Infinite Crisis - Gotham Divided

Gotham Divided was the Tri-Lane map for Infinite Crisis, similar to Summoner's Rift in League of Legends or the main Dota map. I oversaw its entire design during my time on IC.

As a long-time fan of MOBAs, I wanted to address several design issues in this map:

  • Ensure both sides have an equal camera view of the lane.

  • Let players choose where team objectives spawn to keep the game dynamic and give them more control.

  • Make team objectives omni-distant to both sides of the map

  • Provide more flanking paths in the top and bottom lanes, so melee characters can compete with ranged ones.

  • Allow players to obtain vision wards for free, but limit the quantity.

In addition, I wanted to innovate a bit

  • Clearing Jungle camps gives players temporary abilities they can use

  • Open up the map and create new paths after the laning phase

  • Allow players to modify the map with their abilities

Camera and Objectives

One of the first issues we wanted to address was the disparity between the different sides of the map. Due to the FOV of the isometric camera, players on the team starting in the lower left part of the map were able to see more of the lane and surrounding jungle. By making all the lanes align with the camera rotation, each side had an equal view of the lane.

The team objectives were biased towards the top right team in both Dota and LoL. Each team had roughly the same travel time to get to the objective, however the top right teams both had narrow walls to harass the opposing team while they were engaged with the objective. In an effort to eliminate this advantage, we placed the objectives in the center of the map so each team had equal access.

Vision

Map vision was a big concern to both myself and the item designer. At the time, wards were only purchasable in both League and Dota. What this lead to was support heroes buying vast quantities of wards throughout the match, and becoming weaker due to lack of currency spent on permanent support items.

We came up with a solution where we put vision control on a neutral monster in alcoves in the top and bottom lanes. These monsters provided skills to place down a large vision ward that lasted 2 minutes. This proved to both cut down on map vision as well as allow supports to build items over consumables.

Dynamic Navigation

We allowed players to open up new paths in the map by placing large cars and other vehicles that they could pick up with special powers. These initially blocked paths, but once picked up allowed for new avenues for player traversal.

In addition to this, turrets also exploded on death, taking parts of the nearby impassible terrain with them. This ensured as the match progressed there were more avenues to traverse in and out of the jungle.

Jungle Abilities

The elite jungle camps and team objectives dropped deployable skills. These were temporary skills that were bound to a new keypress. They were dropped on death if not used, but could turn the tide of battle in a team fight.

In the video to the left, an EMP skill is being used to temporarily disable a lane turret.

Heroes of the Storm later adopted a similar design for some of their jungle camps.