Another article in my Mapping 101 series looking at the basic and funadamental theories behind a good map. In this edition I will cover the basics of gameflow, why it is important to a game and how you can build it into your maps.

Introduction
Gameflow is a significant element of a level because it directly relates to how your level plays and how much enjoyment players will get out of it. The six main issues to bear in mind when designing a level that has good gameflow are…

• Height
  Different height levels make for much more interesting and varied fights. Battling on only one level only provides for one form of combat and that gets boring quickly.
• Balance
  Essentially, for anything in the map that gives the player an advantage, there should be a disadvantage somewhere that evens the playing field.
• Variation
  Corridors and rooms that are all the same - whether it be in looks or size - are boring and confusing for the player as they cannot distinquish between different area. Having a varied structure to your map also means the action in your map will be varied.
• Focal points
  There needs to be integral points within your map where players ultimately converge. At the very least they provide somewhere for everybody to orientate themselves, which also ties into having variation.
• Flow
  Your map should always encourage players to be on the move (ignoring specialist situations like snipers, campers etc). They should rarely have to backtrack to get around the map.
• Choice
  Players like choice. They don’t want to be limited to one set of routes around a map as it quickly gets boring and puts limits on tactical options.

Example
To demontrate the above principles, below are examples of how I would implement them into a basic deathmatch map to create a map that has good gameflow. To start with we have this basic, symetrical shape which pretty much breaks all the rules.

Though this might look incredibly boring, it does demonstrate 2 of the building blocks to gameflow (albeit on a very basic level). No particular side of this corridor offers players an extra advantage so everyone would be on a balanced playing field. Also players would be constantly going round and round which creates a very basic, if boring, sense of flow.

Not much has been added here but what we have started to create is a bit of variation. The corridors are now different lengths and the map is no longer symetrical. This is significant because by having different length corridors that caters to a larger variety of players and weapons. The players now have choice. Do they turn left, right or straight on? Arguably you could say they had choice before in whether they went clockwise or anti-clockwise around the map but that is such a insignificant decision for the player it would hardly matter.

I’ve now added a large room to the map which adds the focal point. All corridors now lead to this point and players should now easily be able to orientate themselves because the corridors follow different shapes and join to the room on different sides.

Finally I am going to add an element of height to the map by adding a platform in the main room. This is significant in a few ways. Besides adding height it also creates some variation in what the fighting will be like in that room. In some ways it also adds a focal point because players will fight over getting the height advantage.

Notice that to keep a sense of balance I added two separate stairways to the platform. Though a player may get the advantage of being higher up than other players he will have the difficult task of defending this advantage from two directions. It also helps with flow because otherwise there would be only one way up to the platform and the player would have to backtrack to leave it. Finally I added a small room to what was otherwise a long boring corridor, again for variation.

Supplies
A final comment should also be made on power ups, health, weapons etc. These have a big influence on balance and focal points because in a sense they themselves are focal points for the player. Taking the example again, if all the supplies were added to the main room then there would be minimal reason for the players to spread out around the map, making the corridors largely redundant and damaging any flow the map would otherwise have.