The Vondel map in Call of Duty: Warzone is among the finest battlegrounds within the historical past of the battle royale style. It’s a small-scale, densely packed map with all kinds of factors of curiosity (POIs) that really feel distinct. Modeled after European cities, Vondel is a feat of degree design because it concurrently feels enjoyable and useful. It’s a metropolis which you can really think about as an actual place, with a slew of various retailers to enter, a canal, and even a water taxi service that strikes all through the map.
But behind the scenes, there are numerous design selections that assist the move and pacing of the map. To get a greater sense of simply what makes this map work so properly, I spoke with Beenox Senior Level Designer Fred Wilson and Lead Artist Guillaume Alain. The duo revealed how Vondel’s composition seeps into the gamers’ unconscious, with intuitive design selections that work higher than any Warzone map that’s come earlier than.
Pacing is king
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Vondel is supposed to be a fictional metropolis within the Netherlands and developer Beenox regarded throughout Europe for inspiration. It’s virtually like a greatest-hits metropolis that pulls from well-known locales all throughout the continent. This is on full show with its structure and implementation of a canal system, identical to in Haarlem and Utrecht — two real-life cities in Holland.
But Vondel is greater than only a stunning, realistic-looking metropolis. It by no means sacrifices enjoyable and is designed to maintain a constant move with quick pacing. Pacing, which Alain says is crucial facet of constructing a Call of Duty map, unfolds at a blisteringly quick velocity on Vondel.
“The distance between POIs, the amount of time the player has to run to get to cover — or the space between cover — the [number] of angles, and the density of close quarters fighting versus mid-range and long-range are mixed together without giving too much of an advantage to one or the other,” Alain tells Digital Trends.
Although Vondel isn’t the largest Warzone map, it’s definitely essentially the most dense, with extremely concentrated areas consisting of townhouses, buildings, and the canals beneath. “We recognize that urban areas are always really popular with our players,” Wilson tells Digital Trends. “Tighter, more frenetic gameplay also resonates really well.”
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In distinction to maps like Verdansk, Caldera, and even some elements of Ashika Island, there’s far more cowl on Vondel. This makes it simpler for gamers to rotate safely, with out getting caught in “no man’s land,” as Alain explains. “There were some situations [on Verdansk] where you had no choice. It was either you run left through an empty forest, or you run right through an empty field. And in front of you, a canal — also empty,” Alain mentioned.
Many of those points have been alleviated on Vondel, however the items of canopy scattered across the map don’t really feel random. Everything appears to be positioned in such a approach that makes it really feel like a dwelling, respiratory metropolis.
It’s actually essential to allow as many playstyles as potential as a result of gamers are available in all sizes and styles.
There was a variety of iteration behind the scenes when designing Vondel. Balancing the proper feel and appear took months of labor, with many adjustments made earlier than the map shipped. Specifically, the townhouses acquired many iterations throughout improvement. In reality, a big portion of the buildings regarded the identical firstly. These townhouses ended up being the center and soul of the map, thanks partially, to their visible and structural design.
“A type of gameplay that we wanted to champion on Vondel is a parkour or free-running style on the rooftops of townhouses,” Wilson says. The crew envisioned gamers “jumping over gaps and then grabbing onto the ledges” to get round simpler. This is feasible because of the shut proximity of the townhouses scattered round Vondel, permitting gamers to maneuver in quite a lot of methods.
Seeping into the unconscious
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The buildings and constructions in Vondel aren’t simply there for seems, although. They’re designed in such a approach that makes the sport simpler to play. But many of those design selections are ones that gamers might not even discover … no less than, not consciously.
For occasion, every neighborhood of townhouses options completely different coloured roofing, which makes it far simpler to successfully talk callouts. Whereas earlier maps utilized lots of the identical actual buildings throughout the board, Vondel is stuffed with selection, even when the architectural design of sure constructions is similar.
“There are many little things that are meant to be motifs to help the player navigate and orient themselves on the map,” Wilson says. This doesn’t simply apply to the colour of the buildings: “There’s also quite a lot of graffiti and paintings on the side of townhouses,” Alain says. All the artwork is exclusive, like a tiger sprayed on a wall, in order to permit gamers to make distinct callouts. “You can’t confuse that callout if you call the player near the tiger since there’s only one on the map,” Alain explains.
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Beenox additionally wished to make it straightforward to know which buildings can and might’t be entered. Few issues are as irritating as being within the warmth of battle, solely to seek out your self thwarted by a door you possibly can’t open. The crew took this into consideration and added little steps in entrance of the doorways of townhouses, indicating they are often entered. You won’t have even observed this, however there’s a motive why gamers can move via the map simply, and it comes all the way down to little choices which can be seemingly insignificant — however make a world of distinction.
Likewise, the doorways you possibly can enter on rooftops all have picket roofing close to them, which may even be noticed from the sky. “When you parachute in, you see that there are wood planks near roof doors on the roofs,” Alain mentioned. “So that tells you — from the air — that those townhouses are playable.”
The artwork of stability
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Vondel is full of residences and little shops, lots of which you’ll be able to enter. Nearly all of them characteristic a number of entrances, both from the roof, ladders, or from the bottom ground. This is completed — not solely to reinforce the realism and believability of the map — however for balancing functions. In previous maps, there was usually only one sole entrance to the roof. This made it tough for gamers to push any groups that have been holding down that specific rooftop. But in Vondel, there are virtually all the time two methods to get to a selected spot, together with the roofs of residences and shops.
There’s vital stability outdoors of the buildings’ designs, as properly, primarily within the type of the canals. “The canals are one of those things that really evolved the gameplay,” Wilson says. They’re one of many map’s biggest strengths, and with out them, Wilson says they’d “be afraid that players would feel trapped or are caught in choke points.” These canals function a approach for gamers to flank or escape sticky conditions however are additionally plausible by way of the European aesthetic.
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Vondel was designed to stick to as many play types as potential, which remained a core a part of the crew’s imaginative and prescient. “It’s really important to enable as many playstyles as possible, because players come in all shapes and sizes,” Wilson mentioned. “And it’s important to stimulate variety and make it so that game after game, you can have a unique experience.”
Beenox and Activision created a map that feels balanced, plausible, and enjoyable whereas retaining a unified imaginative and prescient for the situation at giant. And that’s no straightforward feat. Practically each inch of Vondel feels deliberately designed to stick to that standards, leading to the most effective map in Warzone historical past — if not the battle royale style, interval.
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