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Sandbox Interactive releases a developer diary blog entry going over map design for Albion Online

With the official beta arriving this November, the developers behind the cross-platform sandbox MMORPG called Albion Online are starting to release more details about what goes into making this game, including taking into consideration the fact that users can play on both PC, Mac and mobile devices.

The latest installment goes over level design, and by that they mean map design. It is actually a pretty intricate process which requires the consideration of both mobile gamers and non-mobile gamers, since the maps have to work across all devices.

The process begins with a rough sketch created according to several design rules outlined in a requirement sheet. The next step is to build a map template into Unity, where the level design team sketch the terrain, hills, lakes and important landmarks to get a decent visual representation. Once the rough map is imported, it then undergoes several stages of design, from marking the positions of key landmarks to creating height differences and making the map feel “alive”.

From there the map is exported, tweaked, tweaked some more, then brought into the game for testing. Unfortunately this time we don’t have a video that goes along with it but instead have a pretty lengthy blog post going over the entire process. It’s a pretty interesting read, especially for developer wanting to make cross-platform games. Unfortunately the upcoming beta doesn’t have an exact release date right now, but it will be much bigger than the past Alpha testing rounds.

Source: Albion Online Blog

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