Event Finale - Map Contest Winners

It's been a busy & exciting summer featuring lots of tasty new content, but alas our summer event Midsummer Madness has come to an end. But in an epic fashion with the results of the 'vacation-themed' map contest:

1ST PRIZE

Beach Bash
by Alpha

COOLER MASTER CM STORM QUICK FIRE ULTIMATE – CHERRY MX BROWN SWITCH

COOLER MASTER ALCOR – GAMING MOUSE

Judges Comments

Overall a well-designed map with a great variety of terrain, open areas and enclosed spaces. The creator has provided the player with multiple routes to choose from with the possibility of creating, even more, using the destructible environment, creating a varied experience each time the Arena is played. Blocks, devices, and decor items have been used well in this Arena to create some interesting elements. The trees are particularly well designed. The first playthroughs we witnessed were very positive and enjoyed by all. Playing the Arena we enjoyed what seemed like increasing difficulty for attack (1st base open, 2nd more enclosed but multiple obvious ways in, 3rd a Fortress.Alpha stuck to the brief creating his interpretation of the theme 'Summer Vacation' we love that the progression through the Arena tells a story and this is reflected in the description provided for the submission. It was a great bonus to see Alpha approaching v0x to provide some of their now celebrated BNL art to add to the Arena thumbnail, which was a very nice touch. Playtesting was noted from an early stage and feedback was taken on board to fine tune elements of the Arena and has resulted in great gameplay experience. The design rules & guidelines were well observed to create what we feel was overall a deserving winner of the contest.There are a few areas of improvement required but nothing major and the Arena performs well. Beach Bash is certainly a strong candidate to be added to the game.

2ND PRIZE

Cruise Boat
by sanojLeOne

COOLER MASTER CM STORM QUICK FIRE ULTIMATE – CHERRY MX BROWN SWITCH

Judges Comments

An absolutely stunning looking Arena that turned every judge's head! We all agreed it was a very ambitious and creative interpretation of the theme and if the judging criteria were on looks alone, Cruise Boat would have surely won. Judes noted that the creator must have previous experience and of course we enlightened them of Sano's previous submissions, which have been getting stronger and stronger. The Spawn exits are well thought out and naturally lead you to where you need to go to locate the objectives. An interesting and thematic way of getting back out of the water should you fall off has been thought about with the combination of lifeboats and anchor to the rear of the boat. Sculpting has been used to a very high standard creating some lovely pieces that could have easily used the pre-made decor items, but Sano's skill has allowed him to make a large Arena that performs very well.So why did Cruise Boat not come 1st? Well, we felt that based on gameplay we couldn't award first. As mentioned it's an ambitious build and keeping to the boat footprint was a massive challenge to allow the objectives to be placed in a manner that really worked for the Arena. We didn't necessarily think it was a matter of simply dropping a cube but how to pull the attackers off a straight line dash (this was what largely happened in the observed playtesting). This is no easy task and we can tell that Sano has attempted to do what he could with the current setup to slow attackers down and break up the critical path. After discussing the alternatives at some rather significant lengths we believe that it may best to add an extra element to the Arena such as an island, sea creature or dock to each side of the boat to allow you to move one of the objectives out to the side and break up the straight line critical path. We looked at other ideas keeping to the boat alone, but we felt it would compromise the aesthetics too much. ​Other than the above there are only a few areas that we feel would require a tweak such as leading attackers away from the enemy spawn stairs (feels like the way to go from 1st to 2nd) and generally the route down to the 2nd that doesn't encourage fall damage. Cruise Boat is certainly a strong candidate to be added to the game.

3RD PRIZE

Blocky Resort
by △TRIANGLE△

SWAG!

BNL Merchandise Bundle – Military Style Laptop Bag, Katana Style Umbrella, Beanie Hat, Medium T-Shirt, Wrist Band, Sweat Band, Window Sticker + Poster (not shown)

Judges Comments

Blocky Resort was a much smaller Arena than the other submissions, but it really packed a punch! ​​​Triangle really delivered what is becoming his trademark style with this Vacation themed mini beauty. The simple clean lines crafted a slick look that was very eye pleasing to the judges. A lot of strong playable spaces were created despite the smaller scale and absolutely none of it was wasted. Despite some judges wanting to see that 3rd objective, it was agreed that it was indeed a better decision to use 2 rather than cramming a 3rd in artificially where it may have in reality nothing more to add.The Arena is very easy to read, which was a strong point, we only had one small bit of feedback about some of the paths leading to what seemed to be a 'secret door', which was in fact just a wall. this was just before you enter the Cube building from no man's land. Easily rectified by ending these paths earlier pointing out to sea, which leads players to the sides where the side playable area would then also be visible. We noted that the various gameplay gathered for this Arena showed a pretty diverse number of ways to play the Arena, but largely played pretty fast. Gameplay very much seems to depend on strength of defence. We did have the largest amount of conflict revolving around whether or not there should be some natural way of getting back up to the higher level on the Cube. It is easy to build a secure way up & some believe it was in order to slow attack and help defence as larger staircases/ramps are harder to defend naturally, but others found it confusing.Again there was a ​debate about the objectives being arranged in a straight line (despite the path being broken up) as it did mean that it was a quick dash for the attackers to take the Base very quickly in many games. We are unsure how much this will impact things and could require further testing and potential experiments with layouts. Other than the above the spawn was really the only other main area we had feedback for as we felt that the spawn could be further improved by opening another door that faces towards the Cube/enemy side of the map so:It would spawn players facing immediately in the direction that they are going to need to move to build defences / discover the Cube for new players
It would allow you to discover the other exits from spawn to your side
Gives a better angle to survey your Cube and natural defencesBlocky Resort while missing out on 1st/2nd due to the others having slightly stronger aesthetics or gameplay it is still very much a strong candidate to be added to the game.

OTHER SHORTLISTED ENTRIES

> Castle Ruins
> Sandcastle Wars
> Cloudy With a Chance of Summer 1.0

All entries are available on the Steam Workshop, so you can check them out for yourself ahead of them being added to the game.

The above 3 Arenas will be given a quick once over to catch any snags & added to the game for all to play. Initially as a permanent​ Custom game Arena & then added to the Casual rotation.

A massive congratulations to all that entered, you definitely gave us a tough job making our final decision & we hope that we continue to see great Arenas built with the Block N Load Map Editor & posted on Steam Workshop.

If you are new to the Map Editor, then start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km0ZkeKqGTk