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I'm going to cover what it takes to release a map with proper planning and execution. I am not a great mapper but I aspire to become one. I want to share my experience and knowledge of how I finished and submitted this map for a contest in just three weeks. Even though I didn't win, I learned alot from this process. It has been four years since I last designed and released a map for any game. The last and only map I released was DM-Niveus for Unreal 2004. I was fairly proud of it.
You may download the map here.
Since then I have had a hard time completing a map. Typically the problems were that I did not have proper planning. The other problem was my procrastination. I see that many people have the same problems. I see people post their progress on forums for a while and then slowly the thread stops getting updates. Usually that individual moves on to start another project, only to repeat the same process again. I've been there myself many times. Back to the present. Because of such a long time between maps, it was almost like I was beginning to map once again. On June 11, 2008 I found that 3dBuzz.com was having a competition for Unreal Tournament Original Deathmatch. The guidelines were that you could not create custom content and you had to use everything that came with the original game. That meant no custom textures, static meshes, music etc. The deadline was June 30th, 2008. This gave me only 3 1/2 weeks to complete it. So I had to get started right away. The following is the workflow I used: Idea
IDEA The idea for this map came from a recent trip to Switzerland with my g/f. We toured JungFrau in the Swiss Alps. It's one of the highest points in Europe. At the top of the mountain there was a lookout area called "The Sphinx". The day we went it wasn't clear like we'd seen in pictures. There was a huge blizzard and most of the outside area was closed off due to snow and ice. There was still one area we could go outside. That area became the inspiration for my map.
When I came back to the states, I sketched out the rough idea of my map.
REFERENCE I started to collect reference using my pictures as well as reference from the internet. The following is my reference.
For this particular map I already knew how I wanted the place to look and feel. I wanted to communicate the same mood and atmosphere I had felt in person. When designing 3d environments I often visualize myself inside the spaces.
VISUALIZATION This is very important. Being able to see your final product before it is done is key. Visualizing puts you into the mindset, creating the steps that will help you achieve the final product. If you do not know your map's final look, its going to be trial and error until you hit something visually by luck. That is not good planning, and will cause a lot of frustration.
PLANNING AND EXECUTION I took a sketch into Photoshop and started to create a more visually pleasing top down view. This took about 2 hours
This was more of a guideline of how it will play. I wanted to make sure I had proper flow to the map and no matter where you were you could get out. No dead-ends. Soon after I jumped into the editor and started to rough out the plan. Pure simple BSP. Huge, rough, big blocks. This is very important. You want to make sure you flow works. Scale works. If its fun during this stage, then everything becomes easy.
This planning part from sketch to rough build is one of themost important steps to do. Failing to follow through with these will only create more problems and frustrations later.
ATMORSPHERE Atmosphere and the feel of the map to me is one of the most important things along with gameplay/fun. I would highly consider for you to research and develop a sense of color and design. For DM-IcyApex I knew what kind of feeling and atmosphere I wanted because I was there. But in other cases I would research images, watch movies with same atmosphere I was trying to create and visualize. As I've said before, its very important to see in your mind what the map will look like before you actually see it on screen. Develop that sense of imagination. So here I added the sky, terrain and rough light to see how the space will look. I liked this rough initial phase. If you like where its going at this early stage, you will have a winner on your hands.
PLAYABLE MAP Once you block in the BSP and add the basic lights, terrain and sky. Test it. Run around in it. Throw some bots in there or play test it with a friend. You must like where your map is going. Do not add textures, do not add static meshes. Absolutely no detailing. This will only hinder you to see and playtest the map at early stages.
TEXTURES Start blocking in and getting rid of checker flagtextures and applying the textures you want for your map.
ADDING OBJECTS and DETAILING PHASE 1 This is where it gets fun and tedious at the same time. After initial testing I started replacing BSP with Static meshes. I started to get rid of BSP walkways and adding the real grates to walk on.
From this point on I started to add more objects based on what I needed and wanted for my map. Important thing here is to make sure you work from big to small. Do not add tiny details like lights or any props. Concentrate on big bulky objects and work from big to small. Very important. you will manage this alot better. Also make sure you work at this first stageof detailing all over the map. Don't concentrate on one area. This happens later.
ADDING OBJECTS and DETAILING PHASE 2 After I had major details done I started to focus on certain areas of the map and started detailing that specific part of the map. Room by room, area by area. I worked the whole map. If you get bored with one area move on to another and then come back to it later. This will take probably the most time. Adding details and polishing up individual areas. You will start noticing how your map is developing into a real place.
LIGHTS I placed lights last before gameplay elements (such as weapons, health, etc). Know color theory. Know your color pallete. Don't go crazy. Simplicity. Have a specific color scheme in mind. Look at paintings, other maps, graphic design. They all have specific color pallete they use. That is what you want to do. Do not use every possible color combination. If your map looks ok, but your lighting is superb, it will bring up the visual quality of your map.
GAMEPLAY Test and test more. This will take up alot of time and will require other people. No matter how much you think you know your map, you absolutely have to ask others to play it. They will do things and find things that you would have never been able to catch. Based on my time constraintsI did not do alot of testing for DM-IcyApex with other people. I wish I did. It would have eliminated alot of problems. Espcially if I would have released a beta. So, release a beta version. Unreal community is awesome at helping. They will tell you how it is. RELEASING YOUR MAP Final thing is getting your map out so you can start working on a new one. Upload to websites and forums. Let others see your map and take all feedback to improve on next time. Start a new map. Here was my final beauty shot.
FINAL THOUGHTS Few things I want to leave you with. - You will never have perfect map created. This ideal does not exist. Do the best you can with experience and knowledge you have right now. Downloads:
LINKS I found these to be very useful when I worked on DM-IcyApex and I hope you will too. Hourences Unreal Tutorial Index I hope you found this article useful and let me know what you thought. Comment below.
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