Inside the Development of Team Mayhem - Episode 3: Welcome to Scorched Earth
In this entry, we’re excited to give you an in-depth look at the making of Scorched Earth, the first map designed for Team Mayhem. As we continue to refine this fast, furious, and unconventional 3v3 mode, Scorched Earth plays a central role in providing players with tactical depth and varied gameplay, pushing teams to coordinate and adapt to different objectives across the map.
First, a quick recap of our design goals for Team Mayhem:
- Team-focused gameplay (Start together, end together)
- Short-to-Medium game-length (Easy to fit multiple matches into a play session)
- Loads of positive teamplay opportunities (Also, avoid conflict between teammates)
- Support Hero and Sub-faction variety (To keep the meta and team comps highly varied)
Map Design Priorities
Creating a map for a 3v3 mode involves a completely different approach than a traditional 1v1 map. Jorge, one of the designers who helped build Scorched Earth, explained:
My main goal was to create an engaging playspace that could accommodate six entire armies, offer a variety of tactics, and complement the ‘battery’ and ‘core’ mechanics. This map offers a lot of opportunities for teams to outmaneuver, pincer, funnel, flank, and surprise the opposing team, while offering multiple defensible positions.
He also emphasized how Team Mayhem encourages players to build forward positions and defend the neutral territory:
Unlike 1v1, this map is designed around the new central mechanics for this mode, the 'batteries' and the 'cores'. We wanted the batteries to be placed in neutral territory away from the player’s main bases to encourage the construction of defensible positions at the Luminite sites across the map.
[Image Description] Early version of Scorched Earth (Not Final)
Varied Gameplay and Tactical Choices
One of the key elements of Scorched Earth is providing players with meaningful choices throughout the game. As Greg, another designer on Team Mayhem, pointed out:
We wanted to make a map where there isn't a clear best way to play. We want players to have several options for what they can do at any given point in a game. Some areas of Scorched Earth focus heavily on expansion, while others offer key objectives, such as additional battery towers, creep camps, and even a boss creep. This way, you could claim advantages that fit your personal playstyle or your team’s goals.
Greg further explained how different parts of the map are designed to support varying playstyles:
For example, the bottom left corner is very expansion-heavy, while the top right corner has an extra battery tower spawn, more creep camps, as well as the boss creep.
Balancing these different areas was one of the major challenges the team faced, with Greg noting:
We needed to figure out the right balance between the number of expansions, creep camps, and other map objectives. We also needed to make each of the different objectives feel rewarding to go for. As we were testing, we went back and revised the map to make the terrain, cliffs, and chokes more interesting and varied from one spot to another to create a more dynamic playspace.
From Jorge’s perspective, one of the major challenges was creating an engaging playspace that can comfortably accommodate six players.
This is surprisingly tricky. There are “sweet spots” you must discover as a designer when it comes to spacing and distances. Choke points can quickly become frustrating if too tight, and areas that are too open can feel bland. Through a lot of testing and iteration I believe we found the sweet spot for a 3v3 map, and I’m excited to see how Scorched Earth plays out when it goes live.
Art and Environment Design
Scorched Earth sets players up on a deserted, post-apocalyptic wasteland tileset. From an art perspective, Scorched Earth has evolved with the rest of the game and benefits from our recent improvements to lighting and terrain. Joanna, one of our artists, shared her thoughts regarding the sort of gameplay that Scorched Earth’s terrain layout fosters:
Exploring the map is really cool because it's like playing hide and seek with enemy camps. It's a game of dividing and conquering areas, as each team fights to compete for additional resources.
Joanna even pointed out an unintentionally fun detail resulting from the map’s asymmetric design:
I discovered that one corner of the map looks like a goat's head. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
[Image Description] Pro tip: Goated teammates work together. They don’t butt heads.
Jorge shared a few more of his thoughts on Scorched Earth, pointing to the work the artists put into the map as one of his highlights:
I love the environment art in Scorched Earth and how our gun “Cores” turned out. Our art team is amazing and our maps are improving week after week. I believe this map is a glimpse of what’s to come and highlights our commitment to continuously make this game better for our players.
Moving Toward Playtesting
We are preparing to enter very limited closed alpha playtesting for Scorched Earth in phases, similar to how we handled our pre-alpha and alpha tests. Initially, we will invite a very small number of players, with more players brought in over the following weeks. We’ll share instructions for how you can participate here on the official website and in the #announcements channel on the official Stormgate Discord. This phased approach helps us gather valuable feedback while ensuring we can take some time to fine-tune the map and its mechanics before inviting additional testers.
We’re looking forward to hearing what players think of Scorched Earth and seeing the strategies that emerge as teams explore all of Team Mayhem’s possibilities.
