How do you think of ideas?

Try to draw inspiration from things around you, or from other games (Unreal and Quake are particularly good). Think of something original, draw it out on paper. If it doesn't feel right, just file it for later...you might have an idea and come back to it someday!

 

I usually pull from other games, or pieces of existing geometry in the world. Sometimes my interpretation of song titles.

 

I get random flashes of inspiration. Sometimes I'll see a structure in real life or in another game and go 'huh, I could make that' and start forging it. Then the rest of the map just feels kind of natural. Or other times I'll be doodling random sketches of maps and get a good one. For me I like to start out small, focus on one bit of the map and then move on to the rest.

 

I seriously have "forge watch" multiple times throughout the day where I will see something, then think about how that could be incorporated into a map. Then I usually just write down the idea or draw it if it is complicated and put it in my pocket so I don't forget. Then if I think it could really work I expand on the idea once I get home. Then come forge time, I have my entire idea drawn out and ready to see if it is "forgeable." Other ways I get ideas is inspiration from other games like what Insane mentioned.

 

Yeah you can do that. When i need an idea i try to picture something in my head as if it were in a movie. I close my eyes and play music on my ipod. certain songs just for some reason help me (eminem works good). This works for me so you can try it if you want

 

I get map ideas constantly. Sometimes they're random dreams I have, other times they're just visions of things.

Once I come up with a loose idea I usually jot it down on paper just to actually see something. Sometimes it's just basic shapes other times it's more complex.


Thinking with forge is tough as you have to turn down your ideas a lot just to make it functional. And even if you make it as big as possible people will still complain about it being small :\

 

My thought process for making maps comes from all different areas. My first step is deciding how i want the map to flow. I usually try to picture how I want people to travel the map and how they will move about objective points. This part of the process for me is usually just a string of lines on a piece of paper with basic shapes representing bases, hallways, and main structures. I then turn to the world around me to come up with the aesthetics. I live near down town San Diego, and there are so many architectual buildings and bridges to draw inspiration from to make the final product.

 

Usually my inspiration for a map starts with the gametype. This is sometimes inspired by movies or what the parameters for specific gametypes are. The actual construction is often insipred by architecture I might see on the street, or sometimes by accident when im merging objects and make a mistake that turns out better than my original idea.

ManRayX


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