Standard Antifreeze

When designing any map, I start by defining the ‘conditions’, the basic parameters I’ll be working in, such as optimal player count and viable gametypes. Once those are determined I start thinking about the ‘experience’ and imagine the kind of battle interactions I want players to achieve. These core foundations affect the majority of the decisions throughout the design process and can really help shape how closed, open or vertical spaces are relative to players in the environment.



When thinking about gameplay, my first goal was to create a fast paced experience that complimented the advanced movement mechanics of infantry based combat while providing enough flexibility for light vehicular interaction.



For my overall layout, I thought a ‘W’ shaped vehicle circuit would balance travel times between infantry and vehicle routes but wanted to connect the end points together to give it more fluid movement. I combined the traditional figure 8 design philosophy and ended up with a more pretzel shaped topology as a result which you can see in my initial sketch below.