Overwatch is one of my favorite games to play, especially with friends! Recently I discovered their “Hero Mastery” Game mode, which turned out to be a great practice in Level Design!
What is Hero Mastery?
Hero Mastery is a Practice run game mode, where the player has to complete small levels in a short amount of time. While also collecting mastery emblems and eliminating robots!
How does this help with Sketching?
Recently I saw an amazing talk by a developer at Guerrilla Games about how he designed the Cauldrons in Horizon Forbidden West. In this video the developer spoke about a technique he learned when designing cauldrons called “Backwards Design”. Which is knowing all your final narrative beats and starting at the end of the level. I wanted to apply this Backwards Design when learning level design. I applied this by resketching the levels from Overwatch’s Hero Mastery levels! I did this because the levels are short and don’t contain much art. This would make it easier to get into sketching them over. The goal was to discover how levels were sketched at a high level in the industry, so that I can get more comfortable and better at sketching level designs.
Examples
Lucio Mission 1, Section 1 Sketch
Lucio Mission 1, Section 1 Level
Genji Mission 2, Section 2 Sketch
Genji Mission 2, Section 2 Level
Genji Mission 3, Section 2 Sketch
Genji Mission 3, Section 2 Level
Things I’ve Learned
I still struggle a bit when it comes to sketching verticality. I want to improve on this when I sketch in the future.
Overall I really liked playing and sketching these levels. I’ve learned a few new design tricks as well.
Like this! At the start of a section the developers give you either; High ground, or cover so that the player can have time to study the level layout. And most importantly, Isn’t shot at immediately!
Or here, where developers give many different (flanking) options to the player. This makes a level feel bigger than that it actually is. It also makes it way more fun to explore!
I really like this way of studying levels. It allows me to dive into the mind of professionals and uncover secrets in Level Design. I’d recommend Backwards Design to everyone, in this case that is!
Thank you!