https://youtu.be/6K22tiFMuYg
The judges from New World have selected the winners of the Gamebanana & Mapcore DOI Mapping Contest, sponsored by Corsair. Congratulations to all finalists, as it was a close finish and required multiple playtests to ensure we discovered the essence of each map. We have assembled a countdown trailer (see above) to announce the winners and to demonstrate their environments and gameplay. Outlined below are the winners and feedback from our lead level designer Jeroen Van Werkhoven.
1. Mercury
A Beautiful medium sized map with a strong setting and theme. The level has a high fun factor due to its significantly designed objectives. The fort is an excellent example of that, the moment you're pushed back by the enemy to protect the airfield it feels like taking part in a WW2 movie. Lighting is solid, but the bloom is a bit too much, especially when exiting an interior your eyes have to adapt to the brightness which can be a bit frustrating at times when fighting off the enemy. The overall art direction of this map is stellar, and the attention to detail is exceptional and deserves a lot of credit.
2. Kruppstahl
Well executed industrial themed map. The warehouse and factory interiors are well done. Some of the interiors could benefit from additional props to improve their authenticity. Lighting is stellar, good contrast between interior and exterior areas. Gameplay is great overall. However, due to the large scale of this map, some of the areas feel a bit to open and hard to cross. Overall the map is a lot of fun to play and easy to memorize due to its strongly defined areas.
3. Brest
The art in this map is awesome and goes greatly with the theme. There are many memorable play spaces that help the player to navigate through the map more easily. The dock is a great example of this. Also, the 3dskybox adds an extra dimension to the map look and feel. Gameplay is great overall but suffers a bit from linearity. The objectives are well designed but lacking some strong defensive positions. Also, spawn placement could use some work to avoid spawn camping and to improve balance. It wouldn’t harm to extend the map a bit to give the player a bit more breathing room around their main spawn areas. Brest is a great looking map with a lot of potential, huge thumbs up for the custom art.
4. Bure
Icy map with great potential. The iced river and bridge is a notable area and provides the map with a strong identity. The buildings feel great overall, but they lack character and detail. Lighting does its job for the setting but is a bit behind in contrast and overly-bright in areas. The art direction could use some extra attention, texture choice and props aren't always consistent with the setting. The great design of the church is visually appealing and a fun fighting ground. Gameplay wise this map is very challenging. It's very hard for the attacking team to cross the bridge. The attacker's side could use some higher buildings with accessible floors and extra cover on the bridge. These additions will improve the balance and fun factor of this map hugely. The breakable windows is a nice extra but the amount could be reduced a bit to avoid repetition and to make it clear for the player that the windows are in fact breakable.
5. Tobruk
Unique theme and setting but needs a lot of work on construction and scale to match other maps. Most of the streets are quite empty. They could benefit from a bit more cover and detail to make it more appealing for the player to advance through the streets. The buildings look generic and can use more detail and textures, a bit more color wouldn't hurt the visual side of the map. The gameplay is solid, and firefights are quite memorable when fighting from building to building. The dusty feel helps with selling the setting and makes it a lot more intense when bullets are flying around your head. Something to consider is to replace the church with a different structure, maybe a hotel or something else that fits better in the environment. Overall Tobruk has a lot of potential, and we hope to hear more from it in the future.
Check out the other finalists in the contest in this post. You can play all these maps by subscribing to them on Workshop.