Let's get one of these going, because being nerds is better than whining. If you've ever heard of a design term you didn't understand or are simply in need of a refresher, this should hopefully be resourceful. Post or revise any term relevant to Forge or Level Design and I'll add it to the thread. WORKFLOW Alpha (noun) - The initial playable iteration of a map, wherein the majority of its elements are subject to drastic changes as necessary. During the alpha stage, geometry is the primary focus of testing. A 3 Legged Goat spends thousands of hours on his alphas before testing them. The alpha test of the map would prove whether the new route would work or not. Art Pass (noun) - To implement art assets over a mass out. They were happy with the way the map played, so they decided to go ahead and do the first art pass. Assets (noun) - Prefabricated structures created by the Forger, often consisting of a group of objects, for duplicating throughout a map. Assets tend to be placed in a cluster outside of the map and used when necessary. Forgers may additionally keep track of the budgets of each asset. WyvernZu created pyramid assets to replicate the structures of Sandtrap Beta (noun) - The next stage following an Alpha, wherein the majority of its elements are nearly representative of the final product. During the beta stage, gameplay balance is the primary focus of testing. Think Twice received the ire of many when its public beta test was featured on Bungie.net. The beta showed that the Overshield was too powerful for the map. Lighting Pass (noun) - To set dress the map with lights. She ran another lighting pass to adjust the brightness of the hallway. Mass Out (noun) - A rough build of a map wherein the design is reduced to its simplest components to observe its gameplay elements within 3D space. Block out: A mass out largely consisting of temporary, placeholder objects such as blocks. Xandrith wasted a week creating a mass out of his map, only to throw it away soon after. (verb) - To create a rough build of a map Seth blocked out the map to run a quick test; it sucked. Modular (adjective) - Of or relating to the building of a map to the scale of one or more objects, as designated by the Forger. He built the map in a modular sense, using the 24 x 48 to establish the distances between the paths. Prefab (adjective) - A premade structure created in advance of the building of a map. She used several prefab objects to construct the blue base. Scrap (verb) - To throw out the design of a map that is not performing as expected. A 3 Legged Goat decided to scrap the map, surprising nobody. Scratch Build (adjective) - Concept; A rough mass out often using temporary art assets to establish the feeling and visual themes of the map. He created a scratch build to see how the map might look. Version Tracking (adjective) - To keep track of major and minor changes to a map using a decimal system. The Forger loaded up Alabast 0.5 and rescaled the middle structure. He then saved it as version Alabast 0.5.1 so that his co-forger would know he made a minor change. DESIGN PHILOSOPHY Aesthetic (noun) - The artistic qualities of a map, especially its details. The map's aesthetics caught the eye of the players. (adjective) - A pleasing, tasteful visual appearance This map is aesthetic as ****. Engagement Commitment (noun) - Characterized by the player's ability to follow through with a decision, and the results of doing so. Macro Positional: High Engagement Commitment Micro Positional: Low Engagement Commitment The map suffered from a very low engagement commitment, wherein player movement was hard to predict and punish. It's a macro positional map, so if you challenge and you don't know what you're doing, you're going to get wrecked. Flow (noun) - Of or relating to the movement of players throughout a map, especally as directed by the designer. The map routed players throughout the rooms to reach the upper levels; however, the ability to clamber onto upper ledges broke this flow. Meta (noun) - The strategies and gameplay on a map, especially relating to its profoundness and its ability to evolve over time. The map's meta had grown stale, so the developers decided to change the weapon set. Geometry (noun) - The shape and relative arrangement of the parts of the map. The map's geometry was very complex and intriguing. Height Variation (adjective) - The differences in height on a given level. The map's long sight lines were broken up by its height variation. Negative Space (noun) - The space that surrounds the playable geometry of a map, especially as it relates to its visual composition, which helps to define its boundaries. The map needed another structure to fill some of its negative space. Orientation (noun) - Of or relating to a player's ability to discern their position relative to the map, objectives and other players, especially off of spawn. Orientation is often aided by unique landmarks, lighting cues or color coding. The map's large tower helped players orient themselves as they approached the middle of the map. Pathing (noun) - The routes players take on a map to move from one location to another, especially as it relates to the travel time between the different areas. This map has very solid pathing, so I think it's going to play well. Red Reticle Range (RRR) (noun) - The distance at which a player's weapon reticle receives aim assist, especially of the starting weapon. In context, this is used to establish fighting ranges throughout a map. The bases were outside of the pistol's red reticle range, forcing players to move in closer to engage each other. Segmentation (noun) - The division and arrangement of geometry within a map, creating compartmentalized areas to curate engagements. The map was oversegmented, which made it difficult to find players. Theme (noun) - The prominent geometric and aesthetic elements of a map's design. The map's Japanese theme was painstakingly crafted and incredibly detailed. Traffic (noun) - Of or relating to the amount of player attention a given area of a map receives. The middle of the map was a high traffic area. Visual Weight (noun) - The ability of a region of the map to draw attention to itself. Visual weight is often created through the use of color contrast, textures and the variation of geometric proportions. The visual weight of the map favored the sides, enticing players to move along the edges of the map. Verticality (adjective) - Of or relating to the vertical playspace on the map along the Z-axis and its emphasis, as characterized by players being above another player. The map's extreme verticality made traversing the lower levels deceptively safe. ENGINE Ambient Lighting (adjective) - Available or existing light before a set is lit, especially natural lighting. Bounce Lighting (adjective) - Lighting bounced off a reflective surface to achieve a softer lighting effect. Caustic Lighting (adjective) - An envelope of light rays reflected or refracted by a curved surface or object, or the projection of that envelope of rays upon another surface, especially of liquids. Draw Distance (noun) - The maximum distance that objects are rendered by the engine Impostering (noun) - A series of algorithms responsible for swapping out simplified, low level-of-detail representations of objects when they are either not in the player's view, or are outside of the allotted draw distance. Z-Fighting (noun) - When two or more primitives have similar values in the z-buffer, causing flickering as one is displayed varyingly behind or in front of the other. PHRASES "Oh wow, this is interesting." When a Forger doesn't want to tell you that your map or idea sucks. "It's not a competitive map." When a Forger doesn't want to accept that their map sucks. "This would be a really good Infection map" I would rather rub my nipples with sandpaper, beat my wiener with nitroglycerin and then stick it in a John Deere lawn mower than play anything serious on this map." "This is so 4chubby." It's meant to appeal to people who only care how good it looks. "Hmm...this has potential." When a Forger has no idea where to begin fixing your map. "I quit Forging." When a Forger needs an ego boost but wants to be subtle about it.
Oh wow, this is interesting. I'll try to think of some terms to contribute. In the meantime, "Scratch Build" seems to be missing a word in it's example sentence. (...see if he liked how the map looked.) Cool thang, Goat.
Ya I fixed some of the errors. ForgeHub isn't really consistent when it comes to making lists. Feel free to suggest stuff too. I left out some of the more ambiguous design stuff and only wrote about things I was familiar with.
PHRASES "This would be a really good Infection map" I would rather rub my nipples with sandpaper, beat my wiener with nitroglycerin and then stick it in a John Deere lawn mower than play anything serious on this map."
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY Pathing (noun) - The routes players take on a map to move from one location to another, especially as it relates to the travel time between the different areas. This map has very solid pathing, so I think it's going to play well.
Interlox - (noun) An object within another object to create a seemlessly floor or wall. "Your map needs more interlox, 1/5." Tree - (noun/verb) Something needed to obtain a forgehub feature. Noun: "This map has a tree in it! 5/5" Verb: "Your map must tree before becoming featured!" Astrology - (Fated) A degree in which a forger must have to be considered a high tier forger. "No one takes @MultiLockOn seriously as a designer because he does not have a degree in astrology." It's a friendly jab, can a mod please tag Fated, it wouldn't let me! (Phrase) "It has potential" It means the review doesn't know where to even start to make your map play good at all.
Reach kid - Any Halo player who began playing halo during or after Halo Reach came out. Usually of bad opinions or forging skill. Eg. " This map sucks. Which makes sense because his first Halo game was Halo Reach and he also likes Sprint and clamber. " Dumbass -Anyone who thinks Halo CE isn't the best Halo. Alternative Definition - Anyone who thinks halo 5 has good weapon balancing. Eg. Player 1: I'm personally not a fan of the ce pistol, I think it's too strong and doesn't give the rest of the sandbox room to shine. I really enjoy the battle rifle in Halo 3! Plus, it feels so good in Halo 5 to finally feel like a spartan, now I can run thrust and clamber! Player 2: You're a fuking dumbass.
Blockout: - a map mostly consisting of the core geometry with little work done to overall aesthetics, lighting, and coloring. Used to test core gameplay before putting in effort to make it pretty to avoid wasted time. "I created this blockout to play a game of slayer to test the flow of the map." OR - a map where there is minimal color and lighting effects and the forger avoids responsibility by claiming this term. "Your bases are poorly colored and I have little sense of direction. Where are the lights?" "Oh uh, its a blockout. Yeah, its a blockout...Not finished at all... >_> <_<"
I don't have the time at the moment but someone should do Swiss cheese lines of sight and Swiss cheese pathing.