Natural environments

Volcanic Environments

   

This is Mount Saint Helens, this is where the massive eruption took place. The mountain is now missing its peak leaving a large crater; this large crater is what interested me. The inside of volcanoes is always intriguing as it hold much danger or at least the mark of destruction.

This is Mount Etna a live volcano that has exposed magma chambers. As Etna spews out more molten rock the mountain itself actually grows. This environment gave me the idea of gameplay hazards.

Mount Semeru is a highly active volcano on the island of Java, the volcano spews out massive ash clouds frequently and produces a view not unlike many fantasy depictions.

Aquatic Environments

The great barriers reef is a well-known tourist attraction. It is a remarkably colourful and wonderful environment that many people flock so see. The amount of variety in life in this singular area is astounding. The bright colours and unique formations of the Great Barrier Reef is what drew me to it. Although I don’t see my MOBA game being exclusively underwater most other MOBA games do have a river of some kind separating the two sides of the map. I could possibly do a variety of environments in the one map.

This is the wreckage of the Titanic, though the same point applies here that I don’t see the map being set underwater, wreckages though are very interesting and garner much mystery and intrigue. If possible a wreck would be an interesting aspect of the map.

Underground/Cave Environments

These are the Ellora caves, they are a series of rooms and caves carved directly into a rock face. The issue with caves is that they are an enclosed area with a roof; if the MOBA has an isometric view I see this being a potential problem. Although this game isn’t intended to be made if would still be a poor design decision to not keep that in mind. 

The cave of Hurcules, this cave is a much more enclosed cave system, it is also partially submerged. The interesting formations and paths in this cave gave me the idea of maybe having a tiered environment; possibly some kind of stone bridge that leads over the divide between the two sides of the map. Whether or not this could cause problems I would have to look into. I do know that Dota 2 has some elevated terrain but I am not sure how this affects gameplay.

Snake mountain cave is a remarkable cave in Thailand, as you can see from the photograph to the right its scale is astounding but what differentiates it from other large caves are the unique shapes made by the dripping limestone rock faces.

The strange rock formation would definitely provide an interesting look to any rock formations used in the arena.

Jungle Environments

This is a jungle scene in New Zealand, most of the MOBA games I have researched have an area in the map called the jungle, although most of the time this is not actually a jungle and more of a forest. There is obviously no rule saying how this area must look though it is most common to have some kind of foliage.

I have toyed with the idea of changing the environment of the arena depening on the area. An example would be having and incline on the map leading from the bottom lane up to the top lane, starting from the bottom it could be some kind of marsh or coastline, then the mid lane area could be a bit more standard and then lead up to the more rocky mountain like top lane.

This is an image of the jungle highlands in Oahu, the very high rock faces would be a perfect way to seclude the arena as the map does need to be contained.

This is a jungle village found in Santa Clara, I looked at this to mix up the jungle environments. I decided to look at some inhabited environments. My issue with this is that the area will be just that, it is supposed to be a place of battle between two teams; a village setting probably won’t be the most appropriate theme.

Arctic Environments

This is a very basic photograph of an arctic environment, most of the arctic is quite baron and featureless. League of Legends had an arctic themed arena for a Christmas period, though the arena didn’t actually change much, it just turned into a frozen forest. I think if there were to be any arctic theme going on in the design it would have to be an element attached to another more substantial theme.

This is an image from a passage near Greenland, this shrouded maze of icy shards looks like the type of place to harbour some mysterious creature. This image makes me feel less like using it to inspire me for the arena design or game theme but more for a character in the game. I don’t really like the idea of having the game restricted to one theme such as having all character related to the jungle, I think variety is always more appealing and I would like to eventually figure out a way to draw from any piece of research in order to create character designs. 

This is a scene from Antarctica, I chose this image for the unusual architecture the glarier had formed into, there is really nothing in this image to argue another point but I found it interesting and thought I was worth saving.