Skyscraper

A semester-long level design project for Unreal Engine 5’s Lyra project.

Overview

• Date: Spring 2023

• Duration: 4 Months

• Team Size: 1

• Role: Solo Level Designer

• Genre: Multiplayer Shooter

• Platform: PC
  

Responsibilities

• Create a new map for Unreal Engine 5's Lyra demo project, a 4v4 multiplayer competitive shooter.

• Present new iterations of the map for playtesting and feedback weekly.

• Create a design document describing the design process and breaking down the level through several lenses, including sight lines, player paths, and the kinds of spaces (linked below).
  

Postmortem

Looking back on the project, I think I did a good job creating the atmosphere and aesthetic I was going for, but I think I could have done more work to make my concept mesh more cleanly with Lyra's mechanics. Primarily, the map is built as though there were designated spawn points for each team, but I discovered that Lyra did not have a system to implement team-specific spawn points, causing each team to spawn together at one of points as the game started, but respawn at either of the points randomly. This made the points at the edge of the map change hands more often, but also unintentionally helped strengthen some of the goals I had with my map. Firstly, it caused the midpoint to be even harder to defend, as the team attacking the center point could often apply pressure from either side. Secondly, it made the use of flanking routes around the center point more important, as a player could use them to rejoin their team if they respawned on the side opposite the rest of their team.