Apparition
What is the Map:
Apparition is a Halo Infinite 4v4 map that was designed with a competitive audience in mind, the map was originally set as a Forerunner temple but I recently pivoted to a Banished lava factory as it fit the majority of the layout a lot better. Early in the design I kept the casual side of the map in mind a lot as the competitive community is only a small percentage of the population of the overall game.
What was your role on the project:
On this Project, I am the Level Designer, Scripter, and Artist on the project
Design Philosophy and Goals:
The map has had a few iterations throughout its lifecycle, one of the iterations I was very fond of sadly didn't make the cut was one where there were going to be no physical map boundaries. Since the map was more Alien at its core I originally was going to make the boundaries of the map alien bugs that slowly ate the player the higher they went/farther away from the map they were. This was something I wish I could've kept but Ui and other limitations prevented me from doing so. The core design of the map was a 2 base map that had equal reasons to be on both sides of the base when pulling the flag. If you went to the right side of the base you had tighter sightlines and had more of a bunker for safer flag routes, while if you went to the left you had a quick-access route to middle and more open sightlines but were contained to that section. This allowed for the map to have actual decisions that mattered for each team as they played as each had their own benefits and faults. Sightlines were something really important on here too as I wanted to make sure that players could interact and help their team at almost any point, without feeling over-exposed.
Line of Sight Control:
Long open lines of sight were important to the design here, it allowed for the map to feel more competitive by allowing people to help their teammates more, with this I added cover in crucial points to allow players to still not feel like they're in a bad situation they couldn't get out of, while still punishing them for making mistakes throughout their gameplay. Many routes also allow players to almost completely avoid these sightlines