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Carl Rutter
Lead Level Designer
Mortain​
Just before the map was released to the community, I took part in a marketing trailer for Team17, talking
about the Level Design workflow, key pillars which are: Meaningfulness, Recognisable, Believable. As well
as discussing the feedback and iteration process in developing Mortain.
I was responsible for blocking out the following spaces in Mortain:
Initial Blockout
End result
The town of Mortain
- Based on initial research around size and density of the town around France, 1944 - I was tasked with blocking out the initial layout of the town. This had to include the following notable landmarks:
- The Hotel De La Poste hero asset and Capture Point
- The "Saint-Evroult Collegiate" Church
- The "Mortain Outskirts" Capture Point
- Historically accurate building placements of intact vs destroyed buildings
- Add and balance a mixture of enterable vs. non-enterable buildings taking sightlines and dominant positions into account
There were a lot of iterations on this space throughout development as we fine tuned the roads, building placements, and sightlines. The end result being a town that feels lived in and affected by the horrors of war.
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Initial Blockout
Blockout Iterations
End Result
Capture Point - "Mortain Outskirts"
- The Mortain Outskirts Capture Point overall theme was to capture what the town might look like as the player is leaving as it transitions into the more rural spaces, this includes: adding less side roads and connecting the spaces via main roads in and out of the town, less emphasis on buildings by reducing the amount compared to Hotel De La Poste, and capturing that blend of urban vs. rural by incorporating elements seen above
- This Capture Point went through a couple of iterations even though the core layout remained the same. As you can see above I blocked out a communal allotment section to act as a "gateway" between the urban town and more rural countryside space
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Initial Blockout
End Result
Initial Blockout
End Result
Capture Point - "Forward Medical Aid Station"
- The Forward Medical Aid Station was a challenge to create a rural Capture Point that was completely different to the town, with the reliance on buildings out of the equation, the was to create an interesting space that relied on height variations in terrain
- Research was done into how the U.S. soldiers would hide their medical camps in dense forestry and cover their tracks as much as possible, and how the large tents were used to keep their medical supplies at cooler temperatures, and out of the summer humidity.
- The large tents are also enterable for players, allowing them to take momentary refuge when necessary, whilst being provided enough grassland space to construct their own defences using the Hell Let Loose Engineer roles.
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Initial Blockout
End Result
Capture Point - "Mortain Approach"
- Some Capture Points work intrinsically and did not require much iteration. Mortain Approach is an example of this
- The theme of the Capture Point was to inform the player that sometimes war was not about controlling grand megastructures or key towns, but sometimes about controlling roads and key chokepoints
- Mortain Approach is simplistic in design, it only features a single road, one end leads to Mortain, the other, out into the countryside, and only one enterable building and barn
- The players who successfully control the road, are able to control the map, and in some cases, the tide of battle. As was true in real life
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Initial Blockout
End Result
Initial Blockout
End Result
Transitional Areas
- In addition to some of the Capture Points, I was also responsible for blocking out some of the Transitional Areas
- A Transitional Area is defined as a space that links up the Capture Points and allows players to move through the map using any method and path that they choose
- For the Transitional Areas in particular it was important to adhere to the three key pillars of map design that we use:
Meaningfulness, Recognisable, Believable.
- The thoughts process behind the Transitional Areas were to block out spaces that:
Meaningfulness: In addition to having sufficient cover etc had meaning behind them, and were areas that weren't just empty spaces, or were blocked out for the sake of it.
Recognisable: Spaces that were instantly recognisable to the player once they had established that familiarity, without relying on their in-game map they should be able to orient themselves to the direction that they need to travel
Believable: The space needs to make sense, if it is a rural Transitional Area then it should include more natural paths and focal points without reliance on man-made structures, for example.
Learnings
Key Learnings
This map had a lot of firsts for me:
- First Hell Let Loose Map
- First released map
- First map taken from initial concept to final release
- First time leading other level designers
- First time blocking out an urban environment town space
I learned a lot about the map creation process and the ingredients that go into a Multiplayer only game like Hell Let Loose, and look forward to taking these skills into future maps.
End Result
Initial Blockout
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