Overview

Download & Play November on the Steam Workshop (Requires Team Fortress 2)

November is a map for Team Fortress 2's co-operative Mann vs. Machine gamemode.

Unlike other Mann vs. Machine maps, where players must stop waves of robots from escorting a bomb through a linear playspace, November takes on a wholly different structure in which players must defend a central server facility from multiple different sides at once. As a result of it's unorthodox layout, November faced many design challenges and constraints.

In addition to the map itself, I also developed several missions - sets of enemy waves that players must defeat - that leverage the map's structure in order to create a completely new Mann vs. Machine experience.

Development Role

November was created entirely as a solo effort, using existing Team Fortress 2 assets and Valve's proprietary level editing software, Hammer. 
As the developer of November, I accomplished the following:

• Created & tested several rough layouts of the level, iterating the concept over time until landing on a final polished version
• Developed several missions alongside the map at varying difficulties to ensure that the map was engaging for players of all skill levels
• Artpassed the entire playspace using a combination of stock and community-made Team Fortress 2 assets
• Developed a complete technical spec & design guide for community mission makers to create their own missions for the map
• Gathered & organized community mission makers to add to the already-built mission selection, making it into a complete campaign

Design

Rather than the traditional bunker-and-hold gameplay of Mann vs Machine, in which a clearly defined 'frontline' is established by the bomb's location that the entire team holds, November is designed to support & reward more aggressive 'roaming' playstyles. Players flow more freely around to map to fight where they're needed most, and the concept of a singular 'frontline' becomes much fuzzier. To achieve this, many of the gamemode's old design guidelines & gameplay elements had to be thrown out, and new ones were developed specifically for November. 

• ​The map takes on a radial shape, in which the central facility is surrounded by different fronts (Areas where the robots come from, and defenders need to defend)
  • These fronts are close to both each other and the central server facility - the control point that defenders need to protect - keeping rotation times between different areas of the map to only a few seconds.
  • There are many overlapping areas where players can keep watch over multiple fronts at once.
  • Only a few fronts are active at a time, and they are almost always adjacent fronts. This gives players the sensation of splitting up the team, but still keeps everyone playing in the same general area, able to support each other quickly if needed.
• Individual fronts are easy to hold, but provide different challenges when combined
  • ​Unlike regular 'front' areas in Mann vs. Machine, which can be large and complex, November's fronts are relatively  straightforward and simple.
  • The aim is that each individual front is easy to hold - even by a small team of 2-3 - with a majority of the map's complexity and difficulty arising from the fact that multiple fronts are active at once.
  • Certain front areas become exceptionally more difficult when combined with other front areas. Holding fronts C & D at the same time is fairly easy due to the abundant high-ground and easy sightlines between them. However, holding fronts D & E is much more difficult due to the radical height difference that chops off a defender's ability to monitor both fronts from the same place..
• The bomb is replaced with a central control point
  • Normally in Mann vs. Machine, robots carry a bomb that players must guard once dropped. This results in players only ever losing ground, as the more progress the robots make, the further back the bomb becomes.
  • In November, robots instead win by standing on the central control point for 15 seconds. When they step off of it, their progress decays.
  • The more forgiving nature of the objective allows defenders to rebound all the way back to the front when pushed back, and promotes aggressive pushes to re-take lost ground.

Gameplay

Below is a gameplay video of Wave 2 of  'Weird Autumn', the expert-difficulty mission for November, which I also created.
Wave 2 is a split-hold between fronts C and D; in the video, perspective shifts between free-cam and player perspective to show how the team moves between & defends both areas.

(Note that the HUD has been disabled to anonymize the players; in-game, players are able to see which spawns are active and the status of the central capture point on their HUD)

​Whitebox Examples

Examples of several areas in the Whitebox and how they translated to the final version of the level.