Garry’s Mod Level: TTT_Polarbase
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TTT_PolarBase
Collabaritive?: Solo // Tools: Hammer, Adobe Suite // Timeline: 5 Months
Role(s): Level Designer
3D Clue-style team-based arena deathmatch map with a heavy emphasis on continuous flow and acoustic design.
Contributions
Documentation: Level Design Documents, Map layouts, Paper prototypes, etc.
Blockout: Used the Hammer Engine to fully block out the 3D level layout.
Custom Gameplay Scripting: programmed custom gameplay elements in C++ such as ladders, doors, breakable objects, etc.
Deathmatch Map Design: Designed, pitched, and prototyped a mission from paper concept to playable experience.
The main floor as initially planned.
The 2nd floor as initially planned.
The 3rd floor as initially planned.
The basement floor as initially planned. Unfortunately, this floor was scrapped in development as it conflicted with the project's goal to achieve flow in the game space.
The main locker area of the prison building included in the base.
The armory, a key room in the barracks building used by players to get weapons, ammo, and start the round in some cases.
Level Design
Inspired by many existing maps in the hit Garry’s Mod gamemode “Trouble in Terrorist Town”, this map aims to put flow as its first concern to ensure players are continually moving through the map, shortening the length of each round of gameplay and allowing for more rounds of play to be had.
The level features 3 main interior spaces build around a rectangular catwalk, with external spaces added to provide variety for large groups of players. This map is intended for larger groups between 12 and 44 players. Some of the internal spaces included to support these groups include:
Prison Building (North Building): features a variety of tight spaces for traitors to kill and hide bodies. Players can explore, chase, and socialize here. It features cells, a security checkpoint, offices, locker area, reception, and holding cell.
Barracks Building (Southeast Building): contains the bulk of the level’s weaponry. A great place to start the map, restock, group up with others, or go for mass kills in large groups. It features an armory, recreation area, barracks, bathroom/showers, storage, utilities, and main desk.
Radio Tower (Western Building): provides the highest vantage point of the map; a perfect spot for snipers, observers, and players who prefer to play solo. Also a main transit point along the map’s catwalk.
Due to the emphasis on flow above all else in this level, the basement floor was not implemented in the latest version of this level as it violated this principle. Adding it with a single access point created a chokepoint exploitable by projectiles and camping players. Adding multiple lanes of access to it provided too much alternative pathing to the map and made guiding players throughout the space with signals and paths confusing. This space would also become the dominant place for traitors to use C4 exclusively as the blast would hit nearly all the above spaces.
Sound Design: Acoustics
TTT_Polarbase takes it space placement using the sound system in Source games as reference, even down to scale and distance from one another.
The catwalk is nearly centered on the middle point between all three major buildings in the level.
Sounds produced in one building are still able to be received in all three buildings to some degree, depending on location. There are situations in which some situations will not have noise heard in other buildings however.
In this case, the red X source is an example of where a kill may take place. The gunshots create sound in a set area as outlined above, and can be heard by a player in the range, but in a different building.
Documenting the Rationale
Often my ideas changed throughout development. To help ground my decisions, I used level design documentation (LDD) to establish core ideas which were not to be changed and organize existing elements such as camera, character, and control metrics specific to the project in its current state.