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Freeze Point Artwork
Making Freeze Point Artwork
Armor and Power-up Designs
Challenges
In Freeze Point on Frozen Crag I made numerous textures for Power-ups and team armor. I made separate armor for the Red and Blue teams as well as a light blue set that players wear to further show that they are frozen. This set is then dyed the color of the team the frozen player is on to keep players informed of what frozen players are their teammates. The armor textures were custom made to give players a menacing look while also clearly showing what team a player is on due to their bright armor color.
When making textures for Power-ups I wanted each one to be very distinct and very intuitive of what it does. The Tactical Snowman Power-up for example summons a snowman near the player that acts as a teammate on a control point which can add to the score gained as well as contest a point. Its Icon in players hands look like a cute little snowman. I took inspiration from the Minecraft Mod Inventory Pets where they have small pets players can hold in their hands to gain effects.
Designing armor to depict who is on what team can be challenging. At first all frozen players appeared in 1 color of armor and this led to a lot of confusion. After this testing we implemented dyeing armor of frozen players to represent their team color. This was a monumental and effective change.
I made tons of Power-up icons when designing for Freeze Point. However, only a few made it into the final game. There was an initial idea to have players choose their own cosmetic melee weapon of choice to use to freeze players. However, that idea was scrapped later in development in favor of having less items for players to worry about in their inventory.
When designing Power-ups I had to carefully design them to fit well in players' hands. They also had to be visible enough for enemy players to see and react to. I used music discs at first for a scale reference due to the way they were held in hand as well as their large array of textures. Eventually most Power-ups were coded as carrots on sticks in order to check for clicking to trigger their Power-up ability.
Challenges
Painting a Tale of Two Teams
During the chaos of a game of Freeze Point, players can see the silent battle going on in the background. Frozen Crag was designed to depict a duel between Red vs Blue. Red represented the miners or man made aspect while Blue represented the cold nature side.
Throughout the map I made sure to paint chaos in the background equally describing the chaos happening in game. Water towers are bursting, drills are frozen into cliffsides, and elevators are plummeting to the frozen ravine floor. I made sure to show how each base is its own theme and how their reach extends toward the middle of the map on either side so that it paints a visual picture of the map itself fighting with and against the player.
Making a map feel like it itself is fighting its own war is something that is hard to accomplish. It took a lot of planning, story telling elements, and time to make it all happen. At one point later in development we ruled to create a height difference throughout the middle of the map to make some terrain elements more impactful to gameplay. This added to the feeling that the map is fighting itself. It turned out amazing in the end and its theming made the game that much more memorable for the players at the Winter LAN. It made players feel cold on the Blue Team and it made the players on the Red team feel industrial and warm. I love designing experiences that really make players feel something when they play a game that I make especially when the experience is subtle and adds to the core content of the game.

























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