From: CyniC <CyniC@jps.net>
To: ml@qoole.com
Reply-To: ml@qoole.com
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 22:01:25 -0800
Subject: Re: Level Design Inspirations

<nifty stuff snipped>

> Then I just build it room by room.  Best to do all your rooms
> first,
> and then detail, and then light.  It means you can test out the
> movement
> through a level before commiting to it totally.
>

Well, even though I haven't done much in the way of building levels
myself, I have read up a lot. You can get more ideas as to how to
build a level by reading interviews with some of the pro map-makers,
and by scrutinizing their maps. Every map maker has a different
technique, from passing over the whole map several times adding
detail with each pass, to putting everything in during one pass
(items, detail, lights).

What I've been doing is trying out different techniques and then
deciding which ones I like best. My technique is to make sure I have
a solid idea of what I want the end result to turn out like, then
start building from my favorite idea, optimizing and modifying my
idea as I go through the map, periodically going back to change
something around that I already worked on. I also try to work on my
map in pieces, putting in only part of the map into the .qle I'm
working on so I can compile frequently. When I started out, I
compiled with just about every brush change, and I still do compile
frequently to check for leaks and errors in the map so I don't spend
too much time working on something that needs to get tossed. I do
lots of weird, "unsafe" things with my maps, which is a nasty habit
but it keeps my level irregular. The one I'm working on now has no
rectangular rooms in it, and it's real tough to work on, but I like
it. I do have to save as new .qle's each time in case I do have an
error, and it gets so bad that I need to empty put some of my old
stuff because I have 40 .qle's and .bsp's on a half-done map... :)

Then again, I'm inexperienced when it comes to physically building a
map myself. But I've been reading most of the stuff on this maillist
for several months, and researching map stuff since the Quakelab
opened... so my advice is hopefully not worthless.

Hope you have more luck than me starting off running into this map
thing, I'm just slowly getting rolling...

-CyniC

> > Sorry if this Question has been asked before - or if there has
> already
> >been a discussion on this topic - But the main Question of this
> e-mail is .
> >. .  What are some different ways in which all of you go about
> creating a
> >level or thinking of a level.  I don't know if this makes sense.
> I mean -
> >When trying to put ideas from your imagination into the level
> format . . .
> >do you draw pictures - experement with different ideas . . . use
> graph
> >paper, let it just . . . come out naturally onto the computer
> screen . . .
> >what?   Also . . . techniques used in builing levels - Do most of
> you make
> >one room - and then add on to it with another room - then build a
> door etc.
> > like - I mean - step by step, start to finish, 1 - 10?  or is it
> done by
> >making one cool room, another cool room - And building level
> randomly in
> >between those two rooms . . .  I'm sorry if this makes no sense.
> But I'm
> >having trouble "getting off my feet" here.  And I'm sure others
> besides me
> >would benifit greatly from different level building techniques.
> >
> > Chow - Jonathan