Apex Legends: Defiance - Drop-Off Arena

World Direction

When creating Arena maps, we always strive for variety in tone and experience. The initial design block emulated a factory environment and was an open slate for our visual development in terms of setting. Having just dropped Olympus out of the sky at the beginning of the season, I thought it would be an exciting opportunity to flip the vantage point and put the player in the city of Malta below. The city skybox was brought to life courtesy of Jordan Lipstock and it was imperative that we could see the silhouette of Olympus in the night sky above the bustling neo-futuristic city.

Looming large over the city of course, is Hammond Robotics, the site of our newest arena. I wanted to contrast the exterior vs the interior spaces by playing up the sleek, sterile, hallways of the interior, with the slightly wet, industrial look of the exposed areas. In addition, we leaned into the Hammond palette of blues and oranges, to help differentiate the two sides of the map and create a clear, classic team blue/red (in this case orange) vibe. Some keen Apex fans may also recognize some treatments borrowed from earlier concept art/load screens (the blue Hammond screens and the iconic H/Hexagon make their in game appearance for the first time)

The talented team that brought Drop-Off to life:
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Season 12.1 Maps Art Team
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Environment Art:
https://www.artstation.com/khsu
https://www.artstation.com/artistadamhepner
https://www.artstation.com/ireneha
https://www.artstation.com/zane-st
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Skybox Artist:
https://www.artstation.com/jlipstock
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Lighting Artist:
https://www.artstation.com/nora_nirvaluce
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Concept Art:
https://www.artstation.com/aaronpinel
https://www.artstation.com/jensh11
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Level Designer:
Cory De La Torre
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FX Artist:
Ryan Ehrenberg
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Audio Artist:
Jeff Hillman