Auction House

Auction House is another one of those maps that a few designers tried their hand at making. Like Remnants before it, Auction was abandoned by the original designer who went on to make Rooftops, which used the same art aesthetic.

I did a top to bottom redesign of the level, trying to use as many of the single player art aesthetics already created. The trickiest thing was figuring out the middle of the level. Middles are always tough because they naturally act as a center conflict point which makes them high traffic areas. The goal is to make a middle section that serves as a junction point to the other parts of the map but doesn’t draw all the attention.

I wanted to force the player to use the rope swing to reach the 2nd floor from the ground level. The problem was the rope swing mechanic wasn’t working when the level was being developed, so the idea was theoretical. This meant that all the other designers didn’t like it because it didn’t work well and I was pressured to cut the idea entirely.

It took some convincing, but today the level is out in the world now, rope swing intact.