Forrest Dowling

My work on Homefront was primarily as Lead Multiplayer Level Designer. I was responsible for overseeing the development of all MP maps in the shipping game, as well as a number of the DLC maps.

I was also directly involved in the design of many of Homefront's unique multiplayer features, such as Battle Points, spawn in vehicle, the Ground Control game mode, Battle Commander, and the fly-in camera.

The biggest challenge in creating levels for Homefront was creating spaces that facilitated everything from helicopters to infantry to small ground drones, on a large scale.

"Thanks to some well-crafted maps and a unique in-game economy, the multiplayer fares better than the campaign." - gameinformer.com

Above is a gameplay video of a user playing the Ground Control game mode on the map Farm.

The ground control mode features 3 frontlines with 3 capture points each. It's similar in some ways to the more common 'domination' game mode from games like CoD, only the location of the capture points shifts forwards or backwards based on which team is winning.

Typically the middle 3 points are built in a way that attempts to achieve a 50/50 win ratio for either side. The fall back lines should have stronger sightlines and overwatch for the defending team, in order to encourage the fight to return to the center frontline.

Each capture point featured a mix of infantry focused spaces vs. vehicle focused spaces. Cover density was such that infantry was be able to sprint from any cover location to another within a maximum of 5 seconds. On some of the larger maps, this needed to be pushed out since an extremely high cover density would blow out the total asset count. Additionally, the middle capture point was a late design addition, so many of the central capture points have lighter structural and cover support. This worked out OK, as they became much more appealing capture points for drivers.

Infantry spaces featured near total protection from vehicle fire, and the goal was to try and set infantry spaces opposite one another, so infantry could trade shots building to building with relative safety from airstrikes and tanks on the ground.

In addition to supporting vehicles and infantry, the maps needed to support a number of rolling ground drones. This is the reason that many raised entrances feature ramps, rather than jumps or steps. With no fluid mantling system, and 2' tall drones needing clean collision, the world of Homefront featured a lot of boards that happened to fall over steps.

Farm was one of the mid-sized maps, and had one of the stronger vehicle vs. infantry balances. Other maps, such as Cul-De-Sac & Fire Sale were aimed at infantry focused players, and large maps like Angel Island were aimed specifically at catering to players that preferred vehicle centric play.

Some of the biggest challenges with creating MP levels for Homefront centered around memory and performance constraints, related to the desired scale vs. density of cover.

This top down image provides an overview of cover density, hard points, and routes.

The dotted lines indicate the borders of the play space, depending on which frontline is currently contested.