COMMUNITY MAPS SPOTLIGHT

Welcome to another community maps spotlight! This latest look at some of the user-made levels comes from 'bloody', who works on level designs for Severed Steel, and is a much deeper dive into the selected maps.

Hello gamers,

While there has already been a post highlighting community maps made recently, I wanted to share my excitement and thoughts on some of my favorites that haven't already been covered.

THE BUMKER (created by 'ZURA')

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2633287790&searchtext=

This underground bunker map goes deceptively deep, the Z-axis being 640 units, the max value possible being 1024. For comparison, Portal Lab's bounds are 256x256x256, and Train's bounds are 1024 lengthwise. The path is long and while the first 2 corridors set expectations to be on a predictable and linear experience, it quickly becomes unpredictable with the enemy density and routing. Searching for the next pathway downwards becomes an adventure.

During the latter half, the next rooms are sealed off with thick voxel walls without any alternative routes. The enemy composition of the room prior ensures there are plenty of backpacks left to charge the arm cannon. It adds to the sense of exploring a reinforced compound not meant to be traversed. Overall it reminds me of the bunker in Katana Zero. In the campaign map Armory, backpack enemies are sparse but plenty of grenade launchers are put near/around the exit to ensure the player is able to complete the level without using the arm cannon.

Things I'd recommned would be more consistency in the visual language and using lighting to convey depth. Blue electronic voxels are used to show which walls are meant to be destroyed via the arm cannon, but the placement is not as consistent as it could be to aid player direction, such as the blue outline on the floor of the rusty elevator shaft rather than around the doorframe, or the use of blue voxels around the fan grate meant to be destroyed, rather than specifically blue electric. Lighting on the map is also left flat. Setting global lighting to Dim and adding lighting manually, but slowly reducing the brightness as the level goes lower would add to the feeling of going deeper into the earth. I'd also maybe add a portal connecting the very end of the map to the very top in case players need to backtrack and reach missed enemies.

Overall a great map. ZURA made something with the editor that stands out from the maps available in the base game. It features unique aspects of the game and of ZURA's creativity that would not work as well in other game's systems.

BALUSTRADE (created by 'Equinox')

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2613898158&searchtext=

An arena map with a simple symmetrical layout, what stood out to me were the aesthetics. Balustrade effectively uses orange electronic voxels to convey the angles of the corners, as well as the explorable area of the center column. Equinox seemed to have a grasp on the principles I followed when making maps such as Waste Management and Corridor. In Waste Management, I used blue electronic voxels to highlight horizontal edges the player can navigate on or around, and Corridor uses yellow electronic and green electronic to highlight filled and hollow pipe edges. The center column of Balustrade has the middle circular arena colored with maroon and bordered with red electronic. While it accentuates the roundness it also contrasts with the angular nature of the bordering walls. This also helps show players which section of wall they could destroy and enter through quickly with voxel destruction.

Thoughtful ideas are also present in the portal layout and orientantion as well as the location and size of the windows. Face the corner and walk through, you still face the corner but on a different vertical level. Face the center and go through, you still face the center. It would have been easy to copy and drag the portal above or below as needed, but this orientation allows easier readjustment after teleporting. Windows are placed and sized so that wallrunning into the corner room is uninterrupted, and the location of those rooms are easier to notice thanks to the previously mentioned use of the orange lines.

Due to the scale and layout there are not many instances where using the arm cannon to create paths through geometry is viable. Using the arm cannon on hanging walkways makes holes enemies can fall through and have to avoid, but the area below the bottommost level's center colum and outer walkways are solid all the way down which prevents such tactics. The middle of the center column is also thick, which prevents quickly going down through the floor or up through the ceiling. The layout also necessitates frequent wallrunning in/around the column or along the outer walls due to the openness, and due to the distance between wallrunning surfaces.

However, none of the things said in the previous paragraph detract from the enjoyabiliy of this map. I do not know Equinox, but I notice and respect things like how the walkways and center column are oriented perfectly to the grid. They seemed to have an idea they wanted to express within the engine of Severed Steel, and I think it is expressed beautifully.

TOWERS (created by 'Rick')

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2630702779&searchtext=

Rick's Towers 2 map was already covered in the previous community map spotlight post. I enjoy both, and wanted to compare and contrast the two. Both maps garner my respect in the geometry of each buliding. The ceilings of Towers have unique aspects and layouts to them, compared to the mostly uniform shape and sealed layout of Towers 2. The blue building's windows, while uniform in the placement of the frames, have subtle differences showing what floors can be jumped into. Use of fans and portals also allow players to ascend the tallest structures quickly.

Towers also makes use of cleverly placed explosives that reward players attentive to their envionrment. Unusual positioning of glowing voxels prompts inspection, and consistent visual language aids in the clarity of purpose. Noticing glowing red/yellow voxels in a building that's mostly blue and grey rewards the player with new routes or weapons.

While the layout of the buildings are interesting inside, interconnectivity between buildings is also used in interesting ways. Portals connecting different bulidings, pathways between different floors of adjacent structures, holes designed to promote quick movement within and across towers.

One segment I am curious about is the protruding bit on the topmost floor of the blue building. I am not sure why it is there, maybe to block LoS when going from ceiling to the balcony below. Seeing this shape inspired me to experiment. Adding the green voxels and opening up a section in the wall allows players to jump outside, wallrun along the outermost edge while still being able to shoot toward the building, then return inside from another angle. The upper bit disallows simply jumping into the window from above, and the whole thing blocks LoS into and out of the room. I have yet to include such a structure in things I've made so far, so if it shows up in the future, know that this was my inspiration.

While playing through the map there were times when firing the arm cannon at a building's walls did not lead to a new path, just a large dent in a thick structure. This was only easily confirmable in the level editor, as the rest of the map allowed smooth traversal with arm cannon destruction. A large section of the green and black tower is solid with certain sections hollowed out. Making a map with multiple buildings with interesting layouts that are unique in each given space is exceedingly difficult. It can be off-putting to not be able to go through something you thought you could go through, but it's easy to empathize with the creator if you are familiar with the process of making these spaces yourself.

I could understand Towers being overlooked in the workshop if players stumble upon Towers 2 first, and may end up disregarding this level as a prototype for its successor. While similiar on the surface, both of Rick's original entries are worthy of exploration and completion and provide a fresh experience in both cases.

Making a good map is hard. Aesthetics, voxel types, lighting, layout and gemometry, enemy makeup and placement. All these things are examples of what needs to be taken into consideration when attempting to express an idea, concept, or emotion. I've been impressed with what I've seen other people make in the same level editor I use. I'm looking forward to seeing what other things gamers have to express, and I hope gamers look forward to the things I'd like to express in the future.

-bloody

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1227690/Severed_Steel/