Advice for Getting Started in H5 Forge

This might help you out, and there's a few Forgers here who are more then happy to sit around and help out if you need it ^^ hope this helped

 

There are numerous guides and tutorials on youtube so there is a good source for you to start.

As for building maps, just start simple by forging a scene or something, lets say a buildsite or whatever. Get a feel of the scale of the blocks and your Spartan. You build sfuff way too big too fast. Start scrolling the entire menus of what you can spawn/build. Grab a block, move it around, see what the options are of that block with colors, textures, magnets, welding, rotating, grouping, copy, fixed, phased, normal etc.

Check out other peoples maps in forge for ideas and inspiration and let your own ideas flow. Check all the canvases and their map options day/night/sunrise plus the types of fog and weather etc.

And then just start building. Make a simple grifballcourt, an aesthethic map, a map with all natural pieces, a big racetrack and stuff like that, just to learn the controls and get used to the whole interface. It will take some time but it will go faster and more efficient each time.

Check out the map page daily or just check what maps other members who post on these forums have built. You will get the hang of it pretty quick.

Last but not least, forging is an art and making a good map is extremely difficult. My maps are not very good but I build for myself and still have so much fun doing it.

Have fun!

 

Screw around in forge and watch YouTube tutorials to get a hang of the basic controls.

Once you've got those down, start thinking of your first map. For me, I usually get inspired by real life locations, tv shows, other video games, or even concept art. After you've got the theme, you now have to decide its suited game types and player count. Is it meant for 4v4? Is it infection? These are the questions you have to figure out.

Now, the fun part, designing and building the map. I usually start with a sketch of a top down version of the map. You can even use google sketchup. Figure out if its asymmetrical or symmetrical, where buildings/structures will go, how natural terrain (if your map has any) will go, that type of stuff. Also, weapons and spawns are good things to look at at this stage.

So now you've got your map planned, it's time to boot up halo 5 and go into forge. Sometimes it can be intimdating starting on one of the blank canvases. That's why it's very important to block out your map. This means to use the primitive blocks and set up the basic shapes and structures on your map. Save all of the visual stuff for later. For one, if you spend a few hours getting one building looking perfect and beautiful and keep forging like that, there's a good chance you'll find your map is too big, small, or awkward feeling, and all of your beautiful visuals will have to be moved. Also, you should start testing at the block out stage because changes to the layout are easy to fix in forge.

After doing some initial testing, it's time to beautify your blockout. This is a very personal and subjective process, so I won't go into it.

After this, just keep testing until you feel it's done!

Sorry if this was long. When I started out, I would've loved if someone explained all of this **** to me lol. Welcome to forgehub man!

 

http://www.forgehub.com/threads/forge-fundamentals.147829/ I suggest reading this, it's still helpful even to experienced designers.

One thing I will say is that you're not going to be at your best when you start. It's a learning process, but if you stay dedicated you can become one of the greats, I guarantee it.

EDIT: Also this is helpful http://www.forgehub.com/threads/gameplay-and-level-design.142784/

 

Wow that is a big amount of info. Thanks for digging that up. And you too mister @a Chunk for putting that together. Awesome.