Steel Hunters
Level Designer (Aug 2023 - Jul 2025)
STEEL HUNTERS is a Free-to-Play, PvPvE shooter with futuristic mech battles. Level up your Hunter and upgrade your arsenal to turn rivals into scrap. Choose your playstyle and combat tactics against 5 other duo teams.
Developer — Wargaming
Publisher — Wargaming
Platforms: Windows
Developer — Wargaming
Publisher — Wargaming
Platforms: Windows
I joined the Steel Hunters team in August 2023, aiming to expand my experience in large-scale PvP map design. While I had worked on big maps before, this was my first time applying that knowledge to competitive modes, co-developing 2.5×2.5 km maps with other level designers.
Designing such large spaces was particularly interesting due to the unpredictability of player behavior. You can anticipate the early game flow, but later players might follow objectives or get pulled into long team fights. This required a flexible and layered approach to encounter and environment design.
Over time, I contributed to two released and two unreleased maps. With each map, I deepened my understanding of macro structure, logical point-of-interest placement, and how to connect locations meaningfully
Designing such large spaces was particularly interesting due to the unpredictability of player behavior. You can anticipate the early game flow, but later players might follow objectives or get pulled into long team fights. This required a flexible and layered approach to encounter and environment design.
Over time, I contributed to two released and two unreleased maps. With each map, I deepened my understanding of macro structure, logical point-of-interest placement, and how to connect locations meaningfully
Stonecutter Keep
I joined the team just as work on the previous map was wrapping up, and Stonecutter Keep was beginning to take shape. The new map was themed around a quarry, which presented a unique challenge: how to make a quarry map without forcing players to fight inside the pit. Extreme elevation changes proved hard to balance, so we moved the quarry itself to the backdrop and focused the gameplay around its surrounding infrastructure—ore processing, logistics, and transport systems.
My teammate was excited to explore the industrial parts of the map and took over those zones. I focused on other points of interest, including a railway station, a fuel storage site, and eventually—what became one of the most iconic locations according to player feedback—the castle.
Originally, there was no castle planned. The area was just a cluster of rocks sitting at the intersection of several traversal paths. But the environment artists suggested placing something more engaging there. That’s how the castle was born—a vertical, moody landmark that brought a touch of souls-like atmosphere into the game world and turned into a memorable extraction hotspot.
My teammate was excited to explore the industrial parts of the map and took over those zones. I focused on other points of interest, including a railway station, a fuel storage site, and eventually—what became one of the most iconic locations according to player feedback—the castle.
Originally, there was no castle planned. The area was just a cluster of rocks sitting at the intersection of several traversal paths. But the environment artists suggested placing something more engaging there. That’s how the castle was born—a vertical, moody landmark that brought a touch of souls-like atmosphere into the game world and turned into a memorable extraction hotspot.
Glacier Crossing
Glacier Crossing was the next map I worked on, and this time my role was more foundational. I was responsible for designing the entire logistical chain for a nuclear power plant—starting with fuel delivery and ending with its transport back out of the area. This required not just map layout work, but also narrative reasoning behind the power plant’s unique, stretched-out shape.
Given that the extraction points in the game were fixed, we had to justify why the power plant extended so far across the map. The solution was to imagine a narrow, mountainous landscape that naturally forced the facility into a linear layout.
Since the map included a coastline, it made perfect sense to place a port there—the entry point for fuel and equipment shipments. From the port, cargo would travel by rail to a fuel storage site, and finally be distributed to the reactor area. This gave the map a coherent flow, both logically and visually, and allowed the gameplay to feel grounded in a believable industrial setting.
Given that the extraction points in the game were fixed, we had to justify why the power plant extended so far across the map. The solution was to imagine a narrow, mountainous landscape that naturally forced the facility into a linear layout.
Since the map included a coastline, it made perfect sense to place a port there—the entry point for fuel and equipment shipments. From the port, cargo would travel by rail to a fuel storage site, and finally be distributed to the reactor area. This gave the map a coherent flow, both logically and visually, and allowed the gameplay to feel grounded in a believable industrial setting.
Unreleased city map
One of my key achievements was designing the full blockout of an unreleased urban map almost entirely on my own.
Unlike the previous natural-themed maps, I wanted to add more verticality to the gameplay. A dense city layout provided that—offering layered combat spaces, line-of-sight variation, and tactical rooftops. It also made it easier to balance short- and long-range heroes.
However, the game’s mechanics posed challenges. For example, Hunters had limited jump charges, which restricted vertical traversal. To solve this, I introduced a new feature: Charge Clouds — temporary zones that restored jumps, encouraging dynamic movement without breaking the core systems.
Another issue was scale: the game's “Colossus” unit needed wide and tall spaces to maneuver, so I designed semi-destructible 12-meter bridges. These let players navigate fluidly while allowing the Colossus to reshape parts of the map in real-time.
The map went through two versions. In the updated one, with support from a concept artist, we added a dramatic downtown area with skyscrapers, making the space more iconic. The charge mechanic was later replaced by zip-lines that let players move fluidly between rooftops. This map pushed me to combine creative problem-solving with technical constraints—and it became one of my most rewarding design experiences to date.
Unlike the previous natural-themed maps, I wanted to add more verticality to the gameplay. A dense city layout provided that—offering layered combat spaces, line-of-sight variation, and tactical rooftops. It also made it easier to balance short- and long-range heroes.
However, the game’s mechanics posed challenges. For example, Hunters had limited jump charges, which restricted vertical traversal. To solve this, I introduced a new feature: Charge Clouds — temporary zones that restored jumps, encouraging dynamic movement without breaking the core systems.
Another issue was scale: the game's “Colossus” unit needed wide and tall spaces to maneuver, so I designed semi-destructible 12-meter bridges. These let players navigate fluidly while allowing the Colossus to reshape parts of the map in real-time.
The map went through two versions. In the updated one, with support from a concept artist, we added a dramatic downtown area with skyscrapers, making the space more iconic. The charge mechanic was later replaced by zip-lines that let players move fluidly between rooftops. This map pushed me to combine creative problem-solving with technical constraints—and it became one of my most rewarding design experiences to date.
