World Boss – Designing the Viking Hex
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Gladiators,
With the release of our latest map point-of-interest, the Viking Hex aka “Midgard”, we wanted to do a deep dive and take you through the decisions our designers and artists make when building a playspace for our Gladiators.
The biggest factor in creating the new Hex was to provide players with a different experience each time they jump into a game. What makes the World Boss maps unique, is the way in which it is made up of different Hexes. These can and will be reconfigured, to create an almost infinite range of new maps that will all play differently.
MAKING MIDGARD
Our talented 3D artist Vinnie, who worked on Midgard starts the thought process for each Hex with the question, ‘what will make this Hex unique?’
For Midgard, we wanted something more intriguing than just a snowy environment, which is where the Medieval Viking theme comes into play. From this starting point, our amazing artists started concepting a Hex that felt truly different to anything else in the game so far…
You’ll notice the historic inspiration the most in the selection of buildings and the subtle Viking motifs they feature. Can’t you just imagine a group of warriors sitting inside, drinking ale and preparing for a fight?
As mentioned above, each Hex needs to look unique but also instantly recognisable. Using a cool blueish palette means Midgard immediately stands out against the other Hexes. Then, our artists used splashes of warmer colours, such as the orange of the trees and warm reddish houses, to add some contrast to ensure the environment doesn’t come across as monotone.
Vinnie noted an important factor to consider when creating environmental art is ensuring the player can always orient themselves using landmarks on the map. This means placing distinctive and recognisable environment pieces in each Hex so a player can look around and immediately know exactly where they are.
CREATING A WORLD WITH SOUND
With each new environment, our amazing Sound Designers can experiment a lot when creating the sonic landscape to help immerse the players within each Hex. The audio and sound effects when entering Midgard are instantly noticeable and really transports you to another world!
The environmental art of Midgard lends itself to a more playful approach to Sound Design. As an example, we wanted the frozen river to have an echoing ice shelf effect common in arctic and alpine areas when a lake freezes over in the winter.
Our Sound Designer, Zach, delved into trying different “ice stress” sounds such as crunching paper and ripping polystyrene. These gave a really nice “ripping” or “creaking” sound especially when combined with the echo effects. So next time you are running around the new map, jump on the frozen river and listen to it creak beneath your feet!
Zach’s favourite portion of the map to work on was the Viking longhouse. As you approach the longhouse in game, you are able to hear Viking music and dancing from inside the building. Historically, longhouses were multi-purpose – with dining, sleeping and dancing in the one building. Putting these sounds together meant Zach could get involved and clap along to the song with a drunk sense of rhythm and layering that on top of the music.
Have a listen for some of the interesting sounds around the map next time you’re in Midgard – you might even hear a plate or two smash inside the Longhouse…
ENABLING DIFFERENT PLAYSTYLES
Midgard provides players with the opportunity to get into close quarter combat, says Game Designer, Ben, to really test their skills and see if they are worthy of becoming the World Boss. Throughout the Hex there are multiple choke points to force Gladiators into battles that could make or break their climb to the top of the leaderboard!
Something that was kept in mind when designing Midgard, was establishing that paths leading to points of interest have close enough walls and cover that will facilitate the use of high damage but close ranged weapons. However, there are still plenty of vantage points on the cliffs to be able to get that sweet snipe and delete as many opponents as possible.
With a vast range of movement options such as Multi Jump, Jetpack and Super Jump (among others) we want to provide as many opportunities for our players to utilise these tools throughout their battles. Vertical level design allows us a unique ability to encourage moments and scenarios where Perks can be leveraged in a multitude of exciting and unique ways, both during combat and regular gameplay.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Currently, the Hex you spawn into is chosen at random, so you never know which one will be your starting base, which keeps players on their toes and adds to our overall enjoyable casual gaming experience. As we continue to develop more Hexes, we are exploring options to allow players to choose which Hex they want to spawn into or respawn at after being Deleted.
May Odin bring you good fortune… What will your strategy be when contending for the crown in Midgard?
Have a bug you want to report? Head on over to our Discord server. For Player Support issues, please contact us via Zendesk.
World Boss Discord - Join our official Discord server World Boss Website - Official Website Twitter - Follow us at WorldBoss_io Facebook - Like Our Facebook Page Reddit - Join the r/World Boss community
YouTube - Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel
Gladiators,
With the release of our latest map point-of-interest, the Viking Hex aka “Midgard”, we wanted to do a deep dive and take you through the decisions our designers and artists make when building a playspace for our Gladiators.
The biggest factor in creating the new Hex was to provide players with a different experience each time they jump into a game. What makes the World Boss maps unique, is the way in which it is made up of different Hexes. These can and will be reconfigured, to create an almost infinite range of new maps that will all play differently.
MAKING MIDGARD
Our talented 3D artist Vinnie, who worked on Midgard starts the thought process for each Hex with the question, ‘what will make this Hex unique?’
For Midgard, we wanted something more intriguing than just a snowy environment, which is where the Medieval Viking theme comes into play. From this starting point, our amazing artists started concepting a Hex that felt truly different to anything else in the game so far…
You’ll notice the historic inspiration the most in the selection of buildings and the subtle Viking motifs they feature. Can’t you just imagine a group of warriors sitting inside, drinking ale and preparing for a fight?
As mentioned above, each Hex needs to look unique but also instantly recognisable. Using a cool blueish palette means Midgard immediately stands out against the other Hexes. Then, our artists used splashes of warmer colours, such as the orange of the trees and warm reddish houses, to add some contrast to ensure the environment doesn’t come across as monotone.
Vinnie noted an important factor to consider when creating environmental art is ensuring the player can always orient themselves using landmarks on the map. This means placing distinctive and recognisable environment pieces in each Hex so a player can look around and immediately know exactly where they are.
CREATING A WORLD WITH SOUND
With each new environment, our amazing Sound Designers can experiment a lot when creating the sonic landscape to help immerse the players within each Hex. The audio and sound effects when entering Midgard are instantly noticeable and really transports you to another world!
The environmental art of Midgard lends itself to a more playful approach to Sound Design. As an example, we wanted the frozen river to have an echoing ice shelf effect common in arctic and alpine areas when a lake freezes over in the winter.
Our Sound Designer, Zach, delved into trying different “ice stress” sounds such as crunching paper and ripping polystyrene. These gave a really nice “ripping” or “creaking” sound especially when combined with the echo effects. So next time you are running around the new map, jump on the frozen river and listen to it creak beneath your feet!
Zach’s favourite portion of the map to work on was the Viking longhouse. As you approach the longhouse in game, you are able to hear Viking music and dancing from inside the building. Historically, longhouses were multi-purpose – with dining, sleeping and dancing in the one building. Putting these sounds together meant Zach could get involved and clap along to the song with a drunk sense of rhythm and layering that on top of the music.
Have a listen for some of the interesting sounds around the map next time you’re in Midgard – you might even hear a plate or two smash inside the Longhouse…
ENABLING DIFFERENT PLAYSTYLES
Midgard provides players with the opportunity to get into close quarter combat, says Game Designer, Ben, to really test their skills and see if they are worthy of becoming the World Boss. Throughout the Hex there are multiple choke points to force Gladiators into battles that could make or break their climb to the top of the leaderboard!
Something that was kept in mind when designing Midgard, was establishing that paths leading to points of interest have close enough walls and cover that will facilitate the use of high damage but close ranged weapons. However, there are still plenty of vantage points on the cliffs to be able to get that sweet snipe and delete as many opponents as possible.
With a vast range of movement options such as Multi Jump, Jetpack and Super Jump (among others) we want to provide as many opportunities for our players to utilise these tools throughout their battles. Vertical level design allows us a unique ability to encourage moments and scenarios where Perks can be leveraged in a multitude of exciting and unique ways, both during combat and regular gameplay.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Currently, the Hex you spawn into is chosen at random, so you never know which one will be your starting base, which keeps players on their toes and adds to our overall enjoyable casual gaming experience. As we continue to develop more Hexes, we are exploring options to allow players to choose which Hex they want to spawn into or respawn at after being Deleted.
May Odin bring you good fortune… What will your strategy be when contending for the crown in Midgard?
Have a bug you want to report? Head on over to our Discord server. For Player Support issues, please contact us via Zendesk.
World Boss Discord - Join our official Discord server World Boss Website - Official Website Twitter - Follow us at WorldBoss_io Facebook - Like Our Facebook Page Reddit - Join the r/World Boss community
YouTube - Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel
