Good design choices and philosophy

So, I've been thinking about good design choices and philosophy. I've seen a LOT of people make some REALLY shitty maps, and some REALLY GOOD maps, which is totally to be expected, and I've been making maps myself and studying exactly what makes the good maps good, and the bad maps bad, and I want to make a google doc or something with some good design tips. I'm going to list a few things that I've learned so far. Please feel free to critique or add as you want. Let's get a discussion going!

 

-DON'T MAKE YOUR MAPS TOO BIG:

Making characters walk for a long time drags the whole thing down. Don't make your character walk more than ten tiles between points of interest.

 

-Similarly, DON'T MAKE YOUR MAPS TOO COMPLEX:

It's tempting to go all in and make THE HARDEST MAP EVAR! but in reality, it just makes things confusing, and it's really, REALLY easy to break those kinds of maps.

Ideally, you want to pair your map down to a single mechanic or gimmick, and then try to think of inventive ways to use that gimmick.

You'll notice the VAST MAJORITY of the developer created maps do this.

For example, you could have a map revolve around using the excursion funnel to transport gel. You could then do variations on that theme, like transporting bouncy gel to some out of reach cubes to coat them and make them bounce off of their perch and into your reach or transporting cleaning gel to reveal hidden portalable tiles, or something like that. The entire puzzle would revolve around increasingly more inventive and mind-bending ways to get the gel where it needs to go.

 

-Keep your player in mind:

Bare in mind that YOU know how to solve your puzzle, but your audience doesn't. That's why they're there. They're going to look for some starting point. A single button in the middle of an empty room looks a lot more inviting than a massive, complex machine with sixteen different buttons, switches and triggering devices over an endless sea of instant death water. Not to say you can't have those, you totally can, but make sure there's a method to your madness. You don't want to overhwhelm the player before they've even begun. Make sure they very first thing your player sees, upon starting your map, is some clue on how to complete it. Ideally, it should be the gimmick you want to introduce. "Hello!" It will seem to say "I am an Excursion Funnel, and I will be your guide through this puzzle!"

 

-PLAYTEST THE SHIT OUT OF YOUR PUZZLE:

And I mean playtest the SHIT out of it. Playtest it early and often. Any time you make a major change, add a room, alter an existing room, PLAYTEST IT UNTIL YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY SICK OF IT, AND THEN PLAYTEST SOME MORE!

And don't just go through the motions. Making sure the individual mechanics work properly is important to be sure, but you need to go out of your way to BREAK the map, too. Look for portalable walls you shouldn't be able to get to yet, Or things like stacking blocks to get to a higher plane you shouldn't be able to access early, things like that.

 

-Don't be a dick.

Don't have puzzles where the solution involves glitching through walls or something retarded like that, unless everyone knows in advance that's what it's going to involve.

And this may just be me, but I HATE instant death traps close to the end of long maps.

I hate having to reenact Lord of the Rings in a map, only to get to the end, die because of some laser trap or something I didn't see coming, and have to do the ENTIRE FUCKING THING all over again. That sucks.

On that note, savepoints need to be a part of the map editor. Like, have it be a toggleable option on every switch or trigger. That's all it would take.

 

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Make deaths be completely the player's fault and visibly preventable.

 

I played a map that had a faith plate pointing in one direction that was clear for the player, but was close to a laser grid.

The faith plate launched things diagonally, and was meant to be for items only. I went on the faith plate to my death from laser grid.

 

Faith plates can only "point" in the four cardinal directions. If you don't make the destinations -IMMEDIATELY OBVIOUS- to the player, the player will get confused or die. Use scenery, lighting, glass, whatever to make the player's eye be drawn towards the destination target, if possible.

 

Whenever possible, avoid fatal objects or scenery. You might think that the player will learn from their experience next time, but that experience might arrive 15 minutes later if it's a long map, or not be immediately obvious to the player.

 

As for timers, unless it's a quick-timing-gimmick map (which you should only be attempting if you're already reasonably experienced in this) make your timers 25% longer than they need to be. It'll be easy on your playthroughs since you know the exact order needed and what pathing to use. For someone who doesn't know the map inside and out like the designer does, going places and doing things will take a bit longer. If it takes you 10 seconds, set the timer to 12 or 15 seconds if possible.

 

Visibility is key. Add windows, glass, and expositionary moments whenever possible.