Quake3World

So when you make your maps, what do you usually go towards?

Abstract with no clear function or purpose? Or is it Functional with an evident purpose, or somewhat related to a function? Further then, is it usually industrial, organic or fantasy?

I personally like to assign a function or a purpose to my map. So that it does not exactly end up looking like a very strange abstract place. And I am not talking about abstract game Mist type levels, the levels of the game Myst very much have a purpose or meaning.

I am talking about so many Doom 3 maps, that look like they came out of some pipe world that has computers plastered all over meaningless hallways. Now that is what I try to avoid in my maps.

Even if it has nice flow, if it has no meaning, if it does not tell you a story, I don't like it.

For example one of my CTF maps has an outpost being attacked my a pirate ship. One flag is on the shore in a building, and the other is in the ship. So there is a story right there. It gives you a purpose.

There are other maps I like to build too. For example creating simple but fun maps, that take root from platform games. For example bringing Super Mario to FPS 3D games. And Crash Bandicoot maps, for Quake. Where you must pass timed obstacles ans such. These are more more single player, scripted maps. Sort of like an experiment in game-play. They can all so be used for multiplayer but have to be used in objective play. Like CTF and capture the most control points. Now this makes me think about doing a Sega Sonic map. :icon26:

Then finally there are, life like recreations of places. I like to recreate ancient Egyptian and Greek architecture, where attention is in detail and realism.

I all so like to experiment with my own architecture. And I really admire the Pad maps. Like PadKitchen and such.

What about you guys?

Long post that I didn't exactly get through, In my maps however, I aim for:

-Creativeness -- I want to make the map rememberable, and have clear landmarks that people can relate too, rather then "red base" and "blue base" you can have the "lava pit" or "courtyard"..

-Elements -- I like to include at least one area, big or small, that contains Water/Lava/Slime.

-Outdoors -- For some reason I don't like all-in-door maps, they just don't seem to be good, I don't know why.

~Munsie

Whatever it takes to become a competitive map.

If you're talking strictly about multiplayer competitive deathmatch maps (Q3/Q4), then whatever creative things you do should not affect gameplay. I imagine that timed obstacles for instance, will be quite annoying when you're chasing someone down for a kill. I imagine that for other games, something like that will work, but for competitive maps, you'd be changing the rules too much.

From a visual design point, I totally agree that the design should tell a bit of a story. Most visual elements need to appear as if they really have a purpose at that location, whether it be some sort of mechanical reactor, or a gothic tower or even a light fixture has to match with the theme of the map. Otherwise the map doesn't look "natural".

I like my maps caulked, and feel my way through them. :]

Seriously. Creatively themed maps with well thought, strong, level gameplay, is always a winner combo for me. That's for q3/4, maps in JK:A would sometimes be a different story with all that *vroom, cshh* :icon26: