Speed of making maps

[Chernobog The Exalted]

I am trying to make a 32 level mapset by myself, with the first level being the second functional level that has an exit that I have ever made. Well, I'm really ambitious both in modding and real life, forgive me, but I still have one major roadblock: the speed in which I'm building the maps. It is slow. In 2 hours I made... A staircase and two platforms fully textured, and an unfinished staircase, but 2 hours? I am trying to make this damn wad done by september, which can use up my whole summer break (I'm in school, almost the end of the semester, hooray). Also, I heard a rumor, idk if it's true or not, I won't bother looking it up, but it goes something like romero made e4m2 in 6 hours, 6 HOURS. He stayed from midnight till dawn. Damn it, e4m2 was considered as one of the best maps in the ultimate doom, and john made it in 6 hours. After that I felt IMMENSE disappointment. What the sigma? 

So... can any of you guys give me tips or any tricks? Especially from the speedmappers.

[Chernobog The Exalted]

and dammit, I haven't even added wfall textures, someone tell me how, I know there are tons of tutorials out there, but having someone just telling it to me sounds much more comforting

[Ravendesk]

learn udb hotkeys and hang out with other mappers to learn from their process

aside from that you'll just naturally get faster as you get more experience in mapping

 

also I don't recommend aiming for a 32 level mapset as your first (?) release, you will be able to get much better and more on-point feedback and also grow faster if you release smaller (<10 maps) wads first

[Death Bear]

TO ME, Speedmapping is an art all in its own, and honestly, most of my ability to speedmap is harnessed by repetition and training. My speed and efficiency came from understanding the editor, knowing how I work best, and mapping A LOT. I've also given myself exercises and challenges to perform that have stretched my abilities and allowed me to get faster. I've tried to develop workflow that breaks my bad habits (sometimes to no avail). What I can do in an hour or two, now, is pretty crazy, all things considered. The crazy thing is, that when you spend more time up front learning how the foundations work, the faster you can get when it all becomes second nature. This isn't a post meant to brag, but what I'm telling you is to cut yourself some slack if you're not as fast as you think you should be since you're newer. It takes time and effort. That's my first suggestion. Romero may have made that map in 6 hours, but that was also back then. I imagine he could've knocked that out a lot quicker with the tools we have today. What I've seen people like Muumi and Danlex and MANWITHGUN do with that small amount of is hard for even me to do. But I never stop learning and mapping.
 
My second suggestion is to learn hotkeys, learn door builder, and learn stair builder. Hotkeys, I'm not an expert at and I'm STILL fast at mapping. I committed to muscle memory the ones that save ME the most amount of time. Door builder, I don't ever use, but it's a very quick way to help you get a door right. And guess what, when you have one standard door, my third suggestion will help with subsequent doors...or you can keep using the door builder. Stair builder is not just for stairs, and understanding how it works, even at a base level, can help quickly with detailing, as well. But do also use it for stairs.

My third suggestion is copy-paste. This may seem like something that can spiral out of control and look like a copy-pasta map, but it can save time if the objective is to map quickly, and you can always edit what you paste to bring variety.

 

My fourth suggestion is to keep your scope down. If you want to be fast and get a bunch of maps knocked out, don't try "speedpainting the Mona Lisa" straight out of the gate. Although when I started out, I was easily doing 200-300 monster maps that were 20-30 minutes a piece, I would suggest anyone else to start smaller than that. Learning the efficiency of not letting your map get away from you is important, in this case. No more than 3 rooms/ areas or less is usually my suggestion, and re-use of areas and use of loops to limit backtracking becomes important. Practice how to place monsters together in ways that force the player to solve a problem with multiple solutions, and to do it without overwhelming the player in numbers, to start. Scope creep is real, but on a time crunch, it is Mapper's Bane.

My fifth suggestion is to stay out of visual mode as much as possible, if trying to map quickly. There's lots of reasons why, but when you're pressing yourself (like I did) to make maps in 5 minutes or less, you learn just how much time you actually spend doing things in visual mode that are more efficiently done in 2-D mode. Becoming familiar with things like lighting values, floor/ ceiling heights, names of textures and flats, and numbers of specific line action values in a given format are all things that have made me faster.

 

My sixth suggestion is to visualize and/or sketch your idea out first...but only if it works better for you. Sometimes it does for me, and sometimes it is better just to throw down lines in editor. Case in point is the tale of my two friends @BluePineapple72 and @myolden, who I'm bringing in, if they care to share some of their tips. I've noticed that Blue often spends time sketching maps, while myolden throws lines down in editor and goes from there. Find what works for you.

Now, I could probably keep writing at length, since Speedmapping is my bread and butter, here, but I'll leave you with one more. Commit. Come up with your idea or your central gimmick, don't get overworked with questioning yourself or painstaking over every little detail. (Or do it AFTER you've built the essentials). Throw lines down, make sectors, add combat scenarios, and test your maps. Ask other people if they would test your maps and get feedback.

If you enjoy it enough, you'll continue to get better at it. Don't stress yourself out.      

 

[Somniac]

The right answer is "as long as it takes". Its gonna be slow to start with. Mapping speed comes with experience and it is not necessarily linear. You might find one map takes a matter of hours and the next one takes days. The only true "shortcuts" IMO are learning to quickly do editor functions to speed up implementing your ideas, which again is something that comes with time and experience.

 

I should note that I suck at speedmapping (which is definitely a skill of its own, with its own applications) and everyone is different. Romero made E4M2 in 6 hours using primitive tools. Maybe he could do it now in one, maybe two hours with a modern editor. It'd probably take me a week. Point is, go at your own pace, whatever that might be.

[Chernobog The Exalted]

Alright, I would say that I am biting off more than I can chew, but at school I got bored and made up the story, named all the 32 maps, decided the aesthetics. I already drew the map01 map in my torn off paper at school. So I actually have to commit to my regrettable decision, I'm not only trying to hone my skill, but also disciplining myself, so thanks for the tips, anyways, but I still intend to make 32 maps, sometimes I become too ambitious and it will bite me in the ass one day. This being the first example... 

[z34chris]

throw down the general layout of each level first then go back and detail it later.

[Stupid Bunny]

1 hour ago, Death Bear said:

Scope creep is real, but on a time crunch, it is Mapper's Bane

 

This is real.  This is how my neat map became a set of 5 neat maps became a set of 13 super cool maps with custom sprites that never got made and remains unfinished 14 years later—I finally gave up on that mostly and have started releasing the finished maps as standalones (though I may finish the last bits someday in the infinite future).

 

Knowing this is also how my single speedmap became a few one-off speedmaps became a 20 and then 32-map megawad that is currently just a handful of work-hours from being successfully finished and released in full.  Keeping the maps from sprawling and sprawling by putting hard time limits on drawing layouts, limiting expectations, and not expanding beyond the stock monsters and texture set chosen at the very beginning all made sure the maps didn't get too big and the whole project didn't die from having its objectives perpetually pushed down the line.  It still took 2.5 years to finish but that was with a whole whole lot else going on in my life in the meantime including other long-term creative projects.  Note that I went into this project with the benefit of a bunch of prior experience with both the tools and the principles of mapping in general, it saves you so much time if you know how things work, some of the editor shortcuts, and have an intuitive sense and/or mental toolkit of things that work as mapping ideas, to say nothing of having actual map ideas to begin with.

 

As an aside @Clippy made an entire 32 map megawad in a three day period one time

Edited May 4 by Stupid Bunny

[NecrumWarrior]

52 minutes ago, Chernobog The Exalted said:

Alright, I would say that I am biting off more than I can chew, but at school I got bored and made up the story, named all the 32 maps, decided the aesthetics. I already drew the map01 map in my torn off paper at school. So I actually have to commit to my regrettable decision, I'm not only trying to hone my skill, but also disciplining myself, so thanks for the tips, anyways, but I still intend to make 32 maps, sometimes I become too ambitious and it will bite me in the ass one day. This being the first example... 

I recommend splitting it into episodic releases if you are set on making 32. If you can get the first 10 maps done and release them then you can get feedback before taking on the next set of maps. 

[Astar]

I understand you well. My second map took me three months to develop. I look at it now and don't understand why it took me so long.

Well... actually I understand - I just have a lack of experience.

 

How long have you been mapping? John Romero has been making video games almost since he was a teenager.

You are simply a different person. All people are different. Don't try to fit into someone else's shoes - it just won't work.

 

And constantly comparing yourself to other, more successful people is quite harmful to the psyche...

[Async Unicorn]

Do maps as you wish them to do, it may take forever, but the main goal is the high result and putting your soul into your art! =)

Also, yep, you'll eventually learn how to make maps better faster, it's a matter of lot of practice and a bit of theory.

Quick advices:

1. Do prefabs for monster closets / Light Transfer / Conveyors, etc.

2. Use Copy + Paste often, it'll save you a lot of time.

3. Try to make maps step-by-step, it may help you.

4. Learn about all features of UDB, be sure to remember some of the useful ones.

5. Be inspired (by anything! Be it the music, favorite WAD, game, it doesn't matter)

(I highly recommend you to watch Bridgeburner video, it helped me to understand that there is a hell of a lot of useful features)

(Also, I don't think it's a right idea to make megawad when you're a novice, you may burn out soon enough and it's not a good thing)

Edited May 4 by Vanilla+Unicorn

[EraserheadBaby]

If you want enemies to look in a certain direction, select the enemy, put the mouse cursor where you want it to look, and press shift+L.  You can do this with a group of enemies to fix their eyes where you want them.

 

There are tons of cool shortcuts like that and they're listed in UDB somewhere.  I'm no expert myself. 

[RDETalus]

3 hours ago, Chernobog The Exalted said:

So... can any of you guys give me tips or any tricks?

My first complete Doom II map took me 1.5 years to make (I prefer making big detailed single maps, if that time seems excessive in comparison to what you're doing). However, my second map made to the same standards, size, and level of detail took me 6 weeks. So I am now mapping 13 times faster than I when I first started.

 

I have one really, really important tip that has worked for me though: Keep your creative design time separate from your construction time.

 

So while you are walking, driving, laying in bed, showering, etc... you should use that time to design your map in your imagination. Imagine a room, imagine how the stairs should be, imagine the textures, and write that stuff down in a notebook or a Discord server. Then when you get home, you open up Doom Builder and just execute all the ideas you've written down. The reason why this is important for me is because if I try to simultaneously design and construct at the same time, I get severe block. I can just end up spending hours pushing vertices around the map and accomplishing nothing. I never, ever open up Doom Builder unless I have a stack of notes and ideas ready to execute, otherwise I know I will just be wasting hours doing nothing.

My theory behind this is that design is an iterative process of trial and error, and each iteration costs you time. Iterative design can happen very fast if you're only using your imagination. You can iterate a dozen stair designs in your imagination within 15 minutes. However, iteration happens very slowly using software. It might take you 5 minutes to draw each stair design, by the time you've iterated through a dozen designs, you've already spent one solid hour drawing stairs. It's a very bad use of time.

Edited May 4 by RDETalus

[NecrumWarrior]

2 hours ago, EraserheadBaby said:

If you want enemies to look in a certain direction, select the enemy, put the mouse cursor where you want it to look, and press shift+L.  You can do this with a group of enemies to fix their eyes where you want them.

 

There are tons of cool shortcuts like that and they're listed in UDB somewhere.  I'm no expert myself. 

Oh my god I had no idea this was a thing! 

[Deadwing]

I find speed mapping to be difficult as well, but something I'm kinda improving.

 

The most important things, imo, is to know the hotkeys, have a clear vision of what you want, know what works good for you regarding visuals and setups and keep the goal small: small maps over larger ones: much less stuff to handle and easier to get a consistent result.

 

Continous mapping and experience will help you in guiding these things, also playing other wads and seeing how other people map. (Ex: learned a lot of hotkeys from watching a Dragonfly stream)

Edited May 4 by Deadwing

[prfunky]

6 hours ago, Chernobog The Exalted said:

I am trying to make a 32 level mapset by myself, with the first level being the second functional level that has an exit that I have ever made. Well, I'm really ambitious both in modding and real life, forgive me, but I still have one major roadblock: the speed in which I'm building the maps. It is slow. In 2 hours I made... A staircase and two platforms fully textured, and an unfinished staircase, but 2 hours? I am trying to make this damn wad done by september, which can use up my whole summer break

 

DON'T WASTE YOUR SUMMER DOING THIS!!

Seriously. The time you spend doing fun things, things you can only do in good weather are invaluable to your psyche. Be a whole person.

Does it mean don't map at all during summer? No, that's not what I'm saying. Just don't let this 32-map "goal" run/ruin your life.

 

6 hours ago, Chernobog The Exalted said:

and dammit, I haven't even added wfall textures, someone tell me how, I know there are tons of tutorials out there, but having someone just telling it to me sounds much more comforting

 

There are multiple methods of adding wfall textures to your wad/map but it depends on what your target platform is, re: which doom source port

you intend your map to be run in. In my case, I was targeting ZDoom-based ports so if you look at map05 of Chap DM3 you'll see an example.

 

5 hours ago, Ravendesk said:

also I don't recommend aiming for a 32 level mapset as your first (?) release,

 

this^

 

5 hours ago, Death Bear said:

...cut yourself some slack
...My third suggestion is copy-paste. This may seem like something that can spiral out of control and look like a copy-pasta map, but it can save time if the objective is to map quickly, and you can always edit what you paste to bring variety.

 

My fourth suggestion is to keep your scope down. If you want to be fast and get a bunch of maps knocked out, don't try "speedpainting the Mona Lisa" straight out of the gate. Although when I started out, I was easily doing 200-300 monster maps that were 20-30 minutes a piece, I would suggest anyone else to start smaller than that. Learning the efficiency of not letting your map get away from you is important, in this case. No more than 3 rooms/ areas or less is usually my suggestion, and re-use of areas and use of loops to limit backtracking becomes important. Practice how to place monsters together in ways that force the player to solve a problem with multiple solutions, and to do it without overwhelming the player in numbers, to start. Scope creep is real, but on a time crunch, it is Mapper's Bane.

My fifth suggestion is to stay out of visual mode as much as possible, if trying to map quickly. There's lots of reasons why, but when you're pressing yourself (like I did) to make maps in 5 minutes or less, you learn just how much time you actually spend doing things in visual mode that are more efficiently done in 2-D mode. Becoming familiar with things like lighting values, floor/ ceiling heights, names of textures and flats, and numbers of specific line action values in a given format are all things that have made me faster.

 

...If you enjoy it enough, you'll continue to get better at it. Don't stress yourself out.

 

5 hours ago, Somniac said:

The right answer is "as long as it takes".

...Point is, go at your own pace, whatever that might be.!!!

 

4 hours ago, Stupid Bunny said:

This is real.  This is how my neat map became a set of 5 neat maps became a set of 13 super cool maps with custom sprites that never got made and remains unfinished 14 years later—I finally gave up on that mostly and have started releasing the finished maps as standalones

 

4 hours ago, NecrumWarrior said:

I recommend splitting it into episodic releases if you are set on making 32. If you can get the first 10 maps done and release them then you can get feedback before taking on the next set of maps. 

 

3 hours ago, RDETalus said:

My first complete Doom II map took me 1.5 years to make

 

I have one really, really important tip that has worked for me though: Keep your creative design time separate from your construction time...

... I never, ever open up Doom Builder unless I have a stack of notes and ideas ready to execute, otherwise I know I will just be wasting hours doing nothing.

My theory behind this is that design is an iterative process of trial and error, and each iteration costs you time. Iterative design can happen very fast if you're only using your imagination. You can iterate a dozen stair designs in your imagination within 15 minutes. However, iteration happens very slowly using software. It might take you 5 minutes to draw each stair design, by the time you've iterated through a dozen designs, you've already spent one solid hour drawing stairs. It's a very bad use of time.

 

Allow me to quote from my own website here:
"I didn't want to make and release a single map file, however. My thinking was having only one map was boring. I chose to have ten maps.

At the time, some of my favorite deathmatch files had anywhere from twelve to twenty maps so I really didn't think that ten maps was too

ambitious. Little did I know then, but I was on my way to making ten levels of suck"

 

Doom is a craft. Take your time with it. Re-evaluate your work after you've made something. Sometimes, that means putting it away for a

month or two and coming back to it later. When you come back to it, you'll have grown as a human being and how you remembered something

was isn't actually how it is. Rome wasn't built in a day as they say. Here's a neat little nugget I like to call my Doom release timeline:

1st project, ten maps of suck: December 2011

2nd project, four maps of not suck quite as bad: January 2014

3rd project, seven maps of only sucks some of the time: October 2021

 

Does this mean the making of these maps was worthless? No. They were all necessary in a process called mapping evolution. Nowadays,

I really don't endeavor to make multi-map projects. I'm an old person who wonders "will tomorrow be my last day on the planet?" So, I focus

on one map at a time. I will make this map/project to the best of my ability and if I die immediately after releasing it, I will be satisfied that I

got something done.

[Cadman]

Been mapping for quite some time...I usually throw out the basic layout and go from there and let my imagination take over.  I don't add a lot of detail until later on in the process.  Whether it be monsters, lights, ammo...etc.  Everyone is different that's for sure.  There are some mappers that can just blow me out of the water when it comes to speed of mapping.  For many people theming is important, placement of monsters, balancing of resources such as ammo, health, weapons and armor.  Get comfortable with your editor, learn those hot keys and be patient.  For some of us that have been mapping for years we are still learning everyday.  Best of all have fun, it's very easy to get frustrated with it.  Looking forward to your work!

 

Cadman - Member TeamTNT / Doom2 Grandmaster DHT5 Standards

Edited May 5 by Cadman

[Baron T. Mueriach]

32 map MEGAWAD is crazy, and I tried it myself with attempting to make 1 map per day for 32 days (safe to say it did not work out at all)

 

My advice, make the layout before you make the aesthetic. Check out what I made in about 9 minutes in UDB by just free handing random shit:

 

(Yes, it's a spawning vats replacement.)

 

But see how 90% of it isn't textured? That's because you need to make the layout first, then worry about details, monster placement, item placement, decor, etc.

So, just keep it up and take whatever advice you want. Good luck!

Edited May 5 by Baron T. Mueriach

[EraserheadBaby]

You could also look into a community project to learn from people and get play tests.

 

*cough cough* 

 

I'm still kind of a noob to mapping.  The other person who joined is better than me and I'm learning stuff from them already.  The expectations for this wad aren't too high.  There's a description outlining the stuff we want to do. There are pics of the three levels in the works.  It would set some concrete design goals and give you a more immediate learning group.  We're using dynamic lights, slopes, and other UDB/GZ features, so you'd be pushed to learn that stuff. We aren't using custom textures or enemies.  We also don't want huge levels, so you could just make something fairly small but try to pack it with learning experiences.  Then take what you learn from making that level and make your megawad. 

[Chernobog The Exalted]

Thanks guys, also, I forgot to mention that I would be dividing it into: 6 chapters, each having 5 maps, each chapters with own aesthetics (inspired by eviternity:)), and a bonus chapter with 6 maps, but each map's styles would be corresponding with the previous chapters eg. map31 would have chapter 1's aesthetics, map32 would have chapter 2's aesthetics. But well, I would be reconsidering my choice, I would do some mapping in my free time (about 1-2 hours a day or lower), after I did each chapter I would maybe release it and take a break. 

8 hours ago, prfunky said:

 

There are multiple methods of adding wfall textures to your wad/map but it depends on what your target platform is, re: which doom source port

you intend your map to be run in. In my case, I was targeting ZDoom-based ports so if you look at map05 of Chap DM3 you'll see an example.

I would like to run it in DSDA-Doom

Also, your other words actually affected me a lot, for the better.

Edited May 5 by Chernobog The Exalted
inspiration

[Chernobog The Exalted]

7 hours ago, prfunky said:

 

Allow me to quote from my own website here:
"I didn't want to make and release a single map file, however. My thinking was having only one map was boring. I chose to have ten maps.

At the time, some of my favorite deathmatch files had anywhere from twelve to twenty maps so I really didn't think that ten maps was too

ambitious. Little did I know then, but I was on my way to making ten levels of suck"

 

Wait, so you're actually in your 50's now? Your old age reminds me of Ty (he was born in 1945), it actually both confuses and comforts me at the same time, I guess doom is for all ages, well if you're gonna show it to ya toddler, better remove those torturous textures.

[prfunky]

Just now, Chernobog The Exalted said:

Wait, so you're actually in your 50's now? Your old age reminds me of Ty (he was born in 1945), it actually both confuses and comforts me at the same time, I guess doom is for all ages, well if you're gonna show it to ya toddler, better remove those torturous textures.

Well, Ty is gone I believe... long live Ty Halderman!

 

But yah, I'm 56. Started Doom mapping in 2003. Prior to that, I was interested in doing 2D games a'la William's arcade-y stuff.

Part of me getting into mapping then was showing my kids how stuff like video games work. They're 32 and 31 years old now.

 

[z34chris]

This pertains to early stages of mapmaking process and the methods used.

I put together a rough layout map that is based around a Storror London Tube race parkour video on youtube.

Race The Tube - London Parkour POV 🇬🇧 - YouTube

 

The attached map only contains the layout with some landmarks--no detailing of any sort.

storpov1.zip

Edited May 6 by z34chris
add more description to post

[shroomzy5000]

trying to compare building maps in UDMF or any modern enhanced format to the vanilla days i think is an unfair comparison.  sure john whipped together a map in a few hours but thats also because he had far less options to choose from.  i can personally guarantee you, john during his speedmap session never even had to contemplate making a bridge, or how to.. because 3D floors didnt exist.

 

Brother my first map wap in development for 3 months.  The map im releasing this month has been in dev for 6 months.  at that rate a 32 map wad would take me years.

 

The time commitment goes up with the scope of tools we have available to us.  Look at sigil.. this is proof that if john had the tools to go detailed and drop a ton of time into it, he would have.

 

I think the point im trying to make is map at your own pace, and over time you will become faster... but if you are to solely look at the time commitment into building, there are certain attention to detail things you have to be willing to cut out.

 

Any map maker knows, making things look good is the most time consuming part of mapping.  functional changes are generally quick and easy and only happen once.  visual changes happen tidiously and overtime.  you may spend an hour on a room then a week later after seeing it 30 times since, you go in and spend another hour to mix it up or expand...

 

A final word, it is mentally unhealthy to compare your current level of success to literally anyone else, especially along the lines of creativity.  Sure e4m2 might have been the best back in 96 - but what do you think it takes to be the "best" today?  I promise you its surely not something that can be done in 6 hours.

 

Work at your own pace and really focus on retaining what you learn to do.. i feel a lot of new mappers get burnt out because they don't actually internalize what they are doing.  if you spend an hour watching tutorials on stairs, then forget and a month later have to do that again, that's not going to be fun or feel good.  

 

When I learn a new thing, i like to go hard in it, until im comfortable to the point that i don't need to go back to the reference material.  When i first started with poly objects, i didnt go small, i said okay, 20 poly objects in this map... and a ton of them doing different things.

When you start scripting, dont just copy and paste shit from the wiki or that you see online.  write it yourself.  typing it will help you become familiar with the languages and the different functions.  put comments on every line that tell you what you are doing, so every time you open the scripts page you are reading and are reminded of what your code is doing.

 

It might not seem like much but when you are mapping and on a roll, its a ball buster to have to stop and pull up the wiki to figure out "should i be using ACSExecute or ACSLockedExecute.  

 

The more you map in ways that reinforce and cement the things you already know and learn, the less time is spent revisiting these things.  If you need to make a test map and build 100 arches to remember how to make arches without looking it up DO IT.

 

When you are new to UDB it seems like a bottomless pit of creativity.  oh you got stairs figured out? now slopes.  you got slopes? now curves, Poly objects, 3d floors, cameras and interpolation, scripting, the list just goes on and on... there's always something new to learn. but show restraint, don't just learn enough of a thing to get your immediate use case out of the way, if the map you want says you gotta learn how to machine that lets you pick from a wall of buttons and get a specific ammo type - go deeper than the code you need to make that work.  learn about TIDs - learn about actor classes - learn about map points and how they spawn things. always get to the most fundamental understanding of what you are doing, when you boil everything down to its foundation, you can build much more on that foundation than just the one specific use case that lead you there.

 

This is was a kinda long and ranty post less about how to be a faster mapper but i guess just a better way to map that instills knowledge retention.  at the end of the day, the thing that slows down editing the most is leaving the editor.  every time you have to leave UDB and go to the wiki, here, YouTube, that takes away from the speed and efficiency of mapping, it also has a physiological effect of always reminding you just how much you don't know.. so every mappers #1 goal if they want to be fast, should be to minimize the number of times you have to leave the editor and use outside reference material that you aren't storing in your brain.  Since you obiously just cant internalize everything on the wiki commit the things to memory that come up the most.  For example, we will compare the value of having a ton of knowledge on how to build arches good or how to make good skyboxes. you could sink hours - days even, into learning all the intricate details about skyboxes, how they work, how to have more than 1, etc etc. but for the most part, youll only ever need to really work on the skybox 1 time per map... but there's no telling how many arches you might need in a map. and what if you make a new room? does it need more arches?  The point here is you could essentially never retain any info on how to make custom skybox.  it could be something you need to revisit & relearn every single map you make and it takes you 1-2 hours every time.  that 1-2 hours lost per map, is nothing compared to the time you saved by never needing to relearn arches, since now you can make 100 arches in a matter of minutes lol

 

 

[ALilGrayBoi]

Focus on the layout and enemy/item placement. Them focus on details. Also don’t use pain elementals