CTF-Zortron [Download]

17/01/2025

CTF-Zortron is my very first official map for Unreal Tournament. I've been playing the game since my childhood and played with the Unreal Editor making some very basic maps. This game shaped who I am to this day and my choice of becoming an environment artist in the video game industry.

This time I had a blast, these little obsessive moment you have onto something, and really wanted to learn how to use the Unreal Editor and this was the opportunity. I drew a map from top view on my sketchbook while drawing a nice little Xan.

I played tons of games on the [Eat Sleep UT] combogib server so I really had this gamemode and server in mind while making the map. This helped me a lot for the level design. So I started by watching some tutorials by [Smeerkat] that made a nice playlist of his videos on youtube with some of the Unreal Editor basics and had some help on the UT99.org and OldUnreal discord.

I tried every new little things I learned to know how to use Unreal Editor at its best and discovered the 2D Shape Editor which let you create complex shape as BSP on a grid and I started to draw the shape of the corridors and understood that you could create modular pieces like that.

As you can see, the map is pretty basic, nothing too fancy here. Some verticality here and there but it works especially with the [Combogib Mod]. However, here come most of the level design part. I intended some part of the map, especially for the ComboGib mod, like the big electric pillars near the flag bases for each part so if a flag carrier is getting closer to bring the flag, he can go through this narrow corner but still with a risk of being shock comboed. I like that there's covers but not entirely protected by these. It relies mostly on the player skills on both sides. If the enemy misses his shot or shock combo, it still gives a chance to the flag carrier to bring the flag to his base.

The rest of the map are corridors on the side which lead to, either the other base or the middle of the map which is lower. It makes a sort of pool where you can throw grenades or flak shells in here. I also added a shield belt at the top part of the mid map. Pretty basic but it works.

Finally, the map has a custom music made by myself with my electronic project [Helios].It's a really old Drum and Bass track that I've been reworking for a while. I finished it while working on this map and since it was a space themed map I decided to use it and I think it works with the fast paced gameplay while being really atmospheric.