TERMINAL
TERMINAL is a concept map for the game Valorant. It is a three site map with a special movement mechanic. Attackers push into the Defenders through a terminal and market district in Manila — navigating vertical spaces and halls that poke through interior space.
Focus: 5v5 Competitive FPS
Project Length: 3 Weeks
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
PLAY ON ITCH.IO
Gameplay walkthrough
MY PROCESS
For this exercise, I set the following goals when creating this Valorant map:
Study Valorant’s competitive multiplayer map design
Understand the conventions and patterns of a Valorant map.
Design a space that fits Valorant’s world.
Refine my level design process, from documentation to grayboxing.
Create a build that reflects Valorant’s gameplay fundamentals.
Goals
Before I even got started on the paper map, I spent time doing research and revisiting Valorant’s maps.
Being a competitive shooter, metrics and precision are important to Valorant’s gameplay — so I took the time to revisit Valorant’s maps through custom games and practice range to regain a feel for the game’s scale and metrics.
One key reference I used from my research were the commonly seen full height boxes in Valorant levels. These boxes are represented in various ways, from platforms, walls and Radianite crates.
I used this as an anchor to base my metrics and proved to be a strong reference in building out the level’s scale and tuning the character controller.
Research
Once I have done my research, I spent a lot of time developing sketches in paper, figuring out spaces from a high level and developing how the space wraps around itself.
From doing this step, I’ve realized that I tend to design with theme first and use that as a jumping off point to develop the rest of the map. As you can see in the notes I wanted to establish what the setting is first, thinking of ways to ground these rooms and hallways to an actual location.
It was a juggling of both theming and mechanics design — and once I felt happy with the flow of the map I proceeded to refine the paper map digitally and add in the details. I took the most time in this step to ensure that the space is solid in my head and not stumble on myself as I block out in engine.
2D Paper Map
Paper sketches on my notebook.
Refining the sketches digitally.
Finished paper map — prior to 3D blockout
I divided the process of grayboxing into two parts. First was to build the floor and key sightlines — copying the paper map in Unreal Engine, but making adjustments along the way to account for scale and vertical spaces.
3D Blockout
Once that was established, I proceeded to iterate on the layout and build out the thematic space of the map. This step exposed a lot of issues from my 2D paper map, identifying which spaces weren’t meeting the competitive balance and engaging layouts that I learned from my studies.
Midway through the process, I had gotten feedback about mid lacking in options and presents a space that was too open. Following this feedback, I iterated by developing mid to have a site — which pushes ideas to be generated by challenging my on how to craft an engaging 3rd mid site. This tightened up the space, creating more engaging angles and interesting layout.
3D Blockout - Iteration
1st iteration of mid — back when it was a 2-site map.
Developing a 3rd site to be in mid and introducing escalators as a unique movement mechanic.
Since one of my goals was to create a build that closely resembles the basics of a Valorant game. I recreated Jett alongside blocking out the space in order to match Valorant’s metrics and player affordances.
I chose Jett because her abilities best captures fundamental movement and spacing options that are crucial to Valorant’s combat flow.
Choosing Jett was also useful in establishing level metrics. I used her jump heights and smokes with reference to the full height boxes in order to have a better refinement of my measurements.
