After I set my scale and metrics, I whiteboxed out my layout in Unreal Engine and used basic shapes to get an idea of the space.

Once I established my space and boundaries, I started detailing my Whitebox. Each area needed to feel unique so that players know where they are and give proper call-outs.

When I needed any assets in my whitebox phase, I went into Maya and modeled them. For instance, this map really needed to feel like a Christmas town, so I modeled some trees, lamps, and snowmen to help make the Whitebox feel good. This helped give my whitebox some more context and detail.

However, all the buildings and the surrounding area were made using basic shapes in the engine.

The first thing I noticed when playtesting is my starting spawns weren’t working. I went back and added that functionality in blueprints.

Next, I found that spawn camping became a problem so I needed to tweak the placement of the spawns as well as add more cover. I found that the added cover and spacing out the spawns worked well enough without completely changing how the spawn system works.

I also tried to add more verticality to avoid feeling flat. This allowed players to use the space more efficiently.

I also added different-looking boundaries to help the area not feel like a trapped box. I even included an out-of-bounds area that starts a count down. Players could go into it get a quick kill and then hop out of it before the timer ran out.

Things I learned:

Scope:
I originally started out building a 3v3 map, but as I was building it was a little bigger than I anticipated for 6 people. So I decided to make it 4v4 since I was more familiar with this space and had optimal references. The size of the map directly impacts the number of players on it and I found it was more fun with 8 though 6 can still work. The map could also be played 5v5 even though 10 can get a little crowded.

Multiplayer Blueprinting:
There were no starting spawns in the pack so I had to create one so that players weren’t spawning in the middle of the map. The challenge was to disable all the other spawns until all the players get into the map and leave the starting area.

Things I’d do differently:

Reduce the size of the level:
I am happy the 4v4 worked out. However, I would scale the space down to allow more time to polish and have the intended 3v3 mode.

Do less detailing:
If I were to do this project again and plan to art it out, I wouldn’t spend as much time perfecting the whitebox detailing. Some of this time was wasted since I was going to swap out some of the assets. While I’m happy with the white box, it could be improved with final art assets and lighting.

Things I’d Like to do if I had 6 more months:

This brings me to my next point is I would like to fully art this space out. It would be cool to see it with actual Christmas trees and shops and neon lights. In fact, I would most likely turn this white box into a night scene. Christmas lights are always so pretty with piles of snow under them and additional lights coming from the shops. I think the aesthetic of this map could look really amazing and I wish I had more time to perfect it.

I would also like to add more game modes to this map. As it stands, It really only works for domination. I think the layout is good enough to add in other objective game modes as well as deathmatch ones.

It is again worth noting the asset pack creator is going to add a lot of updates in June tat would allow for easier blueprinting and more complex game modes.