Map Release

This map is (as of this writing) an Alpha 3 release. So why did I do all this decorating and visual detailing, making it look more like a beta, when I might have to go and change it? Well, call me old-fashioned; a film person. The prevailing idea in game mapping is you just put in the bare minimum amount of decorating, but focus on blocking out the map for gameplay. Then you post it and look for feedback. I can see this if you have a ready audience of playtesters, such as on a paid project (where you have testers on staff).

But today, like a film person, I know you have to be a showman if you want your map to get played. There are just so many maps being released by mappers, you have to do whatever it takes to attract playtesters. That means you probably have to make it look really nice, even if you haven't tested out the gameplay precisely yet, to get it playtested.

I'd say that being an old school paper-based game designer helps here, because that is a cool-medium of game design; whereas 3D games in general are a hot medium. In a hot medium you don't have to imagine much: the graphics do all that work for you. Cool medium means you have to visualize gameplay. A lot. In this map I also visualized gameplay. A lot. Instead of doing a quick job of blocking, uploading an ugly-but-functional map and hoping the community would solve my gameplay problems for me, I took time to run around, to time the movements, to think of counter-movements (as Blu what would I do to stop the payload here?; okay, as Red what would I do to get past that barricade?); et cetera. This is what film people (and, frankly, all artists) have done for decades - learned to take the risk of creating and shaping something through trusting in themselves and being prepared to fail. So I'm taking that chance, but if it means I have to redesign a big piece of the map that's okay. It's less efficient, but I think in today's circumstance it's more effective. After all, what good is efficiently developing your map if you can't get anyone to playtest it?

If it doesn't work out right away, I think I'll give in and turn it into a multi-stage map - though that would be pretty disruptive to the basic flow I've designed into it.

On the other hand, if it doesn't work out I may just take what I learned here, move on and make a wholly new map. (I already have an idea for another city-themed one...)

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