This guide will help you improve your designing skills. It's easy when you know how. This guide will cover all areas, including map design, triggers, balance, creativity and your description.
1. Map Design
Map Design is often one of the most time consuming parts of making a map. However, it need not be!
One of the best kept secrets of the editor is the ability to load melee maps. With the press of a button the map is done for you, and the best part is no one will ever know the difference!
However, some designers choose to go the whole hog and make the map themselves. If you do this it's always important to remember the golden rule: The sign of a good designer is that they never spend more than forty minutes on a map. Yes, speed really is the most obvious mark of an experienced designer, and you should aim to complete your map in less than ten minutes if you want a 5.0. Don't forget to mention this feat in your showcase.
One of the most edgy and interesting approaches to map design is Minimalism. Just leave the map as pure dirt, as this unusual method will surely awe the player with your uncluttered and realistic map. Independent scientific studies have shown that dirt is the prettiest of all the terrains.
Different terrain heights are to be avoided, as they are ugly. On those rare occasions where you want to use cliffs etc however to really sell the illusion of height, lots and lots of different heights are a must. Just mix them together (i.e. temple and high jungle) and admire the cool effect.
Map Design can also affect balance. One of the most amusing parts of designing is giving the player an exciting and unusual objective (eg bring unit to other side of the map) and then blocking the path with null. It's hilarious as the player thinks he's done something wrong and spends hours looking for the way through.
2. Balance
We all like a good challenge, and happily there are infinite possibilities for making your map challenging. Try having the player's single SCV against millions of utralisks, photon cannons and Raynors (these units are a must for all maps, as they are way cooler than other units and add a sense of realism). The possibilities really are endless.
Another way of increasing the challenge is to make your map name completely different from the name you put in the DLDB. This is a really creative way of making your map more difficult to play. It's even more fun when its name is just a meaningless jumble of letters and numbers. The player will be perplexed and wondering about the meaning of the name well into the third paragraph of the hate mail that will surely soon be cluttering up your email inbox. Hate mail is a good sign; jealousy is the fate of truly talented designers.
However, there is another good approach. A good way of building tension in a map is to make a large map with no detail (as this may prove distracting) and force the player to walk across it. He will be expecting many enemies, and when he doesn't meet any he will be surprised and wary. This effect is best when continued over a large number of maps, until you suddenly ambush the player with loads of Ultralisks. As a twist ending you could instead have no enemies in the entire campaign, that should really catch them off guard.
Alternatively, some players are afraid of losing. Simply give them millions of utralisks and Raynors and give them the task of killing a single enemy Zergling. This even gives the effect of a cut-scene, as input from the player is not needed. The less experienced players will thank you for this and think the map very highly balanced. Again, the opportunities are endless. Try experimenting by replacing the enemy zerglings with a drone, or an enemy pylon.
3. Triggers
Contrary to what many people say, the amount of triggers does make a difference to the quality of a map. It is very important that you never go over twenty five. This is the absolute maximum as more than this bores the player. Play it safe and stick to twelve or less.
4. Special Effects
On those occasions where triggers are necessary, here are some of the special effects you can use.
Non stop looping text: Simply create a preserved trigger with no wait, and one line of text. This way you can make sure the player really gets the message, and the best bit is that it doesn't stop until the map ends! Other advantages include the possibility for exciting noises, and the added difficulty as important player chats are immediately covered up. One of the most impressive applications of this trick is to make the line of text your name. Not only does this remind the player who you are, it makes it very difficult for people to steal your work (which is a real problem when you use high quality special effects such as this one).
Slow Motion Battle: A little known fact is that it is impossible to get any publicity at all without using this trick. The trick is simplicity itself. Just put down about 1500 zerglings in one place, and you're done. When the player opens the map they will be startled by the extreme slow motion effect, which has the added effect of making the battle longer.
Midnight: What better way to convey a dark atmosphere than a realistic midnight effect? "Impossible!" I hear you cry. But no, there are many ways of achieving this effect. My personal favourite method is to center the view of the player on a disabled sprite. Another bonus of this effect is that the player is given a chance to admire their Desktop half way through your map.
5. Description
Some designers have experimented with the creative "No Description at all" look. You may wish to try this, especially for maps entitled something like "Bob's Quest" (always choose titles like this so that the player can instantly identify with the character, and knows from the start what the character will be doing. In this case, a quest).
If you do write a description though, remember that no one likes a humble designer. Always boast about your many new tricks and features. If you're good enough at doing this the player won't even notice that you've just made eighteen random maps. Good examples of impressive features include:
- Thrilling story
- STUNNING map design
- Better than Astrogears!
- Annatar Quality! (Everyone knows that you can't be as good as Annatar, but it's a good idea to pretend you are)
- Gewd! Kool! (This always goes down well)
- FREE Ipod!
People of today are very busy, and will probably not notice these impressive features if they aren't followed with at least seven exclamation marks. When it comes to getting attention, the more the merrier as far as exclamation marks are concerned.
It is also recommended to include foreign accents and other arcane symbols from the dustier regions of the keyboard. Why spell it "map" when it could be "ŝċĔŋǍғĨŐ¤"??
Don't forget to indent your map with lots of spaces and squiggly lines. That way your map will always be on top, blotting out insignificant trash like Astrogears that doesn't do this. Who needs alphabetical order anyway?
6. Miscellaneous
Testing your map is the sign of a weak designer. Good designers never make mistakes. Ever. Also, never admit that there is something wrong with your map. Remember, all criticism is a personal insult and should be sent back with interest.
Try out the post-modern method, and do away with proper spelling and grammar. Most players don't like futuristic maps and would rather play something written in gangster slang.
When writing a loss message, be sure to remind the player how inadequate they are. A torrent of personal abuse will make final victory more satisfying.
Using numbers instead of letters is extremely creative. Use them as often as possible, after all, why else would they be on the keyboard?
One final tip, have you noticed how many popular maps there are already? Worried that, despite following all these tips, you might not get the recognition you deserve? If you rig your map and host it you're bound to be at the top! It's this sort of lateral thinking that makes a truly great designer.
I hope this guide has taught you how to make the most popular map on Battle.net. Good luck!
None.
I hate nubs (Yes Master Yoda, it IS a strong word) who just leave Astrogears games especially. All Hail Tux, The End.
Very nice
