BEAVER.txt

For historical purposes only. Do not edit.

Permalink: https://github.com/caligari87/Oblige/blob/e3dbc44e1649e40a65df8da0cc65d13be592fa03/notes/BEAVER.txt

[quote=Huy Pham]

Random thoughts on mapping
--------------------------

+ Make sure to communicate ideas explicitly with the player,
  for example, when expressing a laboratory, make sure
  computers, lasers, and biological tanks are present. Like
  writing and other media of communication, better to show it
  than to declare it on your textfile!

+ A dominant color theme will turn an otherwise good looking map 
  beautiful.

+ The music has got to match the environment, it shows good taste
  and once again reinforces the communication of the level's theme
  to the player. Example: AV Map30: Point Dreadful.

+ If one's eyes were nuanced enough to see the subtle tone and shading of
  Fredrik's tech, one would recognize that Vrack3's art direction is genius.

+ WTF is green marble doing with redrock? They need to stop designing
  levels like that. There is no Christmas theme in hell. 
  RED or BLACK marble goes with REDROCK.

+ In Hell, you cannot run out of black and red.

+ With black textures and flats, you can get away with many mapping crimes, 
  like flat ceilings for example. If you don't believe me, check out the
  Minas Morgul map.

+ The secret to making a good hell map? Absorbing Alien Vendetta's Map29, 
  remember its lighting, monster placement, and most importantly, its shape.

+ Yes, the looks of the level do affect gameplay, because the ingame
  atmosphere is a part of gameplay... how much a part of the gameplay is the
  atmosphere? How much do you feel it should be?

+ Windows are multipliers of details.

+ Altitude, whether at the top of a mountain or under the basement of a
  tomb, is a good indicator of level progression. Use it liberally.

+ Skyboxes? No no, fully-scaled, 360-degree backgrounds are better!

+ Why would I want to go through rooms connected by a bunch of hallways? 
  I don't get it.

+ There is a difference between level progression and leading the player
  through a maze. Level progression happens when you tell a story with
  architecture, leading the player through a maze is when the story gets
  boring with nonsense... I hope you can tell a good story.

+ It's not so hard to close off the levels with four walls that has nothing
  behind them, but the mapper who has done so has missed his chance of
  showing the player a beautiful vista that reinforces the atmosphere
  of the level.

+ Easy it is to make a level difficult, but could I trick someone else into 
  playing it?

+ I don't care what anyone else thinks, the default Doom/Doom2 pistol isn't
  fun to use in the slightest bit, not even if had a different look, not
  even when it had a different sound, not in ANY fight, not under any 
  circumstance.

+ Having the player start off with the default Doom/Doom2 pistol and asking
  them to kill enemies with it... pisses me off.

+ Good traps must not only surprise the player, they must be logical
  as well. Don't just trap the player, trap him in with a tomb and a 
  skeleton to boot.

+ The best placement of the exploding barrel, ever, is located at the start
  of Ander Johnsen's AV Map02: Rusty Rage. [I'd have to agree with Mike 
  on this]

+ Enemies popping out of walls and coffins are far scarier, thus more
  effective, than teleporting peeps.

+ Cyberdemons are only scary when you don't give the player enough
  ammo and space to deal with them. Not enough space is scarier though.

+ You can beat an archvile to death with your bare fist, all the funner
  with beserk.

+ The megasphere isn't there for you to grab like supermarket grocery,
  it belongs to the monsters and they want it back. Did I mention that the 
  monsters have sharp claws and hurl fireballs?

+ Finding a secret gives me that same feeling when I find an extra coin
  in the phone booth.

+ What makes or break gameplay? Movement of the player. When the player 
  feels good moving about in his virtual environment without even fighting
  the enemies, that builds a foundation towards good gameplay. A strong 
  example of this concept in action is Super Mario 64, where the player's 
  movement feels good no matter where they are or what they're doing; Mario
  could be romping around the castle courtyard doing triple jumps and that
  in itself is already entertaining.

+ Proportions in a level is very important to player's movement and enemy
  contact. If a given space is too big, enemy contact will feel loose and
  sloppy; the baron of hell can be rendered harmless as a lampost with too
  much open spaces. If a given space is too cramped, the player's movement
  is restricted, and he will continually bump into things, making player 
  movement an exercise in frustration rather than smooth play. Like all 
  aspects of map design, moderation here is key. Good examples of level 
  proportions include John Romero's maps, Anders Johnsen's maps, Kim Malde's
  maps, Erik Alm's maps, Kama Sutra, vrack3, and even ChordG.

+ The above statement still holds true in the face of some supposedly 
  open maps, like Epic Map05, where extremely large open areas are 
  moderated by islands of fights in smaller spaces.

+ PV = nRT... where P = Pressure of Opposition                
                    V = Area of a given space
                    n = Number of monsters
                    R = Mean monster movement speed
                    T = Average area controlled per monsters

+ One of the biggest violators of player movement are 8-unit posts that
  sticks out the wall... or even eight-unit posts... Period. 
  Get rid of them; they are hurting gameplay.

+ If details get in the way of player's movement, put them on the ceiling,
  like vrack2b.

+ Spending lots of time detailing that chapel room is nice, but that won't 
  determine the optimal number of revenants to insert into that area.

+ What is dynamic space? A room, hallway, area, etc. that drastically 
  alters the general vector and elevation of the player's movement.

+ What is beautiful space? A room, hallway, area, etc. in which the player 
  feels good moving about.

+ What is beautiful dynamic space? Good map design.

+ Exhaustive playtesting is the only theoretically sound way to 
  ensure that your map is fun. Game Law.

+ A bad gametester will tell you that "your map stinks."

+ A good gametester will tell you that "your map stinks, and here's why..."

+ A good gametester will never deem your map flawless.

+ Belial's, Brian's, and Mike's bitchings are worth their weight in mapping 
  gold.

+ If your testers tell you that a particular fight isn't fun, quit being 
  defensive and remove the perpetrating monster(s).

+ If your testers tell you that a particular fight is too easy, you know
  what to do...

+ There is no fucking way I can vertically align those fucking BRIK_06J 
  textures in the fucking Suzzallo Library, Belial... JUST BE QUIET 
  ALREADY! =p

+ Listen to your gametesters, they are the canaries to your mapping
  mine shaft.

[/quote]