How Many Maps Did You?

Good maps take time to brew. And with every map you throw away hopefully you learn something.

Pre 2009 I was on dialup and made no maps.

2010-2011 - I made a couple maps for bzflag (manually placeing primitives in a text editor) because I was new to the internet and didn't know of any games besides what I could find in the ubuntu software center. Some of them were rather popular in the bzflag community for a bit

2011 - 2012 - Nexuiz / Xonotic maps, most of this experience carried over to TF2, none of my xonotic maps were well received (besides one that is a re-skin of an existing nexuiz map)

2013 - 2015 - Poked around with TF2 mapping but deemed the loading times on my laptop too much of a hurdle to be worth it.

2015-2017 - Got a real computer and started making TF2 maps, joined this site shortly after. I generally only post maps here if I think they are good with bot tests and such, not that I'm a perfect judge of quality, but I have quite a few playable a1 maps that never reached publication.

I still haven't made a good map...

Over the course of several years and switching games a couple times, I've made about 15 or so multiplayer maps and 5-ish singleplayer ones, at least for the source engine. (I've also made some maps for an indie game called castle story, but that doesn't matter much) About 3/5 of the single player ones kinda suck (one of which is alright but just incredibly dull and uninspired) and 14 multiplayer maps that I've cut altogether. The only map that I've made thus far that I feel is actually presentable is koth_preposterous, and and even looking back on it now, I definitely feel I could do better.

Every mapper goes through a phase where it feels like they aren't improving. Every new map they make feels like garbage to them, and they feel as though they can't keep working on it.

But you don't want to hear about the constant repetition of practice over course of several years in hopes of maybe getting better someday. You want results. You want to see yourself improve... well- I would say I can't help you, but that's only half true. There are ways to make yourself learn things a bit quicker.

So here are my two tips to learn level design-
1: Study the hell up. One of the absolute most helpful things you can do when learning the level design of a game is to just run through some of its maps on an empty server and analyze them. Even for the untrained eye, you'd be amazed at how much you can pick up on.

2: Take one map and work on it. This is what you probably don't wanna hear, but I'm gonna tell it to ya anyway. (Don't worry, I got this lecture once, too) If you start a project and then immediately scrap it... you've learned barely anything. Sure, you might know things are wrong with it. You might even know what's wrong with it. But you have no idea how to fix it. And if you don't know how to fix it... then obviously you won't know how to get it right on your first try. Working on one map and learning how to fix problems will help you learn pretty much everything else about mapping.

So, in conclusion- go do some research, look at some maps you like, steal a few ideas here and there, then make a map. Yes, it'll be crap. It's an A1, we'd be shocked if it wasn't. But that's what the servers are there for, so you can test the map. Once you get it tested, assess the issue, and do whatever you can to fix it. Repeat this process, like, a lot. If you keep at one map, even if it seems hopeless, you will have learned an awful lot about how to make a map that you can apply to your next map's A1.

I know that this post is old, but i guess i can give a few.

From my 1 year of mapping i have so far worked on 7 maps, but 5/7 of those maps were scraped.

koth_hanger - Was going to be my first map to post on this site. I wanted to make this type of map when the frontline project was announced, this map did have displacements and height variation, but i forgot to transfer this map to my new PC.

cp_commandbase - Was going to be an ABC a/d map. It also used the frontline theme. This map was already gonna get scraped because of how flat and how there wasn't much height variation.

koth_airbase - Was maybe a better version of koth_hanger. This map was inspired when i was a Xbox Peasant at the time, i was also a fan of cod waw at how it handled it's multiplayer maps. Hanger was my most favorite map from waw and I wanted to take inspiration of that map to tf2 mapping. This was also gonna be my first map, but i ALSO forgot to transfer the map to my new PC. So i forgot about the map.

cp_hangerbase - A 2cp a/d map. ANOTHER hanger map, but this was my most favorite out of the 3 other hanger maps, it had its entire layout made with everything. But guess what, i forgot to transfer the map to my new PC.

cp_basetop - My first map, and it is 5cp. I hate this map now after learning more about tf2 mapping. I hated how flat, open, and no height variation the map had. I'm happy to remake the map, but its just... weird to me now.

tc_warcity - A territorial control map. I scraped this map even before i finished the first capture point, but i'm thinking about reviving the map for a different gamemode.

koth_waterbridge - Was going to be a koth map with a bridge on top of water as the point. I scraped the map before the layout of mid was complete because another map had the same layout.

cp_snowgra - A single stage 2cp a/d map im working on, this map was originally gonna be an 3cp a/d map, and the original name was desbas. But i shortened it to 2cp, and changed the theme from desert to snow. This map had 5 versions before settling on the final version.

I don't have the files anymore, but I'd say I have made about 10-20 maps at various stages of A1, but only 1 has ever been released for testing and it got to something like a4.

Though one day I'll make a map that is decent enough even to get feedback on and isn't instant garbage.

Basically 3. I started with CS Source maps over 10 years ago. I basically did 1 total failure, 2nd that was a advanced failure, maze and the 3rd i think i got pretty decent. Well, technically it was still somewhat a mess but t worked and played "ok". Did 1-2 maps more and then returned to it, kinda revamped things that i learned meanwhile and fixed those things in it. Don't get me wrong, even though it looks like i got pretty much easy way in, the last 10 years have been constant learning and tons of scrapped maps that just didnt feel right.

My first TF2 map i made 2011, 3 years since i initially started mapping. It was also a failure gameplay wise. Even though i knew more about mapping, it just was too big and didnt play right. The 2nd TF2 map i made was also more or a less not working the way it was supposed to. Too much mistakes, high ground, hard to know where enemy comes etc. Both of those maps i returned and worked a lot on them and their halloween counterparts ended up into the game as official levels.

If you have a decent map that you think might just have something. Work on it, hard. Give it out for people to test for. Listen that feedback. Show it up some more advanced map makers and ask their opinions. Heck, mail to valve even and ask if they would test it. I did once and they tested the map and told me valuable feedback.

-Random Previous Attempts in SFM's Source SDK that I mostly forgot about

-"payload" (28th of March 2018) as the title suggests my attempt at a payload map... I jumped in with literally only knowing how to place lights, a skybox and primitive shapes. (this is the first map I still have on my drive) and it was made using Source Filmmakers Hammer Editor... which didn't really work out well…



- pl_mine_map (3rd of May 2018 - 24th of May 2018) A payloud map that is set in a Mine. My first TF2Maps.net map.
https://tf2maps.net/downloads/mine-map.5984/

- pl_minemap (25th of May 2018 - 29th of May 2018) A remake of pl_mine_map since it was way too small. Sadly this project had to be stopped due to me saving it on a Flash Drive which I am unable to find anywhere again...

-koth_netherlands (6th of July 2018 - Present) This is a map inspired by my trip to the netherlands! It's my current WiP and it's going well.
https://tf2maps.net/downloads/netherlands.6183/

1. pl_lava_lair: Geometric, sniper friendly, cramped hallways. (Ok for a first, I guess.)
2. cp_subway: Alright, better use of entities, still sniper friendly. Better use of detailing.
3. koth_subway: cp_subway but with much better detailing and even more sightline problems.
4. cp_meltdown: Never got out of beta, better detailing and sightline issues.
5. ctf_corporate: Never even got to a1, someday I will brush the dust off it.
6. cp_intrusion (current project): My 1st attempt to get it perfect. About 10 times better detailing and gameplay than all my previous maps combined.

Pre-TF2

1. My 1st use of hammer was trying to make Portal 2 maps. None of them ever made it out of alpha.
2. Made tons of Portal 2 maps in the in game editor.
3. My 1st TF2 project was ctf_airship. It resulted in three big blocks with flags on them because I didn’t know anything about mapping.

I have made overall 17 maps + 1 reskin.
i had to make around 14 before i learnt to make a decend one. Each and every map i made taught me something and my latest map cliffedge is like putting what i learnt so far into test.
I wont forget though how pl_skyfortress ( do you remember this one ? ) teached me how to optimize my map. Before that i used to make a big cube for skybox and put my map inside of it.