What does it take to make a good FPS map?

Help and Feedback Game Design Support
#1

Hello,

I and my dev partner @rawbyte are making an FPS game inspired by Battlefield but different in its own way. I’m the “designated” builder and I’ve done small detailed builds but building a map is a first for me.

Are there any tips for map design and building a map that players would like?

How do you get inspiration?

What do I need to take into account?

What materials should I use for my colour & material palette?

How do I make the map suitable for CQB, Medium or Large maps with vehicles, etc?

4 Likes
#2

Make sure your map’s structure / geometry supports the right kind of gameplay. If your shooter has all sorts of weapons but the maps are all wide open, then no one will ever want to use a close ranged weapon. Make sure your map also has a nice flow so players randomly encounter each other. You wouldn’t want to make them actively look for enemies.

Play other shooters, try to identify what makes the game unique and see if they used any subtle design choices that makes the maps work better.

Players usually don’t turn around at random, so make map layouts obvious. Use unique landmarks that players can use to identify where exactly they are in the map. Watch towers, skyscrapers, statues and the like can all be seen from a distance and will help players pinpoint where they are.

Material doesn’t matter really; Just play around and see what looks nice. Color and lighting on the other hand is really important. Use bright lights to guide players and use contrasting or vibrant colors to color code or draw attention to important locations.

Tunnels, houses, enclosed objectives, pits, fences. There are a lot of options to wall of sections and reduce visibility from long ranges.

16 Likes
What makes a good FPS Map?
#3

Map Design – FPS

What To Account With?
The maps are usually based from real locations or aesthetics that exist(or derived from).

  • CQB

    • Take CS:GO map designs as examples
    • Combat mechanics
    • Balance – no side should reach the middle faster than the other

  • Large maps

    • Battlefield franchise is an example
    • Terrain
    • Roughness

Summarized

All map designs can be based off a real location or an aesthetic type, the aesthetics are “borrowed” from there. Proper color palettes should do the job for each part of the map(or static palette like Superhot). We also know that the map requires a “flow” which are visualized paths for players to reach somewhere.

The aesthetics depends on what you’re aiming for. If you’re looking for photorealism, try using textures and meshes by using Blender.

These are the main points:

  • Mechanics – Are we playing the game like Battlefield or Quake?
  • Aesthetics – Lowpoly, photorealism, minimalism, etc. Creates an identity.
  • Dynamics – Overall flow of the map.

It’s MAD, yes.

6 Likes
#4
  • FPSs tend to show a constant amount of areas to take cover (“shield”).
    • This may include barricades, counters, etc. Most of these maps should have a crawling maneuver to benefit these furnishings (i.e. Phantom Forces).
  • For builds particularly, I base my inspiration off of two things: a show/series or an incentive (i.e. a build as my application to …)
    • For an FPS however, I recommend looking at other FPS games.
  • This ties into preference, but I recommend staying away from pastel/rainbow colors and looking into grayscale/brown colors (“more serious colors”)
    • These colors can include, gray, light gray, brown, black. A trace of dark yellow, red, and maybe blue blend in as well.
1 Like
#5

For materials, do what makes sense in the situation. (No smooth plastic walls, No wooden sidewalks etc.)

Also, are you going to make it a symmetrical map (some maps on arsenal like metro or dizzy) or non-symmetrical (like every map on Phantom forces/ a few maps on Arsenal such as sandtown or bouleard) If you make it a symmetrical map, try using colours to define the teams “territory”

2 Likes
#6

My Suggestions

Okay so everyone before this post has made really great suggestions and I definitely recommend them all to be taken into account when making this map.

Honestly, if you asked me a full game map is 60% gameplay, 40% aesthetics. In other words, I 100% believe that gameplay is more important than how the map looks. Now don’t get me wrong, the 40% is there for a reason. Maps that don’t look good will instantly scare of players either way.

So you can try these suggestions:

  • Don’t make the map super flat, add uniqueness all around
  • Don’t focus on big details and small details at the same time, start with a good strong stages of development.

My Recomended Stages of Development

  1. Start with the base of the map (terrain and height) Make the terrain, do a quick rough draft, make it special make it nice. If your map does not have terrain, focus on the height of the different portions of the map.
  2. Slowly add detail to map bit by bit, don’t try doing the whole thing in layers, it will be stressful and the results won’t be as great.

Get Help

You may be capable of building and designing the entire map your self, but don’t judge it your self. Get people to try it out and give suggestions.

Look at examples

Good FPS maps are already out there. Of course, I am not suggesting copying them, but just analyze them. Take a few minutes to play popular FPS games in and out of ROBLOX and try analyze what makes this map good. Even try asking other players, it may help out.

And to specificly answer your questions:
How do you get inspiration?
A: Google Images, games you play

What do I need to take into account when analyzing other FPS maps?
A: How they use height, how they use buildings and walls and other barriers, where they have located check points and stuff, where they purposely add difficulty and where they don’t.

What materials should I use for my colour & material palette?
A: Honestly, don’t worry too much about this, focus on the flow of your map first. There is no specific style for an FPS map, do you, do what you want. Make it unique, make it something you’ve never seen, people won’t care as long it looks good. But, people do care for a specific kind of flow to your map.
and while its funny to say this it is true… people like fire, explosions, and cool things that light up, and flashes…

How do I make the map suitable for CQB, Medium or Large maps with vehicles, etc?
As I said, see what previous devs have done in the past.

Also forget to mention this earlier in this post but…
For every part I said to analyze an already good and popular FPS map to get ideas, also take time to analyze bad FPS maps. See what they did wrong, ask around, see why it’s hated so widely. It’s not just enough to know what’s good, but also what’s bad so you don’t make the same mistake.

And just take your time.
Good things shouldn’t and usually aren’t rushed. :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#7

A good FPS map is a map that:
You can play hide and seek in,
Plenty of walls in some or all areas,
Different elevations (heights),
And a few spots with multiple ways to get to, to avoid too much camping.
Also maybe a few interactive items like E to something.