The Elements Of Map Making

The foreword to the guide best states what it is: Soon after playing Marathon I became interested in designing maps for it. I picked up a copy of Pfhorte and M.I.A. There were guides written that explained how to make polygons, platforms, lights, etc., but nothing about what makes a map fun. The situation is analogous to trying to make a cake knowing the ingredients, but not the quantities. After years of studying others' maps and designing my own, I have arrived at guidelines for map-making. What makes a map "good" or "fun?" Opinions vary, but there are certain constants involved such as physics, monsters, textures, etc., when designing maps. Taking these into account while following the guidelines will tend to increase the fun factor of your maps. However, the guidelines are not formulas in which you enter values for X and Y and always equal good map. No, these are guidelines to follow or not to follow, if they do not coincide with what you are trying to accomplish with a particular map. Understand the guidelines and ignore them if you need to, but not out of ignorance. While this piece is focused on Marathon map-making, nearly all of it is applicable to other games in the genre like Dark Forces, Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3d, et al. This file may be included on the Info-Mac CD -- all others, please contact me first. Jason Parsons arakasi arakasi@superstore.com