The Wired for Blood team is looking for fresh, fun arenas for the upcoming mod. In order to achieve that goal, we thought it would be fun to host a contest! All selected arenas will be used in the mod, and the designers' names placed in the credits. Up to five arenas will be selected for the project.
Setting
Each arena should be between 42x42 and 74x74 in size. The setting is a post-apocalyptic world, so the Avernus tileset should be used and appropriate doodads should be placed. A fair amount of doodads will be expected, but not so many that some players may begin to get visual lag. Feel free to tweak the lighting in the arena to round off your atmosphere and give it that post-apocalyptic vibe. The characters should be easily visually distinguishable from the environment so try to avoid clutter. Each artist can win multiple times if he/she has submitted multiple awesome arenas.
Both aesthetics and gameplay will be taken into account when judging the arenas. Design your arena to be viewed diagonally. That is, rotated 45 degrees. Think diamonds instead of squares.
Time Frame
We'll keep this contest running until Friday, Nov 12. At that point we'll announce the winners and shortly thereafter post some updates on the map involving the arenas and some of our new heroes and mechanics. Good luck, everybody! We're excited to see the awesome arenas you can think up.
Inspiration
One of our big inspirations for the game (Although we are pulling from multiple muses) is the D3 arena system that was featured at BlizzCon this year. One of your inspirations for the arenas should be the D3 arena as well. However keep in mind the setting is post-apocalyptic.
Addendum
Going to answer all your questions and requests for more information here!
Q: How many players per team?
A: There are three players per team.
Q: Should we include a shop system?
A: No, the shops will be separated from the arenas. Each arena should only include the killing grounds. There are no NPCs, shops or other areas for you to be concerned about. Shopping and progression is handled between rounds.
Q: What format will the players be battling in?
A: The players will be fighting in team deathmatch style. Whichever team kills the opposing team will win.
Q: Where do players spawn?
A: Players spawn with their team on opposite sides of the map: Left and right. They only spawn once, at the beginning of the round, so there is no real-time respawn system.
Q: Are there any special features we should include?
A: Bonus points will be given for cool potential environmental hazards, but they're not required as we can always add them later. Examples would be periodic flame jets, high winds, etc.
Q: Should we section off the arena?
A: As answered above, we want up to 5 separate arenas that will not be linked. The only thing the player will be doing in these arenas is beating the snot out of each other. Each arena should be self-contained. They will be imported into one map and we will spread them out from each other manually.
Q: Can we use multiple levels or should we stick to one cliff level?
A: We will probably have a couple flat arenas and a couple leveled arenas. Any cliff level that is not accessible by foot may not be accessible by every class so we won't be able to use those. Use cliff levels in moderation, use your best judgement.
Q: Will there be line of sight and fog of war?
A: Certain skills will have a line of sight, however there will be no fog of war; The whole arena will be revealed to the players.
Q: How big are the units?
A: Build the arena as if the heroes were twice the dimensions of a zealot.
Thanks for the great questions and keep them coming if you need more clarification.
There are some missing details that are relevant. You haven't decided on the number of players, so what should we be designing for? Things like size and shape are important depending on the number of players in the game. Heroes will be upgraded through some sort of shop system, but there's no indication of how this will work and if we will need to account for 'buy' areas. And what about spawns: do all players spawn on one side of the map? Different areas? Do they need to be spaced out? Should we be accounting for special features of the map/game? I find it particularly difficult to develop without context and without input from the team.
Those are excellent questions Farmrush, thank you. I have edited the original post with answers. Let me know if you have anything else you'd like clarified.
I think I might give it a shot, but I have a few questions.
Are ramps/high ground features ok? Or do the players need to be on the same cliff level?
Is there line of sight/fog of war or is the entire arena revealed by default?
What is roughly the size of each player's unit? (I assume something close to zealot/ghost, just making sure so I don't make features too small.)
More great questions, I answered all three in an edit to the bottom of the original post.
Here's a picture of what I've got so far. Please tell me if I'm way off the mark with the theme or intended gameplay :P
The parts of the map that can't be walked to are completely blocked off with doodads or pathing blockers to prevent teleports or other stuff. The pathing features look better up close in the editor. EDIT: updated image. Download Link
The area surrounding the arena looks nice. The size of the arena is good. There are a few nice details in there. One criticism I'd have is with the rainbow lights. It should be more gothic / twisted than vibrant. Most of the emissive lights should be coming from the heroes.
Other than that it looks nice. Some polish to make it more interesting and a bit less blocky/linear and it's got some potential.
Why do you want Avernus as Tilset? Its a Spaceplatform. In my opinion it would be much better to take some sort of Wastland - like Mar Sara for example.
And another Question: Should the area be mirrored in some way? Thats always a difficult question, as it can affact the gameplay pretty heavy but if you make it too symetric it will loose its natural look.
This is cool rrowland, I might do something up if I have time later.
EDIT: Oh, is that camera view you listed the default or should I create a camera for testing purposes? And if I do make a submission, my initial thought was to mix tilesets, is that OK or will that create a problem for the larger map?
Work in progress, going to add a few more doodads (decals) in and around each area, but I think it's more or less finished. Playable area is: 62x56, lighting is Mar Sara Night Test.
Features:
Two elevated team areas, red/blue (easily changed)
Sunken central area w/ possible environmental trap(s)
Sunken corner areas w/ possible environmental trap(s) or bonuses... top left is the biohazard leak area (as seen in screenshots below), bottom right is blast crater area
Lots to look at, lots to hide behind, shouldn't be too laggy
62x56 is the playable map size. What you see there is all that was intended to be seen, the actual map is something like 128x128. So everything in the screenshots is game. :)
Some things will need to be changed depending how it fits into the game (I would have to see for myself!), but here is the general layout. I hope this is what you were looking for!
EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mess with the terrain, but that's easy and I'll do it tomorrow or something.
That map is full of win. Great lighting without going overboard, caputures the feel of post apocalypse very well, and interesting points of interest that don't get in the way of gameplay.
Only crit is i think you may have overdone the grungy ground texture, the blackish one. I know you're going for a dirty grungey future invironment, but i think if you scaled it back a bit and put in some more of the cleaner metalic texture it would be a little more appealing visually. As it is it looks like a barren wasteland with bits of metal kinda overtaking it rather than the reverse.
Thanks! I'm still playing around with it, waiting for feedback from rrowland also, but while I'm working on it I'll try some different terrain and see how it looks. You're probably right.
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Summary
The Wired for Blood team is looking for fresh, fun arenas for the upcoming mod. In order to achieve that goal, we thought it would be fun to host a contest! All selected arenas will be used in the mod, and the designers' names placed in the credits. Up to five arenas will be selected for the project.
Setting
Each arena should be between 42x42 and 74x74 in size. The setting is a post-apocalyptic world, so the Avernus tileset should be used and appropriate doodads should be placed. A fair amount of doodads will be expected, but not so many that some players may begin to get visual lag. Feel free to tweak the lighting in the arena to round off your atmosphere and give it that post-apocalyptic vibe. The characters should be easily visually distinguishable from the environment so try to avoid clutter. Each artist can win multiple times if he/she has submitted multiple awesome arenas.
Both aesthetics and gameplay will be taken into account when judging the arenas. Design your arena to be viewed diagonally. That is, rotated 45 degrees. Think diamonds instead of squares.
Time Frame
We'll keep this contest running until Friday, Nov 12. At that point we'll announce the winners and shortly thereafter post some updates on the map involving the arenas and some of our new heroes and mechanics. Good luck, everybody! We're excited to see the awesome arenas you can think up.
Inspiration
One of our big inspirations for the game (Although we are pulling from multiple muses) is the D3 arena system that was featured at BlizzCon this year. One of your inspirations for the arenas should be the D3 arena as well. However keep in mind the setting is post-apocalyptic.
Addendum
Going to answer all your questions and requests for more information here!
Q: How many players per team? A: There are three players per team.
Q: Should we include a shop system? A: No, the shops will be separated from the arenas. Each arena should only include the killing grounds. There are no NPCs, shops or other areas for you to be concerned about. Shopping and progression is handled between rounds.
Q: What format will the players be battling in? A: The players will be fighting in team deathmatch style. Whichever team kills the opposing team will win.
Q: Where do players spawn? A: Players spawn with their team on opposite sides of the map: Left and right. They only spawn once, at the beginning of the round, so there is no real-time respawn system.
Q: Are there any special features we should include? A: Bonus points will be given for cool potential environmental hazards, but they're not required as we can always add them later. Examples would be periodic flame jets, high winds, etc.
Q: Should we section off the arena? A: As answered above, we want up to 5 separate arenas that will not be linked. The only thing the player will be doing in these arenas is beating the snot out of each other. Each arena should be self-contained. They will be imported into one map and we will spread them out from each other manually.
Q: Can we use multiple levels or should we stick to one cliff level? A: We will probably have a couple flat arenas and a couple leveled arenas. Any cliff level that is not accessible by foot may not be accessible by every class so we won't be able to use those. Use cliff levels in moderation, use your best judgement.
Q: Will there be line of sight and fog of war? A: Certain skills will have a line of sight, however there will be no fog of war; The whole arena will be revealed to the players.
Q: How big are the units? A: Build the arena as if the heroes were twice the dimensions of a zealot.
Thanks for the great questions and keep them coming if you need more clarification.
U be trollin' rowland?
Odd coincidence, but we're looking for something more specific.
There are some missing details that are relevant. You haven't decided on the number of players, so what should we be designing for? Things like size and shape are important depending on the number of players in the game. Heroes will be upgraded through some sort of shop system, but there's no indication of how this will work and if we will need to account for 'buy' areas. And what about spawns: do all players spawn on one side of the map? Different areas? Do they need to be spaced out? Should we be accounting for special features of the map/game? I find it particularly difficult to develop without context and without input from the team.
@Farmrush: Go
Those are excellent questions Farmrush, thank you. I have edited the original post with answers. Let me know if you have anything else you'd like clarified.
I think I might give it a shot, but I have a few questions.
More great questions, I answered all three in an edit to the bottom of the original post.
Here's a picture of what I've got so far. Please tell me if I'm way off the mark with the theme or intended gameplay :P The parts of the map that can't be walked to are completely blocked off with doodads or pathing blockers to prevent teleports or other stuff. The pathing features look better up close in the editor. EDIT: updated image. Download Link
@lotsofcolors: Go
The area surrounding the arena looks nice. The size of the arena is good. There are a few nice details in there. One criticism I'd have is with the rainbow lights. It should be more gothic / twisted than vibrant. Most of the emissive lights should be coming from the heroes.
Other than that it looks nice. Some polish to make it more interesting and a bit less blocky/linear and it's got some potential.
Nice job.
Why do you want Avernus as Tilset? Its a Spaceplatform. In my opinion it would be much better to take some sort of Wastland - like Mar Sara for example.
And another Question: Should the area be mirrored in some way? Thats always a difficult question, as it can affact the gameplay pretty heavy but if you make it too symetric it will loose its natural look.
This is cool rrowland, I might do something up if I have time later.
EDIT: Oh, is that camera view you listed the default or should I create a camera for testing purposes? And if I do make a submission, my initial thought was to mix tilesets, is that OK or will that create a problem for the larger map?
Work in progress, going to add a few more doodads (decals) in and around each area, but I think it's more or less finished. Playable area is: 62x56, lighting is Mar Sara Night Test.
Features:
Feedback!
@QMJ3: Go
got a question, does the playable map be between those sizes or the whole map?
I updated my earlier submission in light of your specifications (hopefully). Here are some pictures :3
@thommiej: Go
62x56 is the playable map size. What you see there is all that was intended to be seen, the actual map is something like 128x128. So everything in the screenshots is game. :)
Some things will need to be changed depending how it fits into the game (I would have to see for myself!), but here is the general layout. I hope this is what you were looking for!
EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mess with the terrain, but that's easy and I'll do it tomorrow or something.
@Farmrush: Go hi i made 2 maps, there NOT finished only the terraining is done (at 1 of them) i just wanna know if this is something you look for.
the first one is the best in my opinion
bye
I'm not the OP.
@QMJ3: Go
That map is full of win. Great lighting without going overboard, caputures the feel of post apocalypse very well, and interesting points of interest that don't get in the way of gameplay.
Only crit is i think you may have overdone the grungy ground texture, the blackish one. I know you're going for a dirty grungey future invironment, but i think if you scaled it back a bit and put in some more of the cleaner metalic texture it would be a little more appealing visually. As it is it looks like a barren wasteland with bits of metal kinda overtaking it rather than the reverse.
@crazyfingers619: Go
Thanks! I'm still playing around with it, waiting for feedback from rrowland also, but while I'm working on it I'll try some different terrain and see how it looks. You're probably right.