NEW GROUNDS Mapping Contest - Killing Floor 2

While we will be looking at community feedback about the entries, the final decisions will solely be at Tripwire Interactive’s discretion. The following are key criteria for the “Survival” map mode contest:

• Gameplay
• Performance
• Creativity
• Atmosphere
• Complexity
• Polish

Gameplay

• Pathing is complete, and the ZEDs can get to the player without getting stuck
• The player cannot exploit the map by going to places the zeds cannot
• ZEDs and boss can spawn into the map reliably
• Ammo boxes and equipment pickups are in the map and working
• Trader Pods are in the map, accessible and trader trails are working
• Doors are in the map and working
• Player is given clear direction on where they can and cannot navigate to
• Portal entries are in the map and working (the spawns from floors, walls and ceilings)

Performance

• Map can run on minimum specs without performance drops
• Max Draw Distances set for all assets
• Precomputed visibility volumes in use and map built with them turned on
• Lighting overdraw, and shader overdraw kept to a minimum (reduce overlapping)
• Combine pass of floors and walls. This improves performance and improves appearance of blood splatter and lighting
• Replace smaller kit pieces with larger configurations when possible (e.g. Two 1x1 floor pieces next to each other can be replaced with one 1x2 floor piece)

Creativity

• Unique use of available assets
• Crafting of original assets (not mandatory but encouraged)
• Unique location setting
• Can give hints of other maps, but doesn’t look like a direct copy

Atmosphere

• Create an interesting environment that players feel compelled to explore
• Tell the story of the environment through thoughtful prop placement of static meshes, lighting, sounds, fog, particle effects, moving objects, etc.…Who was here, what is the purpose of this location, what happened.
• Avoid overuse of flat square surfaces and sharp edges where floors, walls and ceilings meet
• Facade space is detailed

Complexity

• Provide multiple levels of gameplay (e.g., basement, ground level, 2nd floor)
• Give the player multiple navigation options when they get overrun
• ZEDs spawn from a variety of locations both inside and outside the map
• Avoid long dead ends

Polish

• Organized Kismet (if used). Simplified when possible and arranged and labeled in a manner that someone unfamiliar with your custom systems can open it up and understand how it functions
• Architecture of structures makes sense, layout of environment props serves a purpose. E.g. If there is a giant building with large ceiling, where are the support columns holding it up? Emergency shut off switch on the wall, what does it turn off? Flickering light in a cave system, where is the light source? Try to answer these sorts of questions.
• Meshes are not floating above the ground or clipping through other assets
• Meshes appear to be in real world positions (e.g. labels of containers not all facing the same direction, assets knocked over
• Particle effects in use and appropriately scaled
• Uniform lightmap resolution and increased in places where shadow fidelity is important
• Use of breakable objects (furniture, glass, lights, etc.)
• Use of reverb volumes and dialogue volumes
• Blood splatter actors in use where appropriate
• Combined assets that provide uniform splattermaps and lighting resolution
• FLEX (gore and blood) pass. We understand this system works on NVIDIA GPUs only, if you have an NVIDIA card it is nice polish for a map. However, non NVIDIA card users will not be penalized for not doing a FLEX pass.

Key criteria for the “Non- Survival” map mode contest follows the same key criteria as a “Survival” map with the only major discrepancy potentially occurring in the gameplay field. Since “Non-Survival” is a broad category, gameplay is summarized by saying if you create a special type of map, all its intended systems need to be operational. Below are general outlines for Tripwire’s Non-Survival map types.

Hold Out style map

• Player spawns into correct arenas (sequentially or random is up to you to decide)
• ZED spawns turn off and on according to what arena the players are in (including portal spawns)
• Trader pods become accessible in-between every wave
• The Boss spawns correctly

Endless Arena style map

• Player and ZEDs spawn in the same playable space
• Navigation remains functional. Zeds can always find a path to the player and do not get stuck or lost
• The Boss spawns correctly

Story mode/ Objective map

• Players are given clear direction of goals and upon completing them progress through the map until a final wave is won and they are directed to the victory screen
• ZEDs and bosses can spawn correctly and navigate to the player when directed to do so
• Objectives are functioning and behave in a manor most players should expect