Hi guys,

I haven't been here for a while, because my new study is rather busy, but I have a question for all of you.
First of all let me explain who I am, and my motivation.
I am a 21 year old Game Design and Development student from the Netherlands. At school, we as students have formed a small group of enthousiasts who regularly give lectures to other students about fields they are experienced in, to spread the knowledge.
I have volunteered to give a lecture about level design.
First allow me to note that level design is different from level development, designing is what comes before you fire up your mapping tools, it is the drawing of maps, collecting source material etc.
Development is when you start to build your map with whatever editor you use.
As these editors are different for allmost each game, I will focus my lecture on the design.
What I have to ask of you guys, is an insight in how you design your maps, what steps do you undertake before you start building, what are things you pay special attention to, and how do you get the creative juice flowing?
It doesn't matter for which game you make maps, and if they're multiplayer or singleplayer, I'm just curious to see if there are many different methods, and if I'm leaving anything out of my own speech.
When my lecture is done, I'll upload the .pdf here so you guys can take a look at it.
Thank you in advance,

- Joram.

i map only for games i play, thats call of duty 4 now
first i think of a good idea/athmospere of my map.. i like to make maps look like original maps, as in same textures etc

then i make a sketch on paper for a good competitve multyplayer map layout, where do i place buildings or walls for cover etc

i open up Radiant and start building and beta testing alot before i release it

Well, for CoD series, I dont use too much time drawing, usually i am inspred to do something like an idea and i start to develop that idea, and with the idea i develope an idea for the mission. For example on UO i started just a small room and continued buidling around it, i made a park outside of it, then a bridge, the 1 apartment, then another, and eventually it became a real city, that in my opinion is a much more fun way to develope levels

For me it starts most of the time with something i see on tv or read in a book. Like for example I got my idea for Salerno Beachhead from a documentary on discovery channel. When i have the setting of my upcoming map i decide how large its going to be. Do some research on the subject, find the location on googlemaps or if its fictional find some place that looks some what like my fictional location. Then its time to draw out a sketch of the layout and make sure its balanced and has enough flanking routes for both teams. Also when i make my sketch i already take portalling in mind, so my map is divided in some cells already. Saves some headache in the end =)

i did drawing for the first year, but it became where you have a base idea, ill start with a center piece ,must be a eye open for you map, and ill put the globle_intermission"starting view"
there looking at it, then step back add base roads, and paths for your players, the rest is just flowing as you landscape, then add buildings, portaling, then detail.after that spawning,gametypes and more,ambient to ai move ments and efx , as for scripting, i do alot though out the map building, as to become a part of the design
been mapping 4 years from ,far cry, hl,quake,to 3yrs cod2,4,5
love cod ,
ps. need job in gaming lol

You might be interested in this.

Its called "Ben's Small Bible of Realistic Multiplayer Level Design"

I came across it ages ago. Some of the things he talks about seem really obvious, but I found its important to take them into consideration when designing.

You can download the pdf here:

http://www.benb-design.net/article02/benb_article02.pdf

Or view an online version at his site here:

http://www.benb-design.net/article02/benssmallbible_1.htm

I've been making levels since I learned over Ventrillo from my friend when I was 13, 6 years ago. I'm a Game Art student now.

Draw your idea's out on paper, I choose graph.
"If you don't understand how to draw what you want, your mind won't be able to produce the image you have set in your head." - My GA Instructor

Building the map piece by piece, making one segment and saving it, and then going to work on another segment until your ready to play legos with the pieces you made helps get you thinking outside the box.

Being a great player also will benefit greatly. Knowing all the strategies, counters, basically understanding how to play the game in a technical manner. Mapping in this perspective is for the more advanced designers.

One important technique I discovered was experimenting with triangles. Building roofs, rocks, cliffs, waterfalls, anything jagged that I could think of using triangles.

Just so you know, this thread is going on 2 years old now Muffinlad and the original poster hasn't posted anything on this site since Dec 2, 2009

Why dont people read post dates?

whoah looong time ago this.