Overview
Mount & Blade: Bannerlord is a medieval fantasy style game in which the player can travel across the land, becoming anyone from a peasant to a knight to a ruler. Its gameplay is a mix of RPG, Strategy, and 3rd Person Medieval combat. My level, “Torval Village,” is a special battle map that players can play separately from the campaign. It’s set in a desert canyon and emphasizes circular flow with multiple approaches.
Tech Summary
Genre | 3rd Person ARPG Strategy Game |
Team Size | 1 Developer |
Engine | Bannerlord Editor |
Platform | PC |
Development Time | 3 Months |
Content
Design Inspiration
I knew I wanted to do a desert map. I liked the aesthetics of that environment, and it would also be less work compared to other map types, especially since these maps needed to be designed to support different seasons and different times of day. However, I was concerned that a desert was too open and not terribly interesting from a gameplay perspective, so I looked at some artwork to get inspiration and came across this piece by Conar Cross:
It occurred to me that a desert canyon could solve all of those problems. I get the convenience and look of the desert while still allowing for varied and interesting combat situations.
Design Considerations
In Bannerlord, there are three general unit groups. There are infantry, archers, and cavalry. When designing the map, I wanted to balance the spaces to make sure all groups were viable in battle. If the spaces were too open, cavalry would dominate the map. If the spaces were too enclosed, infantry would dominate. If there were too few approaches, archers would dominate. It’s quite the tricky balance to achieve.
Building the Map
Before carving any terrain, I placed a generic npc to get a sense of scale. With that npc as my point of reference, I used the terrain painting to paint out the rough paths I wanted. With those rough paths outlined, I then began raising or lowering the terrain accordingly. This was the result:
There are three general lanes armies can cross through. That’s just enough variance that players can make quick decisions on how to configure their armies.
The map also featured sub paths so that a player could quickly cross between the three lanes if they wanted to pivot their strategy. This created a nice circular flow that prevented armies from being too restricted to one area.
These side paths were elevated which gave archers potential places to deploy while not making it too easy for them to fortify since cavalry could approach from at least two different directions.
Creating the Aesthetics
Gameplay-wise the map did very well during playtesting. However, it still looked relatively bland. I took great strides to embed more buildings and create the idea of a village carved into the mountainside. Many buildings were duplicated, stacked, and merged to create the illusion of a unique and lived-in space. It was also a way to get some very good world-building in place by introducing things like tables for food or shops for merchants.
It was a pretty good result overall.
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