Evolutionary Design

Very nice!

Cool - the last image isn't reachable though.

i dont know about you, but i correct early design flaws before they exist by simply doing very basic sketches of gameplay (ie lines from both spawns to a middle point). even if i dont make one of these, i would never make a layout (let alone a map) so that the flow doesnt fit. my mind just instantly corrects the flaws as they occur.

Nice read, thx for sharing

Quote from Psycho

It's hard to fix flaws when they're such a big part of the map though.

I've fixed the last image now. No idea why it wasn't linked.

my point was that you fix flaws before they become part of the map, so that they won't be put in the layout in the first place.

You can't do that with some stuff, though. Some flaws only become apparently when you're actually testing the map.

evidently you can change a map's layout so that you correct flaws before they become visible. sure there are flow flaws that later become obvious when testing, but we're not talking about those now; it's just what you can do within the layout.

i also realized i didnt comment on the images, which i think for the most are hard to tell what is "above" and "below" and that is confusing me. what i usually do is a topographic view of the level so that you can easy tell what is where and how. for the rest of the article, you could also elaborate much more on how a multiplayer/singleplayer design is made in the first place (and comment on the evolution of that).

Yep, iterative design makes all the difference, and so does grid or triangle paper