Treyarch talks multiplayer map design

Fresh off news of more Call of Duty: Black Ops DLC, Treyarch design director David Vonderhaar has explained how the studio designs multiplayer maps.

"Depending on where you are in the game's development cycle, there's usually a handful of things that you still want to accomplish. So you go to that library first," Vonderhaar told Ripten.

"It could be inspired by a locale, it could be inspired by a particular gameplay style that we wanna have in the portfolio. It could be inspired by some interactive element like rockets taking off, or zippiness, or even floating apples."

Although individual maps are themed around specific ideas, once the inspiration strikes, a familiar process takes over.

"We go through this pretty rigorous process. There's a whole series of things a map has to have - it's gotta have good flow control and pathing, it's gotta have good cover. There's things that every map's going to have in common," the designer noted.

"We get that stuff sketched in, and then we have this very specific layer, which is about what you're trying to accomplish whether it's crossfire, elevation, or whatever."

See the full discussion below.

Treyarch on MP Map Building and Balancing from Dave Oshry on Vimeo.