The smaller map promises “a much more intense and faster Paced Battle Royale experience.”
PUBG director Brendan Greene gave Game Developers Conference attendees a sneak peek at one of two upcoming PUBG maps, a smaller 4x4km island which he described as being “southeast Asia” inspired.
The new island is a lush green forested area with a branching river snaking vertically through the center. In the short clip, Greene showed off a blue lake and an overhead shot of a small village, but stressed that the map was still early in development.
Check out concept art for the map below along with four new images.
We will update with new images once they are officially released.
Greene’s GDC talk, officially titled “PLAYERUNKNOWN: From Mod Creator to Creative Director of PUBG,” gave an overview of Greene’s experiences from his days as a photographer in Brazil to his time spent modding ARMA 2 and, eventually, to his creation of PUBG and beyond.
“My gaming history is not huge,” Greene explains. “I was not a massive gamer.”
DayZ was one of the first games that delivered exactly the kind of gaming experience Greene was looking for in games, and which ultimately inspired the vision for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
“Here’s a world, here’s a set of rules, go and survive,” Greene says of DayZ. “I fell in love with that sort of open-world game.”
According to Greene, his experience as a photographer trying to capture moments in people’s lives, combined with his love of those “watercooler moments” spawned from the emergent gameplay of shooters like DayZ and ARMA mods, informed much of the design for PUBG.
“I’m very careful about designing the game too definitely,” Greene explains. “You should just create the system and let people play it.”
The PUBG 2018 roadmap was revealed earlier this month and made mention of the upcoming 4x4km map, promising “a much more intense and Faster Paced Battle Royale experience” due to its higher player density.
Chloi Rad is an Associate Editor for IGN. Follow her on Twitter at @_chloi.
