Lion

Lion a7

Disclaimer: I directly gave feedback and worked with the mapmaker to implement some general layout and dynamic elements.

Lion has an incredibility satisfying thought-out layout and formula. The foresight of the mapmaker is apparent the second you leave the spawn door, where a shutter takes you near-instantly to the front. This careful creation of design is present through many aspects of the map, a drop down loop for money collection, a fast rotation for players to be aggressive and retreat quickly, a lot of layout planning culminates in a very satisfying streamlined user experience. Every place in the map has a purpose, there are very few dead-zones.

The MOM is an interesting mechanic that I think has yet to be fully explored, the tradeoff of running a dedicated money collector and using it as a dispenser vs having two damage but questionable money reliability is interesting, this dynamic creates a yet-to-be-unsolved puzzle of what 2-player composition fares the best with the MOM thrown into the mix, and how or even where it should be used.

Altogether I had a very fun time giving feedback and playing Lion, I encourage anyone interested in guardian and what it has to offer to give lion a try.

After the contest, I hope seth continues to work on the map, adding detail and in the distant future perhaps even release a standalone mvm version, it certainly has the layout that could work for 6-player as well.