Satellite
Overview
Project Type: Multiplayer Map | Team Size: Solo | Duration: Sept 2024 - Oct 2024 | Software: Halo Infinite
Satellite is a 4 player Cooperative Multiplayer map made in Halo Infinite Forge. My goal for this project was to broaden my level design to a player vs enemies environment. I learned that focusing my level around the player's fantasy triumphed balance.
Design Goals
Balance the AI and weapons to support four players.
Give each point its own visual identity and feel.
Support aggressive and defensive play styles.
Planning
I wanted a quick sketch for my first layout to help me visualize where the core elements were. I made sure to spread the points and the enemy spawns out so players would go explore the entire map.
When I initially pitched this project, I wanted to fix the issues I had seen within other maps in the live firefight playlists. The main problems I wanted to tackle were hills not being in distinct locations, some hills being too easy or too difficult, and the players defending the point often getting the least amount of action.
Early Design
With my first iteration of the map, I wanted to focus on where I wanted hills to be and how they would be distinct. I made one half of the map a cave and the other half buildings to give an easy way to remember where they were. I also gave lots of space between points to incorporate vehicles.
The hills were also given an identity from the start to help orient players. Multiplayer maps are played often, so helping players not get lost is key to lowering frustration
The narrative behind the level is an abandoned UNSC base with intel that sent out one last signal. The fantasy here was going to support a “last stand” type of encounter, where players have their backs to the wall.
Unique Points
When playing Firefight KOTH, I found that each hill had three elements that determined difficulty: Ways enemies come onto the point, ways players can leave the point, and cover. A point with a lot of cover and few ways enemies can get to the point can seem trivial. A point with no safe exits and hardly any cover can feel like the game punishes you for playing on the point. These three elements helped shape my core design of each point for the level.
The points in my map use each of these elements to help balance the difficulty of the game. I also used the set pieces to help orient players on the map to reduce confusion. For example, the Antenna point is always the first point. I set a lot of cover and gave enemies little ways to hide so players could pick away at enemies before they got to the point. This made it so players hardly lost on the first point.
On the Pelican point, I intentionally gave players no safe way out of the point. This created situations where players had to fight their way off point or risk getting swarmed. The lack of an easy escape route increased the difficulty purely through the level design. Difficulty also helped center the players around the fantasy of a "final stand".
Balance and Playstyles
Through my time playing Firefight KOTH on Legendary difficulty, I noticed two distinct playstyles: Players who were proactive and fought off the Hill and players who sat back on point.
Players who pushed aggressively off the point could help whittle down the enemies before they got to the hill. Defensive players had to be on the hill to progress the game. These playstyles had problems that varied per map. Sometimes, the map would not have enough enemies to overwhelm aggressive players, so the defensive players were stuck doing nothing on point. Other times, there were so many enemies to where every player had to defend the point at the same time.
Conversely, I put the most amount of the enemy spawns at the midpoints of the map so that aggressive players could lessen their numbers but not hog all the kills for the defensive players. Controlling how many enemies there are and where they spawn helps keep both kinds of players engaged while playing the game mode.
To help balance these pros and cons of each playstyle, I placed weapons and enemy spawns to keep both kinds of players engaged. Heavy weapons were placed away from points to encourage aggressive players to explore outward while equipment was kept near points to help defensive players clear them out. For the Satellite Hill, I put two enemy spawns near the hill so they take a short distance to arrive. This gives defensive players a set of enemies to fight that might not get shot up by aggressive players.
Playtesting and Final Iterations
When iterating on the level, I had three core concerns that shaped my process: the level was too easy, some points were not memorable visually, and there was a lot of unused space.
Difficulty is a concept that can be approached from many angles. Playtesting found that players had little to no trouble holding the hills during the first iterations of the map. I chose to go about this in multiple ways.
1. I changed the game mode of the map to be more difficult. The game mode went from Normal difficulty to Heroic Difficulty due to playtesters preferring the Game Mode in AB testing.
2. I gave enemies covered spawn caves to prevent spawn killing and control what direction they came from. Enemy AI will take the shortest path towards the point. Early on, enemies would stream onto the point at a single chokepoint. Spreading the spawns out so enemies would come from 3-4 angles instead of 1 made the game much more difficult
3. I increased the amount of enemy spawns. The higher enemy density gave players a tougher challenge which forced them to retreat off point if overwhelmed.
Click Me!
One of my goals with this project was to make every point memorable. I noticed other maps within Halo Infinite’s pool do not always have points with memorable looks. Players mainly complained about my Cave point. It was divided between high and low ground and was hard to tell where it was. I chose to cut the high ground around the point and put a metal artifact to make the point more distinctive.
Click Me!
Great Level Design makes use of all the space you present to the player. I had originally made the map bigger to incorporate vehicles, but after the first iteration, I shifted to an indoors, close-quarters feel for the map.
What I Learned
What Went Well
Balance: Players thoroughly enjoyed the harder difficulty of the map early on, so I leaned into it by removing cover and increasing the number of enemies.
Guidance: Players felt it was easy to distinguish each Hill, power weapons, and enemy spawns.
Variability: I supported the two playstyles I identified when researching the level. This led to both kinds of players staying engaged the entire time while playing.
What Could Have Been Better
Scope: I had originally wanted this project to be the same fidelity as the maps currently in Halo Infinite, but I had to shift this due to time constraints.
Even Better If
Art Pass: If I came back to this project, I would take it from a white box to using art assets provided by the game.
Balance Pass: I would want to revalue every weapon’s place within the level to create a more varied sandbox where players will use every weapon.