NBA 2K25: Arenas
Arena concepts I did for Visual Concept when they were working on NBA 2K25's minigame, Gravity Ball. In the earliest blue sky phase, it was imagined as a high concept paintball arena. Characters would have exaggerated strength and speed and there'd be a lot of traversal mechanics to parkour around the arena. There was a big emphasis on cover based gameplay and multitiered gameplay, but still feel like it was an offshoot of an NBA style arena, complete with wood floors, paid advertisements, jumbotrons, etc. VC really encouraged throwing every idea out there to make it really fun and with gameplay that was more than just a paintball game. *Check out the paintball launcher designs on the other project page. They really showcase the flavor we were looking at.
No matter what project I work on with VC, conveying epic scale is always a must, even if we don't have epic space to work with. So, building upwards and downwards, creating closed off rooms to make subsections, and playing with extreme scale changes.
Playing with extremes was a big request early on. Extreme size variation to make the player feel small, like the giant Sprite soda launcher or the basketball hoop launcher and the jump pads to increase jumping distance and height.
Triggered actions were also a big part of designing the arenas inviting you to explore and interact to see what trap you can set off or accidentally walk into.
A lot of energy went into making the arenas interesting to explore and play with. While traps were a big element to achieve this, we also looked to allow the player to change the shape of the arena, like this moving wall panel.
I refined a lot of the elements I had in the above arena - grinding for traversal, for scoring, and traps built to block grinding. Moveable walls that could actually block off sections. Traps that could be activated from far away. Hoops that moved.
I really worked on providing more uninterrupted movement where you would want combine running, jumping, ziplining in sequence like in a lot of the best platformers to seamlessly move through the environment the fastest. And the most showy :)
Jumbotrons are in all the designs, but I tried to make this one into a full subsection that you could only zip line to. Yeah, you zip line by dunking and using the hoop as a trolley handle.
Traversal elements like jumping, power sliding, and climbing are in all the designs, but I tried to vary them in some way with each arena. In this one, you can only hang onto and slide on indicated ledges and ramps. They would need to be tactical choices.
Plexiglass panels were a huge part of this design. I wanted you to be able to see hidden levels and around corners but without giving you absolute sniping advantage. I also liked the idea that you could paintball the panels blocking the opposition's view.
In a couple designs, we introduced the idea of being able to jump into some kind of vehicle, like a mini paintball shooting tank that would temporarily make you invulnerable but have a longer and stronger shot. It had it's own traversal abilities.
The earliest concept. After this concept, we really focused on building multiple tiers upwards. But this was also where incorporating the jumbotrons and scaffoldings into a platform environment took off.
We built so much on the ideas in this first iteration. I forgot that I wanted more destructible structures and that became the water coolers. As the arenas grew in epicness and we really pulled away from reality, this disappeared.
