Party Crasher
Released: May 4, 2021 (Season 9)
My Role: I conceptualized map's theme of crashing Mirage Voyage (a TT I designed for BR) into a city, and was responsible for map from start to release, working with Artist and various other departments to ship at the highest quality while continuing to test and design other Arena map designs, giving Arena's a solid line up of unique maps at launch.
I designed and iterated map, working with Artists to heavily retheme and redesign map from dull, crumbled cityscape to a vibrant, night-time Vegas-styled city with little time to test major changes.
Worked with Arena designers to assist the mode's development and make designs that complimented the mode's evolving mechanics/goals over the course of its development, having Party Crasher act as a test bed for mode's latest iterations.
As Level Designer, I had to clip and polish this map, making sure the map releases at the highest quality possible. Clipping this map was hard due to all the uneven terrain around the crashed ship, but a smooth player's experience is our highest priority.
Description: Party Crasher was 1 of the 2 custom maps that released with the launch of Apex's new 3v3 elimination mode, Arenas, in Season 9. Party Crasher was one of the first few maps I designed to see what kind of designs worked for Arena's combat-focused design. Party Crasher helped shaped various soft rules for future Arena maps.
Theme: Mirage crashes his party ship, The Mirage Voy'age, into a city after showboating too hard. Players fight along the crashed Mirage Voy'age, the surrounding destruction, and the remains of the brightly-lit city in this semi-symmetrical environment.
The unique theme and name "Party Crasher" was the first thing I thought of before even making the map, the concept was too funny to not pursue.
My Role: I conceptualized map's theme of crashing Mirage Voyage (a TT I designed for BR) into a city, and was responsible for map from start to release, working with Artist and various other departments to ship at the highest quality while continuing to test and design other Arena map designs, giving Arena's a solid line up of unique maps at launch.
I designed and iterated map, working with Artists to heavily retheme and redesign map from dull, crumbled cityscape to a vibrant, night-time Vegas-styled city with little time to test major changes.
Worked with Arena designers to assist the mode's development and make designs that complimented the mode's evolving mechanics/goals over the course of its development, having Party Crasher act as a test bed for mode's latest iterations.
As Level Designer, I had to clip and polish this map, making sure the map releases at the highest quality possible. Clipping this map was hard due to all the uneven terrain around the crashed ship, but a smooth player's experience is our highest priority.
Description: Party Crasher was 1 of the 2 custom maps that released with the launch of Apex's new 3v3 elimination mode, Arenas, in Season 9. Party Crasher was one of the first few maps I designed to see what kind of designs worked for Arena's combat-focused design. Party Crasher helped shaped various soft rules for future Arena maps.
Theme: Mirage crashes his party ship, The Mirage Voy'age, into a city after showboating too hard. Players fight along the crashed Mirage Voy'age, the surrounding destruction, and the remains of the brightly-lit city in this semi-symmetrical environment.
The unique theme and name "Party Crasher" was the first thing I thought of before even making the map, the concept was too funny to not pursue.
Full Arena Match on Party Crasher:
Map's Design Goal:
The high-level design goal was for players to have fair engagements between spawns and the 2 POIs (points of interests), Mirage Voy'age and the buildings, addressing the key issues we saw with Arenas while testing it on our BR POIs. Biggest one being everyone going to the same part of the map each round with no reason to go anywhere else because it's where the high ground was.
The goal here was no matter which POI or route teams went to off spawn, they could see what the other team is doing and form a strategy based on that visual information. This design also helped direct players to the core combat areas while maintaining a safe, medium engagement distance to encourage teamwork and mechanical skills to win fights over reactionary CQC skills.
Party Crasher's original map's design was much smaller as the map's goal was to have clear fights between the 2 POIs that led nicely into each other and around both sides of the map (more on the map's original design later).
Below are the 2 POIs:
The high-level design goal was for players to have fair engagements between spawns and the 2 POIs (points of interests), Mirage Voy'age and the buildings, addressing the key issues we saw with Arenas while testing it on our BR POIs. Biggest one being everyone going to the same part of the map each round with no reason to go anywhere else because it's where the high ground was.
The goal here was no matter which POI or route teams went to off spawn, they could see what the other team is doing and form a strategy based on that visual information. This design also helped direct players to the core combat areas while maintaining a safe, medium engagement distance to encourage teamwork and mechanical skills to win fights over reactionary CQC skills.
Party Crasher's original map's design was much smaller as the map's goal was to have clear fights between the 2 POIs that led nicely into each other and around both sides of the map (more on the map's original design later).
Below are the 2 POIs:
With 2 parallel POIs in the center of the map, no matter which side a team went to at the start of a round, the open center allowed players to see each other from vantage points I designed called A/B points because they gave each team 2 vantage points off spawn to see the map and observe where the other team was going at the start of each round.
The other team had their own A/B points to counter each others' for combat fairness and clear frontlines.
The other team had their own A/B points to counter each others' for combat fairness and clear frontlines.
These A/B points created vantage points acting as "check-points" for players engage and push up to and back from across the map, creating clean frontlines vertically and horizontally along the entire map.
A/Bs would become a staple for all Arena maps going forward in some capacity as visual knowledge and more open LoS into the map's center made for cleaner frontlines and overall engagements for Arena rounds. A/Bs became a crucial part of making an Arena map feel more predicable and strategic compared to other map designs we tested.
A/Bs would become a staple for all Arena maps going forward in some capacity as visual knowledge and more open LoS into the map's center made for cleaner frontlines and overall engagements for Arena rounds. A/Bs became a crucial part of making an Arena map feel more predicable and strategic compared to other map designs we tested.
Above is a picture from Red Team's "B" read (from the A/B image further above), which shows how players can see the rest of the map and the opposing team's A/Bs before going further towards the map's center
Map Iterations:
Party Crasher was the 3rd map I made during Arena's testing phase and the first map to show real promise in what a custom Arena map could be as it had a solid foundation for adaptable round-based gameplay. It also helped that the theme & narrative was super strong too.
Party Crasher was initially a much smaller map that supported more medium-close range combat and flowed between the 2 POIs smoother. However, to support better team strategies and slow fights down so it wasn't as aggro. I expanded the map to support a wider frontline between the ship and buildings POIs.
The map expanded to included more room in the spawn areas, more space along the backside of the Mirage Voy'age which got turned into the waterfall area for more combat/flanking options, and more open space between Buildings POI and the Mirage ship. This is where the center of the map was turned into a plaza pond with a bridge & underpass.
Below are images from the final version of the map and the first blockout we tested:
Party Crasher was the 3rd map I made during Arena's testing phase and the first map to show real promise in what a custom Arena map could be as it had a solid foundation for adaptable round-based gameplay. It also helped that the theme & narrative was super strong too.
Party Crasher was initially a much smaller map that supported more medium-close range combat and flowed between the 2 POIs smoother. However, to support better team strategies and slow fights down so it wasn't as aggro. I expanded the map to support a wider frontline between the ship and buildings POIs.
The map expanded to included more room in the spawn areas, more space along the backside of the Mirage Voy'age which got turned into the waterfall area for more combat/flanking options, and more open space between Buildings POI and the Mirage ship. This is where the center of the map was turned into a plaza pond with a bridge & underpass.
Below are images from the final version of the map and the first blockout we tested:
Above is Party Crasher's first blockout design, before any iterations and redesigns to expand the map. The final version of the map is significantly wider/larger, although it may not look it due to the final map's screenshot being zoomed out further to capture the entire map.
Party Crasher's core design was for 2 parallel POIs (buildings and Mirage Ship) to offer cool fights along them for head-to-head engagements, as well as between each POI, making interesting combat situations no matter which route teams decided to take.
Once Art came on board, the map went from a fully destroyed cityscape, to a vibrant night city map, removing a lot of the destruction that the map was designed around into undestroyed city environments. This made for some major design changes last minute with little time to iterate, making most design choices to be gut checks based on my own experiences with Apex's map design.
As Party Crasher was deemed a sacrificial lamb map as this map needed to release with Arenas in Season 9, we didn't have as much time to tweak any big changes for the better as Arenas' mode and mechanics become more finalized towards the end of development.
As Arenas was also being developed while I designed & iterated this map, it made for an extra tough challenge.
These big changes without much time to test or iterate them made some designs on Party Crasher not work as well as I originally intended.
In the final version, the Mirage ship is the ultimate high ground and offers the quickest skirmishes on the map, so everyone goes to the ship side most rounds and fights between the ship and buildings are not as direct as I would have preferred.
The Mirage Voyage used to be a little easier to push and fight around since it wasn't as high above the surrounding environment, creating smoother routes onto the ship than the final version in some areas.
Below are views from the same vantage point from the Building roof POI looking towards the Mirage Voyage:
Once Art came on board, the map went from a fully destroyed cityscape, to a vibrant night city map, removing a lot of the destruction that the map was designed around into undestroyed city environments. This made for some major design changes last minute with little time to iterate, making most design choices to be gut checks based on my own experiences with Apex's map design.
As Party Crasher was deemed a sacrificial lamb map as this map needed to release with Arenas in Season 9, we didn't have as much time to tweak any big changes for the better as Arenas' mode and mechanics become more finalized towards the end of development.
As Arenas was also being developed while I designed & iterated this map, it made for an extra tough challenge.
These big changes without much time to test or iterate them made some designs on Party Crasher not work as well as I originally intended.
In the final version, the Mirage ship is the ultimate high ground and offers the quickest skirmishes on the map, so everyone goes to the ship side most rounds and fights between the ship and buildings are not as direct as I would have preferred.
The Mirage Voyage used to be a little easier to push and fight around since it wasn't as high above the surrounding environment, creating smoother routes onto the ship than the final version in some areas.
Below are views from the same vantage point from the Building roof POI looking towards the Mirage Voyage:
The Mirage Voyage POI was pushed out significantly away from the Rooftop POI, making for longer ranged engagements and more emphasis on the map's middle.
I wish I had time to lower the Mirage ship and widen the buildings' roofs to be less linear of a route to keep high ground compared to the ship side. But Party Crasher still plays well enough, but small tweaks I wish I would have caught during development makes me want to revisit this map to make it play better, maybe some day?
Below are some more images from the first blockout of Party Crasher:
I wish I had time to lower the Mirage ship and widen the buildings' roofs to be less linear of a route to keep high ground compared to the ship side. But Party Crasher still plays well enough, but small tweaks I wish I would have caught during development makes me want to revisit this map to make it play better, maybe some day?
Below are some more images from the first blockout of Party Crasher:
Competitive Map Designs:
With Arenas being a more competitive combat experience than Apex's BR mode, I wanted to make sure Arena maps supported clean gameplay and visibility for balanced gun fights.
Most of these changes occurred on the Mirage ship as I adjusted and added cover on the Mirage Voy'age to support better team-sided fights and create a better frontline between the 2 teams' vantage points, offering both teams an A/B vantage point from their side on the ship.
The "crashed ship" theme allowed me to use rubble, broken concrete, and knocked over props to create new cover on the ship. Redesigning the Mirage to work for a more head-to-head combat experience was a fun challenge.
To support the competitive balance on Arena maps for gun fights, I removed some of the fun BR aspects of the Mirage Voy'age that wouldn't work as well here:
With Arenas being a more competitive combat experience than Apex's BR mode, I wanted to make sure Arena maps supported clean gameplay and visibility for balanced gun fights.
Most of these changes occurred on the Mirage ship as I adjusted and added cover on the Mirage Voy'age to support better team-sided fights and create a better frontline between the 2 teams' vantage points, offering both teams an A/B vantage point from their side on the ship.
The "crashed ship" theme allowed me to use rubble, broken concrete, and knocked over props to create new cover on the ship. Redesigning the Mirage to work for a more head-to-head combat experience was a fun challenge.
To support the competitive balance on Arena maps for gun fights, I removed some of the fun BR aspects of the Mirage Voy'age that wouldn't work as well here:
- I removed the elevator shafts by sinking them under the rubble, to create a flatter, more understandable fighting environment on the ship
- I removed the Party Button which was the main mechanic on the original Mirage Voy'age in BR
- All the visual chaos and noise was a fun thing to fight around in BR, but in a more concentrated elimination mode like Arenas, having clean LoS and audio was the priority. Button was only on one side of the ship too.
- There was also no looting in Arenas so the reward of "Starting the Party" was nonexistent for Arenas
- Removed all the idol/dancing Mirage Decoys doing wacky animations around the ship so it didn't muddy-up players' LoS and Mirage players didn't have an upper hand in combat. RIP to the Hot Tub Mirages.
It was really fun working with our Art team to retheme and redesign this map so much from its original design, just wish I had more time to iterate and test some of the bigger changes. But it took a lot of talented folks across several departments to pull this mode and map off.
Party Crasher is a beautiful map and was a great staple to Arenas through its development, pioneering a lot of knowledge of what made Arena maps work better for Apex's combat and squad play.
Mirage Voy'age is one of my favorite things I've ever made for Apex and it's sad to see I crashed it, but hope to see a Mirage Voy'age 2.0 set sail some day.
Below are some more pictures of Party Crasher as it shipped in Season 9:
Party Crasher is a beautiful map and was a great staple to Arenas through its development, pioneering a lot of knowledge of what made Arena maps work better for Apex's combat and squad play.
Mirage Voy'age is one of my favorite things I've ever made for Apex and it's sad to see I crashed it, but hope to see a Mirage Voy'age 2.0 set sail some day.
Below are some more pictures of Party Crasher as it shipped in Season 9: