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How Battlefield 6’s Portal lets you build your own war
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George Yang
Following our look at Escalation, I sat down with Electronic Arts to discuss its new Portal features, as well as the thought processes around changes and how they answered feedback.
Battlefield 6’s Portal uses a game engine called Godot instead of the main game’s proprietary Frostbite Engine. Players can use a new Godot-powered tool called Spatial Editor, which lets players change existing Battlefield maps. These include things such as rotating, transforming, and scaling objects everywhere, as well as redraw combat zones and different sectors.
Design director Aaron Steelman told me that the team prioritized fan-requested features by how much impact they would make on the community. The ability to edit not only game modes, but the gameplay spaces themselves, was at the top of the list.
“We also heard from creators who appreciated the templates available in 2042, but whose ambitions to make something truly unique were often shut down by the inability to mix and match mechanics across game mode templates,” he explains. Principal game designer Greg Black also added that the spatial editing feature was also inspired by the team’s past experiences with map editors from older games.
“Many of us, myself included, got started in game development and mod making via spatial editors,” says Black. “For me, it was the old Build3D engine in Duke Nukem and making Quake 2 maps for my friends to play at LAN parties.”
The team has created some unique game modes using Battlefield 6’s Portal for the community to try at launch, like ‘Top of the World’, where teams try to reach the map’s peak while slowing the opposing one down by utilizing their guns and equipment. Many of these modes were built internally and were approached from the perspective of what new tool that the team was developing and needing to test.
“One of the very first things we built was something very similar to ‘Top of the World’ because one of the very first things we wanted to test was the Spatial Editor,” Black continues. “We were of course inspired by the various climbing obstacle course style games that were popping up everywhere at that time.”
Since the Spatial Editor is a brand new toolset in a new engine that many people may have never used, software engineer Gabriel Lacayo says there may be a learning curve associated with it. Fortunately, Electronic Arts is providing a few introductory guides for players to get their feet wet, as well as several modes to learn from and tinker with.
“Also, in terms of scripting, we’ve added comments to the majority of all provided functions, which paired with autocompletion from a code editor, will help new scripters understand how to script their mods,” Black explains.
One of the biggest changes coming to Battlefield 6 is that players will earn EXP no matter where they play, including in Portal creations, although there are some caveats. Official creations that are similar to Battlefield’s core gameplay loop like 24/7 Rush or Hardcore Conquest will grant the same amount of progression as if they were playing regular multiplayer modes.
However, creations that diverge from the traditional Battlefield formula like Top of the World will reward EXP depending on how much time is spent in them. It’s a fair compromise that makes every second in the game feel rewarding and that you’re not wasting any time that you could be making progress instead.
According to senior game designer Olivier Thivierge, the development team was worried that the more fun and creative community creations could potentially be buried under a sea of lower effort “EXP” farms that could be rife with exploitation. The team also recognized that players care about progression and earning EXP, so a middle ground was reached.
“That’s why we split the Experiences into two categories: On one side, we have Verified Experiences where we know there is limited risk for exploits. Those get the traditional progression,” Thivierge explains. “On the other side, we have the Custom Experiences, which allow for even more creative freedom. Those will aim to give just as much EXP as any other Experience, on average, but they will grant it purely based on time played so that there is no risk for exploits.”
EA is also currently working on improved search and curation processes. Portal will have a new Experience Library, where players will have one in-game tool to browse every community game mode at once. They’ll also be compiling a selection of top creations to highlight in the front end menu and make them available to players for instant matchmaking.
“Our open-ended script-driven approach to custom Experiences in Battlefield 6 is a direct result of that feedback,” Steelman says. “Creators in 2042 who put in the effort to use the tools in unexpected ways managed to deliver some unique and memorable modes, but they told us how hard it was to share them with players.”
When Battlefield 6 launches, EA assures us that its work on Portal won’t stop there. The team will continue to implement further feedback to make it the best it can be. The team is also open to new ideas. “Currently, the Classes are not modifiable via Portal, however, it’s something we are open to adding if the Portal community wants it and it’s technically feasible,” Black states.
“Our ultimate goal with the new Portal is to give our creators the tools they need to create the next great FPS mod,” he continues. “PC gaming in general, but shooters in particular, have a rich history of innovation coming from the mod communities and we hope to be part of that tradition with Battlefield 6 Portal.”
Battlefield 6 launches on October 10 and you can wishlist it on the Epic Games Store now.