Where I Get My (Mostly Bad) Ideas

I wanted to share with you one way I help myself generate new ideas in case any of you are interested.

I ask myself two questions, listed below. But first, I want to give a word.

When you forge, you should clearly define your goals so that you know what you want your map to do, going forward. Goals may be things such as to make a 4v4 slayer map with long sight lines, to learn about what happens with 4 levels of verticality, to learn what happens when your map is purposely way too small, to nail forerunner architecture, to use a ghost, to use two sets of teleporters, to troll your friend, etc. The more specific and clear your goals are, the more guided you will be.

I have played a lot of really sound forge maps. They have fun and balanced layouts, the aesthetics demonstrate effort, details are carefully designed to make the gameplay more fun. They follow all of the timeless conventions that make a map resemble something that belongs in matchmaking. But I forget most of these maps shortly after. I forget them because they do not stand out.

Often times, people try to make maps that are familiar, and good. It's more than okay to make a good, familiar map. But, if you want your map to stand out, you'll have to do something differently than the others. When you play 10 maps that all follow the conventions of a good map, you may find that the maps are so similar that you are unable to distinguish or remember any of them in particular. On the forum, there's a link to an article written by a game developer that I am too lazy to find. He said, "If you stick to conventions, you'll have a conventional game."

Maps usually stand out to me for one of two reasons. Either it looked and played extraordinarily above average, If you want to make your map stand out by doing something a little more creative, I would suggest asking the following two questions:

Why?
Any time someone gives you a rule of thumb that tells you to do something a certain way, you should always ask, "Why?" Rules of thumb are quick lessons that tell you how to stay on the straight path to making the map that the person talking to you thinks is good. However, his definition of good is likely to be different than yours, which is why I suggested clearly defining your goals.

If you want to make something classic and timeless, then following the accepted rules of thumb is perfectly okay! However, if you want to make your map stand out by being a little different, you should question the things that people tell you.

If you have time, go ahead and break the rule and see what happens. You may find that something really cool happens, or you may find that it is a good idea to obey the rule after all. You likely cannot know until you try.

What if...
You should be like a kid and always ask what happens when things are a little different (or a lot different)! If you are playing around and see a cool piece you like, or an interesting relationship between two pieces, or an interesting way to use a piece, these are all great times to begin asking questions about what happens when you do things differently.

You may also pose a challenge in the form of a question, "What if I made this map out of only one kind of piece?" or "What if I had two damage boosts?"

But not all of these questions needs to lead to a ground breaking discovery. They can be something subtle, "What if I moved this door over 8 units?" or "What if I deleted this wall?"

The goal of a what if question is to get yourself to try and learn a lesson that can later be used.