Close Quarter Apartments

 The original idea for this project came when I noticed an interest in more close quarter combat in Onward. Ideally, I wanted to create a close quarter level that was stressful, with tight hallways and rooms, where behind any doorway an enemy can be hiding.

 This was really the first big project I'd started in Blender, and I had a lot to learn. I figured choosing a simple layout with square rooms would be a relatively easy way to design the apartment building. There are five floors in total, with two floor plans total. All connected by an inner stairwell, elevators, and an outdoor fire escape. The first floor has just the elevator room and cafe, connected by a hallway. The next four floors all have three apartments each.

For this level I was going for more realism than my other fantasy maps, so I modeled as much detail as I could reasonably think. Things like baseboards, trim, cabinetry, electrical sockets, etc. For this project I also had to learn the fundamentals of textures and shaders in Unity, as well as working with the tweaks for running Onward. I learned about triplanar shaders and making reflective and transparent surfaces.

After designing the main building and making some adjustments in scale for VR, I did a lot of playtesting. One problem that became immediately obvious was the stairwell being the only way to move up and down the floors. There were the elevators, but enemy AI in Onward doesn't seem to be able to use them. So in most cases the bots would all come down the stairs at once and become a shooting gallery. This needed to be fixed, so I added the outdoor fire escape to make things more interesting. It helped the AI a bit, but it helped multiplayer much more, making combat more dynamic.

One other problem that became clear from playtesting was that the alley on the right of the apartment building was left unused, with no reason to go to. My friends and I also had the idea that it'd be fun to be able to cross to the roof next door. To solve both problems, I thought it'd be cool to go into the building next door as well, with elevator access to the roof and a couple simple wood planks to traverse across the roof.

 The building next door has a lobby with an elevator and a conference room in the back. The elevator takes you to the top floor which has roof access and office space. On the roofs I built AC units that could serve as cover.

 Further down the street is another building, and the street corner is blocked off by traffic. The street's blocked off the same way on the other end of the map.

Some loose traffic and concrete barriers outside the apartment building can be used as cover. And is used to mark the map boundaries.

 The apartments all have unique combinations of furniture and wall/carpet to add variety.