ARCANUM
FEAR THE DARK BELOW
ARCANUM
DEVELOPMENT
Acanum is a 2v2 map built within Halo 5’s Forge editor. Inspired by Quake Live’s Elder, Arcanum features a unique power weapon not traditionally found within the Halo sandbox…or within any game’s sandbox. Elder rose to infamy within Quake as being the only map where the power weapon was a key; this key granted whichever player controlled it quick access throughout the map. Doors would open for them and close behind – allowing them literal map control while not granting them the ‘free’ kill they might have gotten with a rocket launcher or sniper rifle. It allows a single player to turn the tides of battle if used correctly, and intelligently. It is a power weapon in every sense of the word, however it is only as potent as the user is witty - this means that the keyholder acts entirely upon the merit
of their own skill.
THE
SCIENCE
There were two main challenges in designing a “key map” within Halo considering no precedent for one exists.
Making the key vital. And ensuring its perceived usefulness matched the actual functionality so that it was exciting.
Making it efficient was especially difficult given Halo's nature of using recharging shields, a stark contrast to quake's non-recharging health model - meaning if a key player poked through a door, was shot, and ran away – the damage still counted. Halo's health model, slower movement, slow kill times, and separation of movement and combat further worked against that principle at a basic level. Not every encounter matters. This meant conceptually that it would be extraordinarily difficult to prevent players from simply abusing the key and running from every fight. This had to be tackled on multiple fronts. The design had to be simple enough that a team of two players could trap the enemy team with some efficiency, while still giving the key player wiggle room by being able to traverse the map much more quickly offensively and defensively. Fighting the key player needed to be fun; not frustrating. Key doors resided in pairs on either end of the map, meaning while players serpentine through the pathways to progress, the key player will simply bee-line straight to their destination. These doors also function as great escape routes within the scope of punishment.
THE
SENSATION
On the other front, this key mechanic needed to provide the immediate sensation on an emotional front to allow the feature to resonate with players. If it were extraordinarily functional yet boring - the experience (read: map) would be a failure. If it was exciting to use but only provided the illusion of advantage as a placebo, the map would be a failure. It needed to be both vital, and exhilarating. This boiled down to designing slightly more convoluted and non-linear pathing for the normal players to fight around, allowing the key player to always be relatively near a door to utilize…or willfully ignore.
Making a player feel like a badass isn’t exactly a hard science so this took some thought on exactly how to interpret and design.
THE
TECH
The technical side of this also provided a challenge. The map is only as successful as accessible it is to play. Meaning this key mechanic needed to work with default Slayer; no custom game mode needed. Eventually this was worked out through scripting thanks to Jake Stegimeir building the entire key system’s groundwork. I decided the key, like any other power weapon would be limited by an ammo count (10 uses). Each door has a waypoint above it that shows the number of uses the key player has left (only visible to the keyholder), and will make a loud rumble while opening and closing to allow the other team some predictability of the keyholder; even while he is not in their sight they can hear him move through the doors. After the 10 uses are up (or the key player dies) the key resets to the next of 3 fixed locations very similarly to Assault in Halo 5 – again the goal here was accessibility so that any player could jump in the map and understand what is happening immediately. The key player also glows gold and has a trail of fireflies behind him giving him a visual marker as any other powerup in Halo 5 would. When the key respawns, it has a waypoint over it and the fight resets.
The map also features an impressive large swinging lantern (visible in video) which was created through physics based scripting.
