Andrew Weldon

Much like Sector 618, I did much of Vertigo's initial blockout in Max instead of using terrain and existing mesh assets. I took thematic inspiration from the Vex Citadel high above Venus (similarly, the spire visible in the skybox of Thieves' Den), transplanting it to the sky over Mercury.

My initial layout built heavily on ideas I had used in You'll Shoot Your Eye Out, particularly a lower jump route at the bottom of the map that sees players perilously zig-zagging to their doom. Over time, however, the layout converged into a more conservative three-lane symmetric layout.

Partner-in-crime Adam Williams brought the idea of the one-way teleporter platform to create a new axis through the map. This route gave significant additional value to holding the B flag area in Control and allowed teams to quickly react to players attempting to contest zones A or C.

Adam's environment art touch also brought in the flavor of Cabal equipment, drill holes, and battle scoring to differentiate the sides of the map, implying a Cabal assault had taken place and that they had some interest in this particular platform. The Cabal ships hovering nearby are meant to imply a back story where the Cabal landed, but mysteriously vanished before completing their work.

The Burning Shrine, Destiny's signature Mercury map at launch, suffered from a striking but blinding sun when moving to the outside of the map. In an attempt to solve this and avoid lighting-related gameplay issues, Mark Goldsworthy adjusted Vertigo's skybox to feature the sun looming overhead instead of rising over one side of the map.

I fell in love with the Cosmodrome wall from the first moment I stepped into it. It's an iconic setting to open the Destiny franchise, and an architectural palette I immediately filed under, "I'm gonna build a Crucible map here someday." I got my chance for The Taken King.

with a particular eye toward both its towering scale and the massive red pillars buttressing the angled interior wall

Unlike more traditional archetypes used in Thieves' Den and Vertigo, I took a more novelty-focused approach with this layout, forgoing more traditional lanes and symmetry to focus its fight across and between two bridges in the central chasm, one low and one high. The layout takes on a somewhat square shape, with spawn points placed alongside the A and C flags at opposite corners at the "top" side of the map, with the B flag centered on the lower bridge. The remaining connections are made via jump routes and platforms spanning the central chasm.

Before launching as a PlayStation exclusive with The Taken King expansion, Sector 618—alongside the Mick Buckmiller-built map Crossroads—was one of two maps in rotation at the PlayStation booth at E3 2015, giving players their first taste of Mayhem, a new mode I designed and implemented for The Taken King

After multiple years of building vehicle-scale maps for Starhawk, then building Destiny's then-largest maps in Bastion and First Light, building Destiny's smallest map seemed like the appropriate next step.

(In Progress)

The Timekeeper debuted as a PlayStation exclusive in Destiny: House of Wolves on May 19 2015, and later became available to all players on all platforms on Sept. 8 2015.

(In Progress)

Thieves' Den launched with Destiny: House of Wolves on May 19, 2014 and later became free to all players in the pre-Taken King 2.0 content update on Sept 8, 2015.

(In Progress)

(In Progress)