Appendix B: Approaches to Style
Map Ideas
Nearly all of my map ideas come from a simple idea whether it is a geometric form (or a series of them), a gameplay instance I want to explore, or a feeling I want to create, I work from the simple idea upwards.
My solo maps are driven by the story of my game or what the place is a city, a particular type of building, etc. Sometimes the story leads to the creation of the map, sometimes I want to do a particular map and so put it in the story. Which leads to the other I care not, what the map actually is, what type of building, is what’s of import. I consider the realities of the building design, e.g., consider these in the building’s initial planning: materials (strength, availability, cost), purpose (this should have already been decided), time allotted for construction, aesthetics, geography, climate. Or, thinking on a larger scale, that of a city, I consider these factors: planning (did the founders adequately prepare for city expansion?), what type of rule (centralized, spread — of what import were the people in comparison to the ruling class), geography (how close is the city to water, to food, what is the climate — if the city is a port city expansion will be quick), etc. All of this discusses just the phase of planning the architecture of the building or city not all of the other important gameplay issues such as number of troops and their deployment, the type and quality of surveillance systems, the schedule of the occupants, etc. There are a vast number of considerations, but attention to these will make my map all the more realistic because of it, calling a building the enemy headquarters is not sufficient, it could just as well be a preschool. I put reality foremost in the development of a solo map, but will gladly sacrifice parts of it in the name of gameplay.
net map development is looser, more free-flowing than solo maps. My ideas range from simple geometric shapes to complex buildings. I only consider general concepts such as speed of the map (not just frame rate, but how fast the map feels), size of the map, gameplay style (hunt and kill, arena combat, a balance of the two, etc.) , and the most important question which takes all of the net map’s attributes into consideration, is it fun to play? I like making realistic buildings or areas that just happen to be suitable for battle. It’s like the way of the street skater you would skate on whatever interesting objects were around stair railings, curbs, drained fountains, concrete ditches, etc. I particularly like to try things in maps that others haven’t, but again, it all needs to be fun.
Map Development
When I have an idea I’d like to explore I begin developing it on paper. If all I have are general concepts, I write notes on what is there: specific ideas of what the place is, what gameplay will be like, the feel of certain areas, etc. If I have only a vague idea of the shape of the map, I’ll make sketches on paper, looking for something appealing. If I have a clear idea of what I want the map to be, I’ll draw it on graph paper — ensuring distances are correct, forcing shapes into polygons, keeping an eye on polygon count, etc. I’d rather make my mistakes on the more forgiving graph paper than in the map editor. Work in the map editor begins when I’m finished drawing the map on graph paper or I want to get a look at exactly what I have (although I can construct an adequate picture of the 3d map from a 2d drawing, I like checking with the game to be sure). These are not steps, they are not followed in a linear fashion, where I start depends on how developed or complex an idea for my map is.