(Blender) Pyramid Arena

[knowom]

I thought I'd try my hand at a pyramid turned into a arena on inside. I'd like to do with it, but unsure which direction to go in quite yet though at least it's a starting point that can be adapted into something else eventually.

[knowom]

Made a few changes would this be worthwhile working on more and turning into a zone? It's kind of my first attempt at designing zone done completely from scratch based on my own ideas and trial and error styling approaches.

[knowom]

A few more screenshots probably close to how it'll look if I eventually finish it minus being textured and some more aesthetic artistic details tossed in. At least this is the main basis, but was thinking of branching it out into something further.

Right now it's a pyramid based arena with a skylight above. I was thinking it might not be too difficult to convert the corner walls into castle wall hallways that lead to 4 other smaller pyramids that interconnect as well and form a courtyard and that would be the basis of the zone. There could probably even be some tunnel mazes in the courtyard and connecting to the outside pyramids.

[knowom]

Working on in progress screenshot of some new structural changes to the outside. First I'm adding ramps outside that lead to the top. I kind of have a finished concept of that on the right side. I'm thinking of continuing to build downward the outside structure more from that location as well. I want the bottom portion to have like a overhang like entrance directly to inside underneath where arena itself is located. Trying to create a kind of clean and simple look, but want to do a lot of subtle things to make the design stand out.

The design is very symmetrical and accessible from all sides intentionally aiming to create it as like a centerpiece structure of a zone for a balanced 4-way faction DOTA/MOBA/RTS inspired map like design though it could be just as easily used for PVE.

[knowom]

A bit more work on the outside. I got the top portion figured out the way I like it just some minor face extruding. You can see from the first new screenshot how that looks on the bottom section of the upper wall. It creates a nice kind of Cazic Thule look. Ramps are missing from these screenshots, but a easy add see the post above for how they are going to look.

These screenshots are mostly to show off the bottom portion I'm in the process of designing still I still haven't figured out completely how to it'll look yet, but have a rough idea in my head of how I'd like to make. It's basically a outside overhang that's the same height as the bottom ceiling form inside the arena with a ramp at the base leading up then the back wall will have two ramps leading up to to each corner.

What I'd still like to try and do is add some smaller overhang sections that gradually lead up to that ramp/platform area similar to the top of the pyramid itself. I kind of want them to be overhangs that follow along the ramp slope though. I was thinking it can both provide added aesthetics and function by serving as a alternate route to scale up or down as well.

[knowom]

Few new teasers on development progress. First is one of the four sides on 2nd layer from the bottom up top and how I plan to connect it. Basically it will alternate with the previous layer design style back and fourth til it reaches the opening though obviously it shrinks as it nears the top. Second and third screenshots are of the bottom base of the pyramid just different angles and progress points on it the third screenshot is the more complete finalized look. There is a ramp that leads up to the floor above. Beside the ramp leading up on the left and right are two shrines podium like shrines kind of wrap around one the floor pillars. There is a corner section I worked on too down bottom you can't really see too much in these screen shots of it, but it fit together fairly nicely.

[knowom]

Few more screenshots cleaned up the sides since I tend to work on one side or corner at a time and mirror the design to other sides. It's presentably finished with that part of development, but I'm going to try and scale up bottom section to the top of that ramp and work downward to create a ramp floor level effect that doubles as a alternate pathway to take for whatever reasons like to avoid a encounter or go for spawns along the other pathway. Most though I thought it might look good.

[knowom]

Here's the blender file along with .mtl .obj file for this if anyone wants it to look at it, modify it, or experiment with it. It's in basically a alpha/beta state though. Needs more work zone/edge/zone line could need to be scaled bigger or smaller a bit and needs texture mapping so it would look all white and untextured right now though could be usable to play test regardless.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1Y...ew?usp=sharing

I built it thinking it would be a great center location point to a factions vs factions battle ground map it would be easy to expand it more later over time gradually.