"Phalanx" from Warhammer 40k. My main inspiration of location and overall style.
"Blood Hunt" from Quake Arena layout of small corridors that lead to big arenas is the kind of game loop i'm going for.
"Crucible" from Quake is a classic, it always stuck in my mind and a quitensensial level of the genre, so i took inspirations from set pieces of it.
"Church of Azathoth" from Quake Arena, a inspiration for the first mapping of the map., since the begining i wanted to make an clear "goal" to the players in a center room, and to make the map around this.
BoomerShooter Deathmatch: GrimDark
2024 | UEFN | Fortnite
I've always thought Fortnite could use a bit of that old-school Unreal Tournament vibe. It's got the movement, but it's missing that special something. So, one day, I decided to tinker around and see if I could bring back some of that Quake and UT magic. And you know what? It worked.
After nailing down the mechanics, I thought, now I need a map that would take the most out of this mechanic and this fantasy. So drawing inspiration from classics like "Crucible" and "Blood Run," and throwing in some Warhammer 40k vibes from the "Phalanx" ship, I set out to create something that could be nostalgic and fresh, and could take the most of these mechanics.
My goal was simple: create a crazy-fast playground where players could go all out with their movement skills. Picture tons of routes, and epic arenas blending Gothic cathedrals with dark sci-fi vibes. The end result? A wild, heart-pounding experience that's part grim darkness, part futuristic gothicness.
(Boomer Shooter, is a way to call oldschool FPS's like Quake, Unreal Tournament and Doom | DM as for DeathMatch | Grimdark is the actual name of the level)
Walk-around Video:
(Video recorded in Medium settings)
The first map that i made, following the Bubble Diagram
A Planning flow for Player Spawners Vs. Intended COnglict Zones
MAPPING PHASE
So, here's the scoop on the level layout: I figured I'd set up a central room with an easy-access floor stocked with health and shield boosts. But here's the kicker - I also wanted to add a second floor with an RPG in a riskier spot as the Objective that every player wants to snag.
Then, I started picturing this map with tight corridors and these massive arenas. I wanted to make sure players who could movement Quake-style a advantage over the campers. It's all about encouraging that hyper-aggressive playstyle.
Another thing I was keen on was creating distinct zones, each with its own cool landmarks. I didn't want run-and-gunners to get lost, so I made sure there were clear visual cues and Landmarks to help them find their way around easier.
I set up players spawn right outside each arena. This way, the player will always find action and objectives to fight for.
First Bubble Diagram
Updated Bubble Diagram
Scale Test, i've already done a RLD for Fortnite so the dimensions were already validated, however I tested it just to be sure
I started by Greyboxing, and getting a general volume, also tested some floor and wall modules just to get an overall feeling
An overall idea of each room theme.
Key assets and Landmarks, further developing each room theme.
The Process
As always I started the blockout by first placing down the dimmensions i was going for and playtesting it, by using UEFN i had already floors modules, so I made the Plateau already with a floor that i intented to use.
Then i made a plane version of the map, playtested, following by adding verticality. Placed some Orange boxes as my graybox, and by the end of it i had a greybox to test and polish.
Next step was to place some walls and stairs, also by this time i found out a collection that had a bunch of gothic catlevania like assets and with that i started palcing some landmark assets so i could get a somewhat theme for each room.
By the end of the last step i had a somewhat idea of what each room should be, so I adjusted some more of the map to create more routes and paths that could collaborate to a enviromental storytelling making the map feel more like a real location and not some random rooms sticked together. Also by this time i started to make the roof and eiling, by being a Gothic-esque architecture I've made the rooms very tall to bring that feeling of being inside a collossal structure.
By the end of this process, i had a layout that i liked, with cool thematic rooms and a place that felt real and imponent.
The Design
Everything started with my desire to recreate an Unreal Tournament-like game mode on Fortnite, and a Grimdark Warhammer 40k map to it. The layout was made in a way to push the players to combat and encourage them to be extra aggressive and keep running.
To make the players approach the level in this extra aggressive style, and to always push them to fight in the coolest arenas, I planned to put very obvious objectives between players' spawns, the way to get the best weapons, life, or armor players must risk entering on combat by traversing through these arenas.
And to keep people running, I just made staying still very bad, in the layout I've iterated this a lot of times, taking away hiding or too obscure spots, making the players fast, and making the layout around arenas that always have multiple paths, so the best way to not be flanked was to be always going forward.
Playtests
I did the majority of my playtests with the Fortnite Creator HQ Community in Discord, a gathered a bunch of cool data from actual Fortnite players, giving me tips on how to improve the system and effects, especially on lower-end machines.
The layout and aesthetic held pretty well, people seemed to get and enjoy the intention behind my choices, but there were some changes made, some hiding spots, weapon spawner, health and armor positions, and some paths overauls to make some areas more accessible.
What do I Learned?
This level was a blast to work with, I learned a lot in the journey of making it, my block out and decoration skills on Unreal are some of the most blatant factors, I started using some pipelines and shortcuts that optimized my time, and this was also one of the times that I used to light the most, usually my maps tend to use very simple lighting but since a wanted a very Heavy-Metal vibe I experimented a lot with colored directional lights and fog.
But the main lesson that I learned was to get inside a community and playtest, seeing the map being played by 6 players used to Fortnite not only led me to make changes that made the map much more fun, but also to learn from then simple concepts of the game they knew every detail of and get some room in my level to some advanced gameplay, and the next week watching those players using this advanced stuff as intended and creating some of the cool gameplay moments.
Try BoomerShooter DM: Grimdark on fortnite today with the code:
0386-8610-3231
