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Preachin' Day 1 (Jul 24, 2006)

Hooray, a week of me pouring out my brain about stuff!

Level Design vs Mapping

Don't confuse 'mapping' with 'level design' - my loose definitions are as follows:

Level design is high-level: it refers to determining how the map should play, what sort of problems/solutions it will require, and general appearance/design issues. Level design is done on paper.

Mapping is low-level: it encompasses plonking down brushwork, entities and almost everything you do in a tool like Hammer. Mapping is done in an editor.

There is some overlap, and the terms are usually mixed up, but that's how I like to describe them. To make a good map, you need to do both.

Thou shalt covet other maps

You can learn a lot by just looking. Being dead in a CS match is a good time to do this - look at how the map was built, its shape, how it transitions from one area or one style to another, how it all connects. Note what gives it a unique look (or not) and what makes it special. Look at what is tripping players up, what areas are avoided, exploited, overused, or completely ignored. Look at why this is happening and whether it's good or not.

Learn shortcuts

If Shift-S, Ctrl-T, Shift-B, Ctrl-G, and Shift-A don't mean anything, read up on the Hammer hotkey reference. They're absolutely essential.

Don't be too clever

There's always room to try something that hasn't been done before, or to take an existing idea and push it further, but take the concept too far and you risk negating all the effort that went into it.

That's how I see de_Torn - a huge map that tried to be truly tactical, with lots of little passageways and non-linearity, but in the end it was excessive. It was easy to lose your bearings, get lost, lose your team, lose the other team, and have no idea what to do. It was a noble attempt, and it looked terrific, but it just went slightly too far.

Don't be run-of-the-mill

There are hundreds of Dust-wannabe's and corridor-room-corridor maps out there. Sure, they add some variety, but in the end they move there's not a lot between them. One of the fun things about level design is letting players try something different - putting them in situations they won't experience in other maps.

Try to find a unique feature, and work on that. All the official CS maps have differences in style and the situations they present the player with - be it Dust's "you can't get lost" attitude or Port's "he's all the way over there!" style or Militia's pure prettiness and grace. Some are born out of unique features, like Assault's multi-level rooftop assault, Office's corridor battles, or Tide's simplicity. Fy_Iceworld is pure, unadulterated action, De_Wallmart is frantic, and De_Simpsons is just... well, someone had to do it.

Get things wrong

If you're not getting anything wrong, you're probably not pushing enough. Take risks if you think they're worth it - they'll either work, or you'll have to remove them and try something more ordinary/better. If you don't get things wrong - or don't realise - then there will be no opportunity for improvement.

I get things wrong all the time. My HLDM map, my TFC map, the little chunk of wall in Dust that I thought was a great touch but turned out otherwise, the unconventional nature of the bomb spots in DustPCG... all are lessons that I'll either avoid repeating in future, or do properly.

Of course, the key is also to do a few things right...

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user comments

Gregor at 09:33 on Jul 24, 2006

Nicely said again.
But one thing: What "chunk of wall in Dust I thought was a great touch"?? And are you talking about the early Dusts, or 1.6 or Source?

Dave at 10:19 on Jul 24, 2006

You know the little CT sniper nest infront of the tunnel? The very first couple of Dust iterations in the early betas had a little chunk taken out of the knee-high wall.

Blitz at 16:05 on Jul 24, 2006

I recall seeing the chunk taken out in Counter-Strike for the Xbox, which is wierd because that game was basicly a Condition Zero port. I think it looks cool, which is important, but never played it enough to notice a gameplay differece between the two. Is there that noticable a difference spawned from that small a change?

Dave at 16:23 on Jul 24, 2006

Blitz: CZ had a different chunk taken out, and much much smaller if I remember correctly.

Chuck at 17:06 on Jul 24, 2006

Great article Dave good job. I'm glad you metioned the short cuts to be honest, I know al ot of them and use them so frequently, I have my brush based default set to func_detail so I can click and then hit ctrl+t and repeat. I find it fast and useful.

I think something you don't see in a lot of maps these days in which I myself am pretty guily of is things that set a map apart from every other map. I managed to achieve this when I took your map Kidney "see open source packages" and make it Gunshot, I placed a huge water trap in it guarding the rocket launcher. Good times :)