Retention
What is the Map:
Retention is a Halo Infinite 2v2 map set within a Water retention sewer. This map was an old layout I had on the backburner, I felt the map had potential so I fully completed it within Halo Infinite's Forge mode.
What was your role on the project:
On this project, I was the Overall Project Lead, and did all elements of the map's design, from Level design to Art.
Level Design: George Bandy
Art: Geroge Bandy
Lighting: George Bandy
Link to Map: Retention
Art Direction:
Art direction on this map pulled from multiple different film genres, some sci-fi, some horror, and some detective films were used as inspiration; Alongside Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I tried to make it seem as dirty as possible within the actual sewer area while allowing a broken-down yet lived-in/maintained space in the surrounding area. Since this map is a small-scale map, I mainly focused on areas players would see the most to give the most immersion possible. Alongside the interior of the map, you're able to see other runoffs and pathways the water would conventionally take. These rooms would open up in larger player count to allow for utilization of all arted locations.
Lighting:
The goal for the lighting on the map was to make it feel really industrial and lived in, so alongside the general light fixtures to illuminate the sewer there are also light sources from emergency lights, flares, and holes in walls with rooms behind them to push the map to the next level when it comes to immersion.
Design Philosophy and Goals:
Originally the design goals on this map were to make a Call of Duty Gunfight map that I would like to play, taking the experience from the previous CODs and injecting that into a Halo map, I've played and putting them all into one enjoyable map. With that being said porting a map designed for CoD and implementing it into Halo has it's own changes that are necessary, I took another look at the project and looked for ways I could elevate it for Halo's gameplay, this ended up being more verticality in areas, more options with tighter paths, and more cover/railings to block Line of Sight. Overall I think this turned out pretty well overall and plays for Halo's Custom Extermination gamemode extremely well. Additionally with this map, I added an extended layout for any gamemode above 4v4, this allowed me to expand on the existing map for people who played other modes such as Infection and core arena modes. The forethought put into these extensions was relatively easy as it was mainly just expanding on rooms I already created and seeing how I could combine them in a way that felt right.
Line of Sight Control:
Lines of sight on Retention were pretty straightforward, using pillars and some railings to keep the map very fast-paced and readable was the main goal, so the line of sight was relatively short and contained. The longest sightlines on the map are attributed to the side hallways which are excellent flank routes but also are a large commitment because there isn't much cover within them.
