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WASHOUT
Mixing aircraft with infantry gameplay isn't a new idea, but you will typically find that maps incorporating aircraft fall back on having an infantry space with a wide open sky above it for the aircraft to hover about in. Avoiding this trap became the driving force for how Washout would be designed. I had to ensure that players and the aircraft shared the vertical space. Furthermore, an issue I had with Construct was the lack of player to player interaction between levels. For all the verticality Construct had, players often ended up only engaging with players on the same level. This also had to be addressed.
To solve both of these I started with a spiraling trapezoid shape that would become the infantry path, the centre of which would act as the vertical space for the aircraft to maneuver in and around. The short edge of the Trapezoid would become the dam while the long edge would become the bridges with the diagonal edges becoming the cliff-faces and cavern spaces. Players would be able to shoot across this space and the spiraling levels ensured that engagements would happen between varying levels.
After whiteboxing around the spiral and creating the key structures and playspaces I ran my initial testing sessions which took place over two weeks, iterating on small elements as we went. During this time I added a number of small ledges and jutting rocks for infantry to drop to or use to jump between levels. even with these, players presented me with a number of issues.
There wasn't enough options to move up through the map.
The the sections that took players over the dam and the bridges were too exposed and too linear.
There wasn't enough space for the aircraft.
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I was able to resolve the first two issues with the same solution.
I constructed the suspended tower seen in the final version and incorporated a gravity lift into both it and the dam, each of them taking players from the bottom of the structure to the top. I also allowed for multiple entry points into the lifts that allowed players to break off from the linear bridge. This tower also gave more cover to the bridges. I added more overhead cover from the aircraft along the top dam walkway and closed in either side a little.
This left me solving the issues with the aircraft. By pushing the cliff-face behind the bridges back and adding openings into the caverns for the aircraft to fly through I was able to give the aircraft more breathing room while also allowing it to further interact with the infantry.
Washout, like Backlash, was ultimately appropriated for the "Roaming King" game mode and it will be used in Halo 5 matchmaking following sustain team testing of the mode.