The difficulty with creating the environment for this game was that it had to both look and feel like the games plot, whilst also working mechanically with open world, sandbox type gameplay.
To this end I originally planned for a map where the player could spawn from four corners this would allow the player to enter towards a goal if they had died and were coming back, save them having to cross the map if their current objective was the on the opposite side of a spawnpoint. Secondly, I had planned to exclusively have four challenges that culminated into a final one however that has changed in the final verson.
As labeled in the image below you can see that the final version of the map, part way through development of the map I realised that the original design would just funnel players from one object to the other without much need or reason to travel anywhere else. To that end, I decided to scrap one major challenge as their design was taking up too much time due to a mis-judgment in pre-production.
Instead I created minor challenges that scout the corners of the map and advertised them to the player through using vistas that encourage exploration such as swamps caves and clearings. This has helped make the map feel much more alive and entertaining to play in.
Secondly, I decided to change the four spawn points into a single entrance tube, outlined in purple. I placed this near the centre of the map so that the player could then travel in any direction without needing to cross the whole map to return to their point of death. This also made much more sense narratively whilst also being easier to implement in the long run.
Thanks for Reading!
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