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Location: Home  Blogs  Map Design Advice - Introduction 
More Posts by Lexino
Title
Map Design Advice - Lighting
Map Design Advice - Height
Map Design Advice - Risk vs Reward
Map Design Advice - Balance
Map Design Advice - Introduction
Map Design Advice - Introduction
Map Design Advice - Introduction 23 Jul, 2012
 Lexino (4 comments, 2476 views)  
This blog is about making a great map, well designed and thought out. I did some reading and found what makes a great map.

Things that makes a map great are


Theme - What the map presents to the player?
Style - How the map presents to the player?
Balance - Do the map has equal opportunities for each player?
Variation - Is the map varied enough so the player is always unfamilar with the map?
Layout - The shape of map, its routes, how each area connect to each other?
Placement - Are the placement of spawns, poles, railgun platforms, etc good?
Decoration - is your map immersive so a player believes the map is realistic?
Lighting - Is the map easy to see? Are you able to see the other players? (this is most important in night maps)
Navigation - Is your map easy to get around? are there many routes?
Risk vs Reward - Does your map has desirable things in a dangerous or exposed spot? (railgun platform is a good example)
Height - Does the map has many height variations so the map is not flat?
Predictability - Is it clear what to do in the map? Does the player knows where to go, are the goals easy to find?
Action - Does the map keep the player playing, always moving and eliminating?



I took those things from Unreal Wiki, which has good advice on designing maps, you can read there if you like
Map Design
Map Flow
Since SM is similar to Unreal, the advice can be translated to SM.

I might elaborate on some of the things later on, you are welcome too.

Thanks for reading
Comments
4 comment(s).
 kadaz writes ... 31, May, 2013  
It is better to try a new idea, while working on the old ones, to keep the your map list fresh. What I mean is, that instead of the same again again style of maps being released, try different options and expand new ideas, than to settle for the same old style. Introducing new maps like this will raise the probability of your maps being downloaded and even an possibility being used on a server. Keep in mind though.. quality is number one.. and please don't over do it, nothing more frustrating in this game, than seeing a map overdone, when it could of been kept rather simple rather over emphasized the idea and ruin the flow with clutter.

:d Happy Gaming and see you at a server sometime or in some post here.

//Kadaz out.
 PapyChampy writes ... 26, Jul, 2012  
Yeah, of course, some reworking on maps to adjust them to the gamemode does the trick in general. :done:

It's more a matter of quality for the whole map in the end. Maps made for a specific gamemode and only this tend to be funnier to play.
 MrA writes ... 25, Jul, 2012  
Well, you can use the same map as a basis, but normally you would need modify various things. The location of the goal(s) and how many goals, the approaches for the attack or the positions defences, are all of these still appropriate? If you are prepared to make the neccessary modifactions then re-using the same base map as a starting point in a new mode should be possible.....

But, sometimes no matter how you adjust a map, is just not appropiate for a new mode, or will become unrecognisable as the same map.

Note: This is in my experience so far, but PapyChampy has more experience on this, so... :$
 PapyChampy writes ... 24, Jul, 2012  
Pretty much covers every aspect of map making in FPS. Good job. :done:
One thing isn't to be forgotten : the game mode in which the map will be played.
For example, I observed that even if the validation conditions are the same, a good Elite map isn't a good Heroes map.
The game mode is something that the builder must always keep in mind.