CYBERIA
Featured on TF2Maps.net
Built in the Source Hammer Editor
A feature playable map in Potato’s MvM event: Madness vs Machines & Rewired Rampage
Team Project
My Roles: Project Lead, Level Design, Art-pass and Mission Design
A gameplay demo of a wave in “Frozen Freaks”
Mission scripted by me
Design Intent
Cyberia is a map designed for Mann vs Machine, a cooperative gamemode in Team Fortress 2 using the Hammer Editor. The level is designed as if it were a Valve official map you’d find in the game.
Mann vs Machine involves six players teaming up to defend against hordes of robots that carry a bomb, attempting to blow up a hatch. If the bomb reaches the hatch, the players loose.
Cyberia is set in a weapon production factory in the isolated forest of Siberia. Cyberia was designed with three main areas, the front, the factory and the hatch, all with varying gameplay that ranks up in intensity and complexity the closer the robots are to their goal. The flow was designed this way so that players will face higher moments of excitement and tension as they get closer to defeat, creating memorable gameplay as they secure a victory on the verge of failure.
I was the project lead creating the map gameplay and the majority of the environment art. Mann vs Machine requires missions that create the hordes of robots that players fight in the map, I created two of the feature missions and collaborated with other members of the community to bring more missions for players to fight against. Waugh101 assisted with detailing and art.
Scroll down for Screenshots & Process
See the map in action from players in the community!
Process
Due to how the map was designed, I will be talking about each main area separately.
Front
The front is the first area of combat that players will encounter gameplay in. This is the most simple of the three locations.
Players are given an elevated position that gives them an advantage in the fight as robots first drop down through the area. However, I wanted the players to lose this area for mistakes quicker so that action can happen in the other areas of the map. In order to accomplish this, the front is relatively small and lacks fully safe places a player can hide in, the only place a player can fall back to safely is the next main area of the map, the factory. If players are skilled enough to lock down this area, they are rewarded with a death pit which players can toss robots into for an instant death.
In earlier versions of the map I took this ideology a little to far and it was to easy for robots to push back players out of the front. There were certain flank areas that robots could spawn in that heavily punishes players for defending in strong positions. After analyzing player’s experiences in this area, those doors were promptly removed and an alternative solution was created, if a tank were to spawn in, it can smash straight through a newly added barricade giving robots a faster path into the next area.
Factory
In spark contrast to the front, the factory is an interior area with a heavier influence of up close and personal combat. The complexity of the area is increased compared to the front, with a second floor catwalk that players can utilize to their advantage.
Many other side rooms are in this area give players a safe space away from the action to catch their breath and regain health and ammo. Jump pads also play a prominent role in this area as they can take you to the second floor with ease. There is also another jump pad in the last area that leads directly into the factory, giving players a fast way to get back into combat if their Engineer’s teleporter got destroyed or is being relocated. It was important to me that this area played well as it will most likely see the most action for the average team.
Unlike the front, this area had to favor the players more strongly . During the initial playtest, it was clear that this area was a little to easy to hold as the robots never got the chance to push through this area. To attack this issue, I made it so certain robots can attack the safe areas and the second floor. This gives an interesting dynamic that makes certain robots contesters that chase down players and locks down locations that may be beneficial to the defending team. Players and robots will now be fighting for key positions inside this area to gain an advantage outside of the path robots typically walk through.
Hatch
The hatch is the final area of combat, where players spawn, and where the goal of the robots are. Naturally, this will be the most hectic part of any Mann vs Machine map, however I wanted to add onto this intensity with Cyberia to create even more exciting gameplay. Out of the three areas, the hatch is by far the most complex layout wise. Unlike the other two areas where the bomb has been following one linear path, the hatch splits the bomb path into three different paths (picked randomly). The hatch has a circular layout and is quite large compared to the other two areas. The three paths all play differently from each other, the middle one is the fastest, however robots are placed at a lowered position. The other two paths are slower but allow for robots to contest the high ground areas.
In the initial stages, this area was way too cramped and had to be opened up to make this area feel better, the hatch saw the most changes at a base level. Later in development, I decided to add a feature that made final clutches in this area exhilarating, that feature is something I call “the flood”.
The flood activates when the robots get close enough to the hatch so that the alarms begin to ring. This feature makes it so that robots running into this area can take any of the three paths that lead to the goal, creating gameplay where robots are coming from numerous angles. This made final moments at the hatch extraordinary as robots and players desperately fight at this final position to see who will come out victorious. Due to where the hatch is, players must decide if they want to shoot up from above, or jump right into the wave of robots to attempt to stop them directly just before they deploy the bomb. These final moments at the hatch tend to create the most memorable moments that players will remember.
Learning Outcomes
Learn how to iterate and overhaul areas that don’t add to the original design or vision
Leadership experience, directing mission designers and level artist to help create a cohesive experience