Stronghold Skirmish - Knockout City
Introduction
In this project, I set out to create a level for Knockout City set in a castle environment.
The focus of this project was level design with a fast iteration time.
Project Details
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Unreal Engine 5
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25 hours (Summer 2023)
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Level Design
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Blockout
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Unreal Marketplace Assets: Blockout Tools Plugin by Dmitry Karpukhin
Level Name
In Knockout City, every level has a catchy name, often something with an alliteration that sounds fun.
Some examples would be Rooftop Rumble, Jukebox Junction, or Back Alley Brawl.
Since this level is set in a castle environment, my first thoughts were to combine a word for castle and fighting.
In the end, my top 3 ideas were Castle Clash, Fortress Face-Off, and Stronghold Skirmish, which ended up being my favorite.
Level Personality and Identity
After receiving feedback on my first two iterations, my idea for this level was to have 4 different areas each based on one word. Furthermore, they should all look and play differently with one main area in the middle combining them all. Those four words were:
Indoor
This part of the level is focused on cover.
With a lot of walls and pillars around them, the players always need to keep their surroundings in mind to not get surprised by an enemy waiting for them.
Stairs
This part of the level is focused on elevation.
Huge stairs provide a great advantage to those who know their way around and have mastered the movement system of the game.
Garden
This part of the level is focused on adaptation.
The mud in the middle of the garden restricts some parts of the movement.
Mastering movement and being able to quickly adapt to evolving battles will definitely prove useful when fighting here.
Pit
This part of the level is focused on risk.
The massive pit in the area will prove deadly to those who are not careful. Being aware of your surroundings and knowing how to traverse smartly will definitely prove of use in this part of the level.
To add even more personality to the level itself, I added 3 unique gameplay elements to the map as well.
Mud
The Mud slows the player down and prevents them from jumping or running.
This forces the player to either avoid the mud by mastering the movement mechanics or avoid all incoming projectiles by mastering the defensive mechanics of the game.
Cannons
The Cannons allow the player to launch themselves into the center of the map and therefore traverse the map more quickly.
This does allow for a quick escape in tense situations but should be used with caution. While flying, the player is defenseless can can still be hit by a well-placed shot.
Breakable Walls
Breakable Walls are placed all around the map and can be destroyed by dashing into them.
This allows the player to open up spaces and surprise other players. However, since you never know what the situation looks like behind a wall, be careful not to surprise yourself and get into more trouble than you can handle.
Iterations
Thanks a lot to Willem Kranendonk, an actual level designer from the game, for providing me with incredible feedback and amazing insights. His tips, tricks, and insight into the level design process for Knockout City were super helpful for the creation of this map.
In total, the level had 5 big iteration cycles (each around 2-5h) with many small adjustments and feedback rounds in between.
