The primary goal of SMITE 2 was to recreate what players loved about the first game and continue the legacy by building upon its previous standards. Conquest, SMITE's main competitive game mode, carries a lot of history with it. It was my job to respect that history while also building something new for returning players in SMITE 2.
In the early stages of the project, I started gathering info on metrics for our maps to get an idea for how long and wide our paths should run and how big our spaces should be to support our character's abilities. Character sizes and camera "feel" felt different in SMITE 2 so I had to adapt to the changes. In the end I decided on:
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Allowing at least two characters at bare minimum walking shoulder to shoulder through a path
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This would be the size for our choke points​
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Arena sizes should be at least 9m in diameter (a ranged basic attack is 8.8m)​​
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This stays true for the most part, but I try to go far above the normal size in later iterations​
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Jungle spaces should vary between choke points and wide arenas to promote more movement in team fights​
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I would eventually improve upon this point - initial iterations failed to deliver on this​
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The first iteration of Conquest featured narrower paths, familiar jungle bosses and jungle camps, and the three lane structure. At this stage in the project, we were experimenting with some new player mechanics so we added an objective that makes use of the new "interact" feature.
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The second big iteration was focused on adding more movement options to the outer lanes who were originally restricted by the edge of the map. I created side paths that led to small enemies you could farm, and also a teleporter that teleported you to the opposite side of the map.
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At this point we were regularly updating the game in its Alpha state and getting feedback from the players. I noticed that players were complaining about the jungle pathing being too noisy, confusing, and hard to navigate in a chaotic team fight. So in the third big iteration, I simplified the pathing, improved the flow, and added more camps to give the Jungle role more gameplay options.​
I also took a leap of faith and added big open spaces in the jungle. The hypothesis was that team fights tend to be more fun when players have the option to dodge abilities, and historically that wasn't the case due to the tight corridors of the jungle. At first, players weren't a fan of the big spaces but overtime they grew to like it and now appreciate the variance between arena spaces and tight corridors.
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Throughout this process I learned about what kinds of players play our game, what types of spaces make for good team fights, and how each important objective factors into the pathing of the map.
In addition to layout, I was also responsible for scripting gameplay within the map. Unreal's GAS feature gave me the opportunity to try new things I hadn't been able to do in SMITE 1.
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I was able to create interactable objectives, patrolling enemies, items that players can pick up and put in their inventory, special events that occur when jungle bosses were defeated, and new travel mechanisms around the map (such as the side teleporters and base teleporters).
These new additions always targeted a specific design goal, which was usually focused on improving the pacing of the game mode or giving more options to a team.
For example, the teleporters in base let players occasionally quick travel back to their lane. This did two things:
1. Reduced the punishment of dying in lane which led to a long tail of defensive gameplay
2. Increased the pacing of action in each lane so that players were engaged in PvP throughout the match
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Lead the design of Conquest, SMITE 2's main competitive game mode
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Fostered level design talent transitioning from SMITE 1 to 2
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Scripted gameplay events using Unreal's Blueprint and GAS feature
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Rapidly iterate and create new content to be given to players on a bi-weekly cadence