Level design: Combat arenas

In the section you can find the combat arenas I designed on Mario + Rabbids : Sparks of Hope at Ubisoft Paris (a tactical game made in partnership with Nintendo).

Each comes with an initial intention (having a narrative them or introducing an ingredient/enemy) that will be further detailed, illustrated by various streamer’s videos.

All battle titles have been designed by the narrative team.

Here the purpose was to make a battle based on a magic cauldron.

I was bound to make a circular arena, Stonehenge-like, filled with 13 of the mage-type enemies archetypes of the game (dark, white and vampires).

I also pushed for having the cauldron as an exotic ingredient to have a battle with an elemental flair, really recreating the atmosphere of a heavy-magic fight. Each turn, the cauldron would spew spheres acting as elemental mini-bombs, each more or less efficient based on the resistances and vulnerabilities of the enemies.

Characters would spawn close to the cauldron and see their covers crumble quickly due to the difficulty of the battle, prompting them to use the very efficient spheres in order to gain the advantage.

The verticality and 360° menace was also something I was proud of.

• This battle, first one of the Spring planet, is an introduction to two elements:
-the Barrel, which explodes dealing damages when hit.
-The Magnafowl, an enemy able to attract the characters and hit them hard.

• I used a previous layout and revamped it with the pipes and a new navigation, that allow the players to fast travel from one point to the other and therefore provide mobility. Trampolines are also present to give a sensation of bouncing all around the map (fitting the Spring theme), while providing options facing the AoE heavy control of the slower enemies.

• The first enemy in front of the characters is there to teach the Barrel mecanic by affordance, as hitting the later will send the former flying upward.

• This battle introduces the Medician enemy ( able to heal and shield their allies from all damages) and the trampoline, allowing more mobility.

• I wanted to combine the Medicians with Goombas, the weakest possible enemies of the game, in order to have a swarm of cannon-fodder monsters with invicibility shields on them to give them a twist.

• The map was designed to fulfill this idea, with alternative paths available with the trampoline to flank the Medicians and a central area full of Goombas that were both satisfactory to defeat and a menace once the shields are on. Fire enemies, able to create chaotic scatters, are also present.

• This battle introduces the Armored Goomba. The usually weakest enemy of the game is now invulnerable to all damages, except being thrown out of bonds.

• I designed a map with a huge hole in the middle to throw around ~20 Goombas inside in order to defeat them, using various methods : hitting the barrels, dashing them and throwing them afterwards, or special powers the characters can equip.

• Snipers enemies were also used, being able to damage all character moving in their radius. As dashing (a close combat movement) was the easiest strategy to get rid of the enemies, putting a tension on mobility made a lot of sense.

This battle introduces Squashettes, enemis able to push the characters away.

I therefore a narrow map, taking advantage of this menace, and found it funny to make the characters start with dangerous enemis right behind them, incentivizing them to rush towards the exit (the green rectangle).

By designing the arena as a race circuit, the Squashette’s potential could be fully harnessed as obstacles, for they could push the characters out of bonds, behind (towards more dangerous enemies) or in difficult positions.

I really enjoyed the pression put on the player and the rhythm of the battle.

This battle is part of a quest involving the repairs of a train. I embraced the mecanical theme and pushed my team to create a new ingredient : buttons making new grounds/ingredients/enemies appear. It felt crafty, a bit chaotic, and in line.

The purpose is to push three consecutive buttons (each being necessary in order to access the next one) in various areas of the map in order to make enough grounds appear from the air, reach the train and win. The layout would be totaly different from start to finish.

To get closer to the mad garage vibe of this arena, I put lots of strong enemies, bob-ombs and fire/electric barrels able to send everything scuttering and exploding in random areas of the map. It sure is one of my most memorable battle.