Map Creation Advice

Does anyone have tips when building a map for an open-world city game?

One of the biggest things I can suggest for you is to use a reference. I don’t have experience in building open world cities, but I am an artist. If you have experience with blender, that could also help with modeling out a cool city.

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I have a outline I drew of the entire map, but I’m having issues coming up with the actual layout of everything.

Maybe figure out a terrain you could use, and build onto that? You could adapt the city depending what climate you want to design your town in.

I suggest using the search bar since there are many helpful posts on this topic, such as this:

Make a list of things you need to put in the city
House, cars, store…
Then start building everything on a side of the map and when you finish you organise it and arrange their places.

Start off with sketches to get a general idea, then white box your map afterwards. It’ll give you an idea of where things are placed and how to scale builds. If you’re working with terrain map, use this plugin to turn whitebox/parts into terrain later on.

Ex

image

Suggestions on creating map creations:

  1. Gather ideas on what you would like to produce: Where is it? (School, woods, etc) What time period is it in? (Present, 1900s, etc) Who will be there? (Animals, people, etc) What is the focus of the game? (Maze, sword fighting, etc) What theme is it? (Low-poly, etc)

  2. Draw quick illustrations of what you would like things to resemble, these shouldn’t be minor details like table designs. You should only illustrate larger models such as houses with the inside and outside clearly sketched. (You can look on the internet for references on certain objects too that could source to how you want your overall formation to show)

  3. Draw the map sample, this should plot where everything should be positioned in a clear view, so you can get straight into building with some referrals by your side.

  4. Get into Roblox Studio and begin with creating the larger model designs that you had already planned earlier, keep referencing off them and try to stay as accurate as you can.

  5. Begin designing the inside features of the larger models, these will involve furniture, wall designs, etc. Feel free to again reference off the internet, you can also sketch if needed.

  6. Reference off your earlier sketch of the entire map and position all the models in the correct places, make sure a basic flooring is also established.

  7. Begin decorating the environment, keep in mind of the theme and what structures are involved. Feel free to again reference if needed, but keep it unique.

  8. Check the entire map and make sure no mistakes were created, this could include adding the smallest details to certain areas to help make it more realistic to what your game should resemble.

  9. Always get others to check the design, you can simply post photos of your map on ‘Building Support’ and people will happily recommend what you could change and add to simply improve your map design.


Hopefully these basic steps will help improve your map creations, keep in mind it is always going to take time to produce these, so stay focused and try not to procrastinate. With that said, good luck on your building.

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