Museum

Project Overview

Museum is a level built for a competitive five-versus-five multiplayer game in the style of CS:GO. Teams take turns attacking or defending sites with the objective of either planting or defusing a bomb or eliminating the enemy team. The first team to win five rounds wins the match.

Team Size: Solo Project

Roles: Level Designer

Timeline: 4 Months

Tools Used: Unreal Engine 5, Miro, Microsoft Word

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Design Process

Project Goals

Create a map that suits a five-versus-five multiplayer match. The map should take into consideration the balance of both attacking and defending.

The map should also take into consideration the variety of weapons that could be used on it

This project allowed me to explore map creation within Unreal Engine 5 and develop a better understanding of the engine itself

Creating Gameplay

Since I wanted to primarily focus on level design, I needed to find a solution to create and replicate the gameplay that is found in CS:GO within Unreal Engine, without spending time coding it myself.

After looking at multiple different ways and engines to solve my issue, I found the FPS multiplayer template 5 asset on the Unreal store. This asset pack contained all of the gameplay elements I would need in order to fit the requirements for recreating the gameplay loop.

Researching Established Levels

Before diving into the actual level design process, I researched already established levels within this genre. Doing this allowed me to better understand what good maps in this genres accomplish when it comes to their design. It would also give me a better understanding of size I should aim to make my map as well as how many alternate routes that should be expected.

For this, I looked at a map in CS:GO called Mirage. Mirage seems to be agreed upon by the community to be one of the stronger maps within CS:GO. It was always a consistent top five pick amongst players.

Building the LDD

When constructing the LDD, I wanted to make a comprehensible document that stored all the information that I would need to build my level in Unreal Engine. The location I chose to set my map in was within a museum that was under construction, allowing me to remove the roof and gave the map a more open feel. Additionally, it allowed me to utilize the natural lighting of Unreal Engine to light my map. This saved me a lot of time as I didn't have to put individual light sources around the map to make it bright enough for players to see in it.

I wanted to gather as many references as I could for all of the spaces I wanted to create. This would give me a good understanding of what the space should look like.

Within the LDD, I also roughly laid out the ideas I had for potential map layouts. Making sure a design is sound on paper is important, as it is a lot cheaper and less time consuming to alter an idea on paper.

Designing the Map

I wanted to utilize the three lane structure when constructing my map. Having the two sites being on the outer lanes and having the middle lane be an alternate path that can be utilized for flanking or alternate entrances into sites. Building it in this way allows players to have options when it comes to approaching or defending sites. However, I didn't want to implement too many alternate paths as it would feel more like a maze.

I stuck with the philosophy of trying to create a map with one main path to both sites and an additional alternate route to those sites, keeping the alternate paths in check and allowing defenders the ability to reasonably defend sites.

Another important aspect I kept in mind when creating this map was ensuring the balance between attacking and defending. Defenders should have tools to efficiently defend sites. Attackers should have multiple different avenues for entering a site. I wanted ensure that all weapons would be viable in certain areas of the map. Long-range weapons should not dominate in all areas, nor should close-range weapons.