would look like an abandoned, ruined side road instead.
Lookout
Lookout is the constructed highest point in the map. From here you can see the whole map and its surroundings but on the other hand players can also spot you from below because there's almost no trees to cover the area.
I wanted to build a simple but effective area, so I placed a radar dome, hescos and sandbags to be used as cover.
For lookout we faced almost no issues, after many playtests we only changed the position of a couple of rocks and hescos to give better cover.
Ghost Town
"The village has been habited in the past, now it is a ghost town due the lack of resources."
That was the premise of this zone, I wanted to make sure we had at least one hot zone where players would mostly go as soon as they would jump from the plane.
The first iterations of the zone felt like an abandoned place and didn't feel right, so I sunk some buildings a bit as if the ground had eaten them over time.
I also placed sheds near the area, concretes and fences to have cover.
*Really early prototype of Ghost Town.
Vehicle Graveyard
When I was designing this area, I had in mind a military abandoned zone where the vehicles would come both by train and land.
The first iterations were supposed to be on the ground but the terrain was really steep, so I built a big area based on concrete.
One member of the team suggested to add an easter egg based on the map called Shipment from the Call of Duty series; you can spot it on the containers from the bottom left from the picture below.
*First prototype.
*Early final prototype of Vehicle Graveyard.
Timber Yard
Early prototypes of this area showcased a container yard, however realizing the similarities between this and Vehicle Graveyard, it was decided a last minute change was appropriate; refactoring the area acordingly with the map setting resulting in a timber yard.
*Top down image to showcase to the team where the new area would be.
*Early prototype of Container Yard before it became Timber Yard.
And many more!
These are just the points of interest of the map, but there are many more zones scattered around ready to be explored and looted!
Gameplay
All the gameplays showcased here were part of our internal tests with members of the team and friends.