What are the best "rules" for level design?

[Trigsy]

I watched a couple of YouTube videos earlier which were outlining the design principles of John Romero and Sandy Petersen, and how they're on display in classic DOOM. What do you think are the best guidelines for making good levels? Do you have any of your own?

[reefer]

really just make maps that you yourself would find fun. if you think its fun, chances are other people would too. keep in mind though, what constitutes a "good level" varies from person to person. another way to look at it is not only to make maps you would find fun to play, but also just have fun mapping. part of the fun of a journey is getting to the destination as they say :)

something else is just to play a lot of doom and pick up on how other mappers design their maps. theres not really a lot of set in stone do's & don'ts to mapping, cuz really all thats subjective. besides the obvious of course, like properly aligned textures and stuff.

[rita remton]

On 4/9/2024 at 7:29 PM, Trigsy said:

I watched a couple of YouTube videos earlier which were outlining the design principles of John Romero and Sandy Petersen, and how they're on display in classic DOOM. What do you think are the best guidelines for making good levels? Do you have any of your own?

 

well, there are some basic guidelines such the mapper should put in many varying obstacles including monsters, between the starting point and the level exit switch (obvious, but i've come across beginner maps that do not do this), texture alignments, etc. but after playing a few maps, seeing some videos of maps done by other people, and had a hand at making a few beginner maps myself, imo there are no best guidelines for making good levels. for instance, it is common courtesy that pits should be escapable, but i've came across several good maps that do not have such feature and yet they are still fun to play. perhaps just to cater players that play saveless? the same as with the width of rooms - some mappers would argue that players must have copious amounts of space for the freedom to move about to evade monsters. however there are some map which have barely enough space to even move (battles in cramped spaces) which i find exhilarating. i guess it really is about what makes the mapper feel fun to play :)

 

one of my personal guidelines: the map flow must be such that the map layout guides the player, not the automap. this applies to semi-linear (branching looping maps), the kind of map style i love to make :)

Edited April 12 by rita remton

[Hebonky]

My guidelines are:

 

-Simple access to earlier areas, if you complete a section that's a point of no return let the player return so they can secret hunt.

 

-Re-use areas, because why make several alright areas when you can have 1 repeated familiar area that the player can learn. 

 

Some small things are:

 

Have multiple weapons if you're going full non-linear.

 

Bevel your corners.

[Stabbey]

I think this video discussing how consistent visual language is a benefit to the player's experience is a good watch.

 

 

[Vlumpty Vonty]

Although I am still somewhat amateur, and haven't uploaded any wads, I still do try to follow some guidelines.

• Make sure that areas in the level are recognizable so that players know where they are at (different textures, geometry, & interactions.)
• Make sure that traps can be escaped from.
• Make sure that the player can return to areas they have explored.
• Try to not make traps completely unfair to the point that the player will need to know the trap beforehand to progress (pits that fall fast and contain many enemies, teleporters to gauntlets of strong enemies, ect.)

[Trigsy]

6 hours ago, Stabbey said:

I think this video discussing how consistent visual language is a benefit to the player's experience is a good watch.

Spoiler

 

 

that video also partially inspired me to ask the question in the first place :)
it's great advice

[jmac]

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Edited April 15 by jmac