An arena is any space used to carry out battles. Game modes like Red vs Blue, Pinbrawl, and Box Fights are held in arenas.
There are many arena styles you can build for a variety of gameplays. You can design arenas as a coliseum, an enclosed space with roofs and walls, or an open space with invisible boundaries.
This tutorial shows you how to create a structured arena and a pinball arena. After reading this tutorial, use your creativity to create an arena of your own.
Building Structured Brawl Arenas
Use these steps to build a structured brawl arena, with rooms that consist of floors, walls, and roof pieces.
You can also build open arenas and stadiums for players to battle in.
Browse through the Galleries and Prefab tabs and consider a theme for your arena.
Search Coliseum, Coral Castle, and Art Deco in the Galleries tab to find the pieces used in this example.
Use the Galleries tab if you want to build a unique arena, putting pieces together on your own. Challenge yourself by mixing and matching pieces from different categories. Be sure to build structures that are at least two tiles tall with a floor and roof.
Use the Prefab tab if you want to use a pre-built structure, complete with props and decorations.
Press Tab on your keyboard to open the Creative inventory.
In the Prefabs and Galleries tabs, select a floor that best suits your theme.
Select Place Now to equip the item with the cell phone device.
For pieces that are not made of wood, brick, or stone, like in the Building Pinball Arena section:
Press B and set Grid Snap to [2]. Then set Building As Prop to Origin Center or Orgin Edge. You can now build structures with prop pieces.
For pieces that are made of wood, brick, or stone:
Press B and set Building As Prop to Off. Building with resource pieces allows for a faster build with better accuracy.
To build a structured arena, each player or team will need a room that’s designed large enough to offer space between players. By creating distance, players will be able to quickly purchase weapons and equip loadouts without being attacked by other players.
This photo notes where players spawn in the example island.
There are no rules to how your brawl arena should look. Be as creative as you can.
While building arenas for gunfights, try to offer various props or structures that can serve as cover, like pillars.
Some structure pieces have open windows that players can see out of during gameplay. Be sure to fill the space with enough foliage and terrain props to not only hide the island’s grid, but to offer pleasing aesthetics to players.
The example used in this tutorial also offers players a challenge. In the overview photos of the brawl arena above, you will see the arena wrapped in a glass walkway.
Offer players hidden secrets to explore in the brawl arena. In PinBrawl, the curious players who walk on the tires are immediately bounced to the secret walkway.
On this walkway players are offered sniper rifles to use through the carefully designed openings as shown in the images below. This will add extra flair to the island experience and reward players who value adventure.
Once you have finished building your arena, use props to design your gameplay.
Building Pinball Arenas
In this section, you will create a pinball arena. In Pinbrawl, this is the area where players will simulate the classic pinball game to collect coins.
To build the pinball arena, first you need to plan a theme. Browse the Prefabs or Galleries tabs to find the pieces you want to use. You can navigate more easily using the Categories sidebar.
You can type Structures Gallery Reflective Black in the GALLERIES’ search tab to use the angled floors in this example.
Start by placing and modifying the pinball arena’s floor.
Click image to enlarge.
Press Tab on your keyboard to open the Creative inventory.
Browse the Prefabs and Galleries tabs to select a floor that best suits your theme.
Select Place Now to equip the item with the cell phone device.
Press B and set Grid Snap to [4]. Then set Building As Prop to Origin Center. You can now freely place pieces with little to no overlay.
Next, place the selected piece onto the island. Use the piece’s blueprint and continue to align the pieces.
To build this angled floor piece, you may have to place the pieces one at a time.
Continue to copy and align the floor to have a width of the four to five floor pieces and a height of 20 pieces. You can also use the Select tool to copy and paste multiple pieces at a time.
The angled floor will allow for players to simulate the classic Pinball game and give height for players to swing their Baller devices.
Your finished floor should look like the image below.
Click image to enlarge.
Now you will build the walls for the pinball arena. Equip the wall piece that best fits your creative theme.
You can type Disco in the GALLERIES’ search tab to use the piece in this example.
Since the piece in this example is a floor, you will need to rotate the axis’ pitch like in the last step to stand as a wall.
For a faster build, press B Options to set Building to Prop as Off
Place the wall pieces on the edge of the pinball floor using the Grid Snap of 8. Continue to place the wall pieces, covering each edge so that players can not fall off the arena.
For a seamless wall, use a Grid Snap of 16. This will require more accuracy and patience.
Extend the wall two pieces behind the pinball’s floor to create the walls for the spawn area. Your structure should look similar to the image below.
Click image to enlarge.
Designer’s Tips
To access resource walls, equip your pickaxe and press Z on your keyboard. Left-click to cycle through wood, brick, and metal resources.
Notice how the wall pieces fall on the grid line.
If you aligned your floors on the edge of a grid line, you can place resource wall pieces that align with the walls and floors. Build a wall base with gaps like the photo below so you can uniquely place both traps and wall pieces.
To build resource wall pieces, at least one piece has to touch the ground. From there, you can branch off to create a wall with gaps.
On this wall, you can place traps like the Bouncer on the resource pieces. You can place wall pieces from the Galleries tab in the gaps.
Create the floor pieces for the spawn area. Equip the floor piece that best fits your unique theme.
You can type MusicBlock Gallery in the GALLERIES’ search tab to use the pieces in this example.
Place the floor pieces along the top edge of the angled floors to create an area large enough to fit the Player Spawn Pads and the Baller Device.
Click image to enlarge.
Now, build the back wall for the spawn area. Equip the wall that best fits your theme.
You can type Upright Triangular Prism Gallery in the Galleries’ search tab to use the pieces in this example.
Once equipped, place the wall pieces along the back edge of the floor to create a seamless structure. With this wall, players can not walk off the edge.
If you are using the piece from this example, you will need to select the piece and press TAB to rotate the axis’s Roll and Yaw. This will move the piece to an upright position with the flat side facing you.
You will also need to resize the item to its maximum size. To do so, select the piece and hold the right mouse button. Use the left sidebar to select the option Grow. Continue to press R until the piece is at its maximum size.
Align the pieces to the edge of your floor to create a seamless back wall for the spawn area.
Your finished wall should look similar to the image below.
Add a roof from the Galleries tab to help players stay in the arena.
Align the bottom of the roof piece to the top edge of the wall. The roof should extend no more than to the middle of the spawn area.
Your roof should look similar to the photo below. You can add Barrier devices to further enclose players into the arena.
You have now completed building the pinball arena.
Check out Building Pre-game Lobbies to create rooms for players to matchmake, like in Pinbrawl.