Forge Fundamentals - Preplanning

[Zandril]

I did not write this article. Forge Fundamentals is brought to you by a Chunk of Halo Evolved. I posted this here with Chunk's permission. 

 

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"Forge Fundamentals will consist of numerous articles, and cover all aspects of forge. The first series of articles will systematically review the fundamentals of constructing good maps, beginning at the idea stage, ending at a finalized map, and discussing everything that should be considered in between those two stages. The core concepts that will be discussed are essential aspects of any solid forge map, and should always be fresh in our minds."

 

Forge Fundamentals is brought to you by a Chunk of Halo Evolved. Check them out here.

 

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Preplanning

 

"Let's start at the very beginning of the life of almost every great forge map - preplanning. Preplanning is an incredibly important part of designing a map which is, unfortunately, often overlooked.

 

Preplanned maps tend to require fewer time-consuming changes in forge. Preplanning can help you increase your productivity as a map designer and improve the quality of your finished products. There are two main parts to preplanning great maps - generating ideas and developing an idea."

 

Generating Ideas

 

"Ideas can be tough to come by - Sometimes they might come from places you've visited or want to visit, pictures, dreams. They might even appear in your mind without an obvious trigger. So, how can you go about creating an environment in which ideas can begin to bubble to the surface?

 

One logical suggestion is to look at a lot of forge maps (Check out Halo Evolved's Archives HERE). Another is to Look at maps from games other than Halo (Lvlworld, a Quake 3 mapping forum, is an excellent resource). You can always look to developer made Halo maps for inspiration as well.

 

Taking a portion of a map that intrigues you and designing something completely different around it is a good exercise. Looking at buildings or at nature can often spark ideas. Taking a walk outside can help a lot - Something as simple as an interesting facade on a building or the curve of a road may be the beginning of a great map. Of course, there is also the World Wide Web.

 

You can search through images of buildings constructed with different styles of architecture. There are numerous styles out there - check out Wikipedia's list HERE. Maybe even a tattoo or a mandala may lead to a moment of inspiration."

 

 

Developing an Idea

 

"There is a very strong correlation between how well developed an idea is prior to building, and the quality of the final product. Any time spent fleshing out an idea will be well worth it in the end.

 

Once an intriguing idea for a map has arisen, a good next step is to figure out what the basic structure of the map will look like in a decent amount of detail. Ideally, the map should be planned with enough detail that a person who sees a sketch or model of it will be able to recognize the map once it's in Forge.

 

It's not necessary to go to the lengths of deciding which forge pieces will be used to construct each portion of the map. Going into specifics such as that can actually hinder the developmental process."

 

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This article was written by a Chunk of Halo Evolved. I posted this here with his permission. Read the entire article here.

Edited November 10, 2013 by Zandril