User:Pinchy

Overview
Sandbox is my favourite style. It provides the most amount of player choice and different routes that alter most of the variables that affect a players experience such as difficulty progression and time played

I start with a few days to a week just meditating and building ideas, this varies depending on the quality of submission required and complexity of the idea

I've made lots of maps based on a piece of music that fills my head with ideas, the entirety of The Alfonzone was created using that method the complete series of Alfonzo's speedmidis

Jimmy's 30 in 30 tracks are a go to choice for me, as well as Jmickle's midi packs

Philosophy

 * To progress through and explore the level creation process of all the classic shooters
 * I will always own and provide my previous work, it is a record that shows the journey of how far I've come

Technical Process

 * Choose the texture groups for the main sections and the connections (at least two walls and two floors)
 * Choose the textures for the utility groups: Switches, lights, trims and teleporters
 * Replace the STARTAN2 default texture with one that makes height easy to read at a glance
 * Measure out the spaces for the main open areas and connections
 * Construct the map boundary and skybox build around that
 * Decide the unique detailing tropes for each main area
 * Create motifs I can reuse with variations throughout each section (such a pillar for a torch to stand on, room trim and ceiling detail styles)

Tenets I Abide By

 * Use the least amount of doors and movement blockers possible
 * Well lit and faced switches and activators
 * Add a good mix of liquids and middefs
 * Evenly mix roaming, teleporting and moving floor monster reveals
 * Minimal symmetry
 * Include outdoor and indoor areas
 * Clean alignment and automap
 * Good colour groups in each room/section/biome
 * Only use high health monsters as tough pressure or fixed turrets that are low priority targets (so as not to stall a fast paced encounter or drain a players ammo)

Links

 * My Doom content
 * My Quake content
 * Twitch stream Live mapping streams here