As I am creating my own DLC for Siege I thought it would be important to look into two DLC operators fro the game and their look, uniform, weapons and icons to help me inspire my designs and gather some knowledge of what goes into them. As a new series has just recently started I have decided to look at the brand new operators Mozzie and Gridlock from the SASR and what they look like and how they are presented on their concept art.

The first operator I am looking into is Mozzie, a 1 armour 3 speed operator who uses his PEST launcher to take over attackers drones so he can use them to his advantage. When looking at his character we immediately gain a sense of fun and quirky due to the pose he is striking, using his fingers as guns. This helps us look at Mozzie and know in our heads how he will behave in real life. This excited gesture also helps to show us that he is a fast moving operator who is willing to pull off dangerous tricks and stunts. Due to his helmet we can also imply that he is a sort of adrenaline junkie who enjoys Motorcross and riding bikes and his sunglasses help to do three things, hide his identity, protect his eyes from the sun and show us how cool he is as a character.

Rainbow6.ubisoft.com. (2019). Mozzie Overview | Operators | Rainbow Six Siege | Ubisoft (UK). [online] Available at: https://rainbow6.ubisoft.com/siege/en-gb/game-info/operators/mozzie/index.aspx [Accessed 15 Mar. 2019].

Due to his build we can also see that he is a thin but built man which will help explain his fast movement. The radio on his back also helps to show us how he communicates with his team and views the drones he’s captured which gives us insight into his gadget. Finally, the colour of his uniform helps let us know he is in the Australian special forces as it helps bend in with deserts and sand. I need to make sure that when looking at my characters the colour of their uniform makes sense so a snowy outfit would work well. I also need to make sure that the poses my characters pull reflect their personality and behaviour.

His icon also helps us to understand his speed as we see the helmet and the arrow implying that he enjoys going fast and moving swiftly through his environment. Again when looking at my icons I need to make sure that in some way it reflects them both. The bight colours also help him stand out.

The second operator I am looking at is Gridlock, Mozzie’s good friend. Her gadget allows her to throw down a cylinder which then throws out spiked plats, blocking off areas to defenders. From Gridlocks face we see that she appears to be confident and smug. She also has her shoulders back as a way to display her power. She is also fairly dirty which may be due to her commitment to operations, not caring about her looks and rather fighting off defenders. This also link to her and Mozzie’s love for vehicles. In a nice way she is also not the most attractive of women but due to her size and bulk she comes across as intimidating and battle hardened whereas Mozzie is much more fun in his appearance. I may try to replicate this in my characters by having one of them being much more fun whilst the other a little more serious. Gridlock is also one of the most muscular women in the game and this is reflected in her high armour of 3 and speed of 1 which I will need to consider when creating my operators.

Rainbow6.ubisoft.com. (2019). Gridlock Overview | Operators | Rainbow Six Siege | Ubisoft (UK). [online] Available at: https://rainbow6.ubisoft.com/siege/en-gb/game-info/operators/gridlock/index.aspx [Accessed 15 Mar. 2019].

She also wears very similar uniform to Mozzie and also has a radio to contact teammates as well as little details such as pliers and screwdrivers which links to her obsession with her truck. I will need to take little details like this into account to give my operators their own stories without needing to communicate. Again I also need to think about uniform.

Her icon is a great little design. Not only does it represent her gadget as it is the same shape it is also designed to look like suspension on a car or jeep. This little detail helps us again to get an idea of her and Mozzie’s need for speed whilst still presenting he role in the game. The icon is also shaped like her Trax Stingers once they’ve been deployed which again is a really great touch.

Having a quick look at some very recent operators has been really useful and I feel that I have taken a lot away from it such as how important posing is, what colours I should use as well as facial expressions and how details can really add to an operators character. For the first time Mozzie and Gridlock received their own little video which helps get their personalities across which I have pasted below as evidence for my analysis of character.

YouTube. (2019). Operator Teaser Trailer – Operation Burnt Horizon – Mozzie & Gridlock – Rainbow Six Siege. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YswLZhVEZ-E [Accessed 15 Mar. 2019].

One of the most important elements to Siege is the maps. It is vital to the game to understand these maps and their layouts as well as knowing where the defender cameras are. These cameras are dotted all around the maps and allow the defenders to see attackers on them and then gain intel on their position.  It’s up to the attackers to learn where these cameras are and shoot them to avoid the defenders understanding where they are.

At the start of each round the attackers pick a point at which they’ll attack from and these range from 2 spots to around 4/5. This allows them to make tactical decisions depending on where the objective room is and means that the defenders do not know where the attackers are coming from. This is really important for the attackers and each out of the 5 on your team can choose where they start. An image of this selection screen can be seen below.

Rock Paper Shotgun. (2019). Attacker spawns example.. [online] Available at: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/07/18/rainbow-six-siege-villa-map-how-to-defend-and-how-to-attack/ [Accessed 14 Mar. 2019].

Just like the attackers, defenders also decide where they wish to defend. Every room they can choose is unique in the game, some having more doors and windows, some having more destructible walls, some having hatches in the ceiling which attackers can shoot through, some with multiple rooms an little cupboards and closets and of course all of them have their own designs. Defenders need to consider where they defend and reinforce, where they place traps and special cameras to resist against the attackers.

Rock Paper Shotgun. (2019). Defender Spawn Examples.. [online] Available at: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/07/18/rainbow-six-siege-villa-map-how-to-defend-and-how-to-attack/ [Accessed 14 Mar. 2019].

As mentioned previously it is vital that I begin to think about my room ideas and what the map could look like. I want to design a sort of Viking Museum map for my project due to my theme and it would suit the map roster really well I feel. I need to begin thinking of room names for the map, it’s actual look and how it could work in game as this is important as well. Although I won’t be creating the map in game I need to make sure that the rooms are well thought out regarding size and their presentation.

The best way to become a great player in Siege is to learn all the maps in and out as this allows roamers (defending operators who hunt down attackers) to easily outplay and outmanoeuvre their opponents. This is why map design is so vital in Siege as all 22 maps (aside a few I dislike a lot) all are unique, balanced and fun to play on. I need to make sure that the layout and aesthetic is exciting and need to ensure to ask the community how they’d feel regarding it. I will create a mind map for potential map ideas soon.

I recently pitched my idea to my mentor and I feel it went well. At first my original idea was to create the two operators and then finish with that however I was told (and agree) that there is not enough content there and I would most likely have to much time left over. The addition of a map design would be really useful for making sure my design is as detailed as possible. This would also allow me to practise more techniques with photoshop and Affinity.

When it comes to research I need to go to Reddit and ask Siege players various questions about the game, it’s content and what they think of my ideas. I could also use it for secondary research to find out what people post about the game and what their thoughts on updates are. I need to research how to create shadow and details on Affinity as well as Photoshop as part of my secondary research. I also need to analyse previous Siege DLC’s as this is important to make sure I can make it as similar as possible.

A large issue I need to work on is avoiding copyright laws or infringement as I am creating something that belongs to another company.  To avoid this I need to make sure that what I’m making is very original and new to make sure I am not copying something that already exists in the game. As a presentation method I intend on using Wix to create a website to promote the DLC and will evaluate the whole thing based upon what the Reddit community think about it, the techniques I used and how believable the DLC is.

As part of my project it was important that I had a look into operator icons and their look and feel. These are simply little image which are associated with the operator and their gadget/theme and are usually coloured to represent their special branch. Although they don’t appear to be to important I think they are a great little detail which will help bring my characters to life. A few great examples of operator icons are Sledge’s, Pulse’s, Lesions and Smokes.

Sledge is an attacking operator. The role of sledge in the game is his sledgehammer which is can use to break through walls, doors, windows and also destroy gadgets, barbed wire and cameras. He can also (if extremely lucky) kill opponents by hitting them with the hammer but this does not occur to often. He is one of the many operators who came out with the game and is still very popular. He is a part of the SAS. Due to his gadget his icon represents that as it is clearly a hammer head coming into contact with an unknown object. Although not very large or important, it instantly gives you an idea of what he does in game and what his role is.

Another popular operator is Pulse, who is a defence operator. He is part of the SWAT. His role in game is to roam around the building and catch enemies off guard, picking them off slowly one by one. His gadget is a cardiac sensor which allows him to see enemy heartbeats through walls, windows and doors. He is vulnerable whilst using his gadget but in the right hands he is very powerful. His icon helps to present this as it shows a radar with blip of enemies on it with a background of an eye, as Pulse sees all. This icon is much more artistic, whilst still making sense.

Lesion is also a defence operator part of the S.D.U. His gadgets are called Gu mines and are invisible poisonous mines that Lesion can throw around the map. When stepped on these begin to poison the target until the needle is pulled out, which temporarily prevents them from doing anything. he is very useful for controlling an area. His icon simply depicts an image of one of his mines and again you instantly have an idea of what he could do.

The final operator icon I am looking at is Smoke, who again is a defence operator. Smoke is part of the SAS and his job is to throw out canisters of compound Z8 gas which he can manually activate using a detonator. He is used often in the game and is popular in ranked and Pro-league due to his range of weapons, speed and ability to shut down areas across the map. His icon obviously displays a gas mask with toxic fumes in the background. the mask is made to look like a skull to present how deadly his gas is. I believe that this icon is great and as both Sledge and Smoke are in the SAS their icons are the same colour.

Overall these icons and looking into what they mean has been vital for me and has proved invaluable for my project. When creating my icons for the operators I need to take into account what I am creating and why. Due to the minimal space I have on the icon I need to make sure that a lot of thought goes into the design and it’s connotations such as Pulse’s eye and Smoke’s skull and gas mask. I will consider these when building upon the final design and will be drawing sketches soon.

Although only a little detail I felt that as part of my project it was important to think about all aspects of the operators and their designs. In Siege, there is a system named the speed and armour system and all operators in the game have their own amount of speed and armour. Both of these statistics are ranked from 1 to 3 and each operator is different. Although fairly obvious the higher your operators speed the faster they can move whilst the more armour you have the more bullets you can take before you die.

Speed operators are often used for aggression and rushes, allowing them to quickly manoeuvre around the map. They are also very useful for flanking as they can swiftly move from one position to another very easily which is highly beneficial to confuse enemies. As of right now, the community believes that speed is much more viable than armour due to several reasons and a lot of operators are often much quicker than more armoured.

Armour allows operators to take 1-3 extra bullets before they die which although doesn’t sound useful it can be very helpful in many situations. The majority of the time high armour operators will stay in objective rooms as they are much more durable in fights.  However due to their extra weight these characters are much slower and also much louder. Due to how important sound is in Siege this can be a massive disadvantage and this is mostly why many people believe higher speed is much better.

2 armour, 2 speed operators are operators who have a blend of the two, they are still quick but are able to soak up a small amount of damage before they fall.

To provide evidence for this I found a helpful chart on the SiegeAcademy reddit page which provides people with the damage resistance that armour provides. As the max health in Siege is 100 (unless altered by either Doc or Finka who can boost health for a short while) it usually takes around 4-5 bullets for your death. As we can see from the post, 3 armour operators can block 1-8 damage overall which can actually be extremely useful at points in the game. This can be seen below:

Reddit.com. (2019). How much of a Difference is 3 armor vs 1 armor : SiegeAcademy. [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/SiegeAcademy/comments/7xq650/how_much_of_a_difference_is_3_armor_vs_1_armor/ [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].

the post also mentions Rook, a defence operator, who places down armour pates which as can be seen helps to resist against even more damage than usual. he is very popular in the game and I enjoy playing as him a lot.

For my DLC I feel that both operators have to be 3 armour as personally I don’t feel that there are enough in the game and as I plan on pursuing the idea of a Norwegian/Viking theme heavy armour would make sense. Higher armour operators have a place in the game but they are often overlooked by higher speed as in most situations they are better to use however I think that it is time to add more into the mix of operators.

For this project I have chosen two different softwares to use, Affinity designer and Photoshop. Both of these chosen programmes will really help me create this design for my characters and map and I think that they are both great. As of right now I feel very confident with Affinity however I struggle a little with Photoshop so I will have to go through the process of working on my skills to help aid my project. For me personally I believe that these programmes are the right choice as I will be able to make some realistic and well textured designs by combining the ease of Affinity with the ability to create realism in Photoshop.

I will be using Affinity to create the majority of my idea such as the operator icons, their bodies and details, weapons, gadgets and the map whilst Photoshop will be used afterwards to help texture them and make them seem much more realistic. This is for several reasons. I personally prefer Affinity and believe that great designs can be made in a fairly short amount of time. I am also much more confident using it which for me will help me create these ideas quicker to avoid time pressure. the only real downside to me is that it is a little harder to get ultra realistic results but I will be using Photoshop to help addd shadow, texture and blends to my characters and map to help make them look real.

As part of my research I intend on looking into techniques I can use and where and when  should use them as I feel this is very important. As a side note I will also be using Word to create the backstory of the operator as well as their gadget description. As of right now I feel that there isn’t much else I can discuss regarding these softwares but in the future I will work on this and see what else there is to talk about.

Rainbow Six Siege was released on December 1st 2015 on PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4. The game was created by Ubisoft Montreal, a massive game company in charge of the Rainbow series. Due to the rise in E-sports at the time, Ubisoft wanted to build a game which created a tactical shooter which combined quick thinking, teamwork and skill to build a competitive game that any form of gamer could play.  The game is extremely unique due to it’s range of operators, destructive environments and range of three game modes, Secure the area, bomb and hostage. Each game mode is very different from the other and requires a different method of play.

The game received praise and great reviews when it released however this fell short due to the lack of content and progression in the game, as well as a lack of balance and a large amount of bugs. This crippled the game slightly however Ubisoft continued to support the game, adding new operators, gun and character skins, maps and fixing bugs along with working on the ranked playlist, the competitive side of siege.

When siege was released there were 3 modes, casual (for a more casual and relaxed time), ranked, a much more competitive and team based mode and finally terrorist hunt which requires you to band together as a squad to eliminate terrorists and defend objectives. As of 3 days ago, a new mode was added named the newcomer mode which allowed new players to play with other new players on 3 maps rather than the usual 22 in the game. To counter the weak sales at launch, Ubisoft released all their DLC as free content, allowing all players to access the new operators, map and other updates in each season. this allowed the game to expand and grow overall which has allowed it to amass over 40 million players by October, 2018.

There have been a multitude of seasons in the game, each releasing new operators and map and these are listed below:

Operation Black Ice: February 2016 which included a new map, yacht, two new operators from the JFT2, buck and Frost.

Operation Dust line: May 2016 which included a new map, Border and two new operators from the Navy Seals, valkyrie and Blackbeard.

Operation Skull Rain: August 2016 which included a new map favela and two new operators from the BOPE, Caveira and Capitao.

Operation Red Crow: November 2016 and included a new map, Skyscraper and two new operators from the S.A.T, Echo and Hibana.

Operation Velvet Shell: February 2017 and included a new map Coastline and two operators from the G.E.O, Mira and Jackal.

Operation Health: May 2017 which released no new content but helped fix bugs, smooth the game out and added balancing changes to operators.

Operation Blood Orchid: August 2017 which included a new map, Theme park and two special Duties Unit operators, Lesion and Ying.

Operation White noise: November 2017 and included a new map,tower as well as two operators from the 707th Special Mission battalion, Vigil and Dokkebai.

Operation Chimera: March 2018 which released a special zombie outbreak mode for a limited time as well as two biohazard specialists, Lion and Finka.

Operation Parabellum: June 2018 and contained a new map, Villa as well as two operators from the G.I.S, Maestro and Alibi.

Operation grim Sky: September 2018 which reworked a current map, Hereford base as well as releasing two new operators, Clash and Maverick.

Operation Wind bastion: December 2018 which contained a new map Fortress an two new operators from the Moroccan elite force, Kaid and Nomad.

Operation Burnt Horizon; March 2019 which released a new map, Outback as well containing two new operators from the SASR, Gridlock and Mozzie.

All these updates have helped to strengthen the overall feel of the game and what it has to offer in terms of progression and fun for all audiences and overtime I feel the game will only expand and grow further. I have to ensure that the DLC I create are balanced and fair and have a place and purpose in the game as well as being fun and interesting.

All the information throughout the blog as well as information on each season was taken directly from the Rainbow Six Siege website at this link below:

Rainbow6.ubisoft.com. (2019). Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege | Ubisoft (UK). [online] Available at: https://rainbow6.ubisoft.com/siege/en-gb/home/index.aspx [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].

After some deliberation I decided to fill out and complete my project proposal after thinking of some new ideas. I had always intended on creating some Norwegian operators as I felt that this was something the game was missing. Naturally my initial idea was to pursue norse mythology and giants etc as this would be a great concept. This entire proposal can be seen below:

I believe that my 2 operators, Goliath and Thor will be great additions to the game with their two gadgets being especially unique, Thor’s thunder grenade and Goliath’s Kjempe suit being incredibly versatile and definitely useful in game. I need to make sure that I take balance into account when thinking of these abilities and ideas and also need to begin thinking of operator icons. I have also thought of a  map idea which will be a viking museum, it’s centrepiece being a large longship in the centre hall. I also need to take into account the operators backstories along with the weapons they use.

This is a good start but the proposal will be updated in the future.