Toy Box
Toy Box is an Unreal Tournament level that takes place on the play table of a young child who has set up their toys for war. Fight through lego sets, block fortresses, and other small toys to win this free for all deathmatch map.
Engine
Unreal Tournament
Contributions
Level Design
Set Design
In-Engine Modeling
Freedom of Movement
Typical to an Unreal Tournament map, the player has a multitude of options when navigating through the Toy Box. From almost any position, they can quickly make it to almost anywhere in the map within seconds. This was to allow for constant decision making in the shortest amount of time, giving the map a sense of chaos yet direction. There are paths that move the player the fastest but are not mandated through restrictions.
Oragnized Chaos
Despite everything looking like it is haphazardly put together, the navigation in-and-of itself is clean and unbroken. The fort, for example, has gaps between each block to make it look like a child put it there rather than a perfect sculpture. However, careful attention to detail was key in making the visuals feel sloppy without the actual colliders and paths become glitchy and prone to catching the player on corners.
Immersive
Almost all loose pieces found in the map can be interacted with, from shooting the cards off the distant table to knocking marbles onto the floor. Likewise, all barriers and boundaries are made up of actual toys rather than invisible walls. The intention is for the player never to leave the table, so other than the few gaps that lead to a falling death, the edges are surrounded by various types of playthings such as bears and trains to deter the player from leaving.
Variation
The map is made up of four distinct locations that the player can easily recognize. At any given moment, the player immediately knows where they are and how it connects to each other location. The Space Station lego set has a very distinct texture and design that cannot be confused with anywhere else, much like the block fort and the open, tube-covered table. These distinctions help the player make the knee-jerk decisions they are expected to with the most amount of familiarity possible.
Lego Space Station
The Lego Space Station is an homage to a previous Unreal Tournament level. It has been completely recreated, however, in over a thousand individual “lego” blocks consisting of a square and two cylinders. This was to ensure the ability to resize and scale while maintaining the lego appearance. Because the station’s primary purpose is only to get the player higher or lower before returning to the fight, making the scale not interrupt player movement was important.
