Level Design Honours Project - Valorant Blockout "Space" Map Week 1 Progression by Chris Lomax

Level Design Honours Project - Week 1 - Valorant Blockout "Space" Map

For the honours project, the whole purpose of the module is to focus on what you want to specialise in and I already knew what I wanted to do. I pitched the following below:

Josh & Naomi said I should create a blockout level for the space idea map I came up with and finish it in four weeks time. 

The deadline for this is Monday 17th October 2022. (I need to officially check & confirm this date). With the green light given, I started to research space stations, space, the moon & in-door fps levels.

XB3992 - Valorant LD Moon Space Station (City) (pinterest.co.uk)

Once I had a better vision of how this would entail, I started to sketch out a level in Microsoft Whiteboard (as I find it easier to sketch and reiterate ideas digitally. If you make a mistake, you can just ctrl+z instead of using a rubber and trying to make the sketch look pretty as well).



I built a foundation and kind of started blocking it out a bit too simplified. I decided to use what I already had and open up a new page to start playing around with it and adding a bit detail and depth to the level. After a lot of iterations and looking at how the play would flow, I was happy with what I produced. To make sure I was heading in the right direction, I created a 2d top down view of the level in Photoshop (to see the scale a bit better). And again, there were many adjustments made to the level.


I am happy with how the 2d top down level has turned out and I know for a fact that I will be changing different walls, covers, etc... around a lot. That is why I have created different layers for all the objects in my Photoshop file, so if I need to erase or change anything, I can do it with ease. Now I have my 2d top down level in place, I'm going to start blocking the level out in Unreal Engine 5.

My main concern regarding blocking this level out is scalability. I do not want areas that are too big or small, I want to make sure I have a balanced level that runs smoothly. To prevent this from happening, I am going to play test the level all the time, so I can tackle any mistakes as they arise. Overall, I am confident I will have this blockout level complete before the deadline and can't wait to get my teeth stuck into blocking it out in Unreal Engine!

I'll try to remember to take screenshots of the progress of the blockout level so you can see it being built in stages!

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