An interactive, low poly, desert environment designed for exploration. The player starts on the outskirts near a small camp. A giant sphinx towers over them. If they are daring, they will walk past the wolves guarding the path. Making their way in, they will find a small village and oasis in a desert surrounded by pyramids. Animals like crocodile and horses roam the area.

One of my favorite things about the Explore maps are how good they look despite the simple assets. Lighting plays a big part in the overall palette, and the tinge of green in the sky blends so well with the yellow sands. It gives it a distinct feel unique from Tropic’s warm purple tones, and Asia’s bright vibrancies.

I remember revisiting this project after some juniors worked on it and broke some things (not their fault). Despite being mostly environment, there’s a lot of specific work that needs to be done in a certain order. For example, moving any static scenery requires rebaking the lighting, and also pathing if it was affected. It’s not until we can test will we find something wrong and redo the process. And I wouldn’t be joking if I said I would expect to do that many times.