When I joined DICE in 2018 I joined late in production for Battlefield V, a Battlefield game set in World War 2. I was tasked with creating the map Arras. After release I also worked on the live service including the co-op team and the maps and modes team creating weekly experiences for our players.
Game Trailer
Arras
Arras takes place on the French countryside and features large yellow canola fields, a small village with a church and several farms.
Arras was made by me as the only level designer but also together with one level artist. It was started later than all other release maps and due to this expectations and resources were quite low. But in the end it turned out really well and became somewhat of a fan favorite. Several high profile Battlefield youtubers rated it as their favorite release map.
The design goals of Arras was to have a fairly small map with a lot of negative space. It features all vehicles but priority was to make it play well with tanks due to the historical battle which included a lot of tanks.
An early challenge with the map was the canola fields themselves and we decided to do something new that had not been done before in Battlefield and have the fields be high so that you can crouch down and hide anywhere in the them and be safe from snipers and tanks.
I also added diggable trenches across the fields to create strong defensive points.
On the eastern part of the map a couple of points were added that are way out in the open in the fields. Since the canola fields are such a strong feature of the map I wanted a couple of points that were focused on just that. Due to the ability to hide in the fields as infantry there is still an option to claim these points even without a vehicle but they are primarily good for tanks.
The village is the most intense area of the map. It is the best place for infantry players due to the abundance of cover and countless paths through the buildings. To push more players in to the village it is right in the middle which makes it an obvious contention point. It is on the Axis side but to balance it out the Allies has the closest other point to it near their spawn.
It has large roads going straight through it. Which is a fast way for vehicles to traverse the maps, however more experienced players will quickly understand that this is a death trap and use the surrounding fields to traverse instead, thus creating a strong risk vs reward feeling.
In order to create a proper WW2 fantasy we added a church with a tower great for sniping.
We initially had planned it to be a capture point but realised through testing that due to the large playercount it is better suited as a support to the village point positioned right next to it. To not make the tower to powerful for snipers it is destructible with heavy weapons such as tank shots. This can shift the experience of the map quite heavily once it is destroyed which adds to replayability in the long run.
On the west side of the map two farms are located. The goal of these were two create spaces that are a bit more calm over the chaotic center with the village. A better place for players who are looking to be a bit more in control of the flow of combat. They are also a decent place for vehicles since they can fairly quickly demolish the farm buildings located here.
Reception
Arras was deemed by many to be the best map on release. As an example here is one of the top Battlefield youtubers, Jackfrags, playing the map shortly after the release of the game
Post Launch
After release of the game I moved over to the co-op team and helped ship the co-op mode. After that I was put on weekly experiences which consisted of updating game mode layouts that we felt did not deliver and try out new versions of modes on new maps.