Room by Room VS Layout Method

[Lycaon]

So I just realized some people draw the whole layout of the map and then add everything to it. This really never occured to me, and it got me thinking that I might be the only one who draws room by room, completing most of it before moving to the next one. Is this so?

[SuperCupcakeTactics]

Nope I do it that way too. I've only drawn complete layouts for stuff like birthday maps. Yesterday I started drawing layouts on paper and going off from that and I think it really helps get me started so I don't spend so much staring at editor screen. Like I make a room that looks kinda like how I imagined it to on paper and then ideas pop in my head as I go on that. Also I guess if I end up getting stuck sometime I can just look back on the paper for a layout piece to go off from again.

[scifista42]

Don't assume that all people are the same based only on several people's comments. Building room by room is my primary method of mapmaking. I keep adding rooms, then tweaking shapes until I'm satisfied, then adding new ones, then tweaking shapes again, etc. It's rather slow, but I've never been able to think off an entire layout before thinking about every room's shape and functionality. Also, I often change my mind about them during the mapping process, as I see fitting. So using this "room by room" method comes naturally.

[purist]

Layout nearly always works better for me. I would definitely recommend it if you have an overall idea of what you want your level to be like or a large scale gimmick or set piece. It is good for getting scale right and working out the mechanics of your level.

Room by room is ok if you're making the level up on the fly but even then I wouldn't recommend finishing rooms completely as it can inhibit you from changing things up later.

[Soundblock]

A friend and ex-colleague of mine, Alex Mayberry, had a very peculiar method of building his Doom maps, including the Eternal Doom stuff - he would only plot out verteces until he had a constellation he was happy with. Then he'd join them up with lines to create sectors where he saw fit. I imagine you could only do this with the 1st generation doom builders...

[Breezeep]

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1346906

[Xegethra]

scifista42 said:

Don't assume that all people are the same based only on several people's comments. Building room by room is my primary method of mapmaking. I keep adding rooms, then tweaking shapes until I'm satisfied, then adding new ones, then tweaking shapes again, etc. It's rather slow, but I've never been able to think off an entire layout before thinking about every room's shape and functionality. Also, I often change my mind about them during the mapping process, as I see fitting. So using this "room by room" method comes naturally.

Pretty much how I do it as well....No paper, no plans, just an image in my head of the general level and room types. Then I make it up as I go along, then I see things and sometimes think immediately how I can change or add to it. Like one time I saw I had just a few bars blocking a corridor....so I swapped that out for a blood bath with blocking dead things and pillars and didn't spend ages thinking about it. I made up it's decorations as I went along too.

[40oz]

I've gotten into the habit of building my maps starting with the middle. A main hub or something, what I consider should be the biggest and most interesting room in the map. Then I build outward towards the start, and towards the exit, and to other objectives, like key card locations and important switches, etc. I've found this to be the best way of controlling the size of my maps.

[AD_79]

I generally draw out the full undetailed layout (in wireframe view) before doing anything else. Then again, I tend to build fairly small maps, so this might end up being a bit of a painful process when I get into making larger maps.

[gaspe]

I start with a general idea of the layout, or pieces of it, than I go with a room by room approach; which I think it's better since I change often idea according to how things actually render. I wait a bit to see if I will change the room before going with the detail, but having most of the detail done helps me to have a clearer vision of what to do next and possibly to not to make the same things.

Breezeep said:

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1346906

There are some interesting thoughts here.

[Reisal]

I generally do room by room but one of my more recent and currently undone collabs did a layout approach.

[Deleted_Account]

I've only recently started mapping, but so far I map room by room. I don't finish the room 100% before moving onto the next one, I like to come back a later time and do some fine tuning until I'm satisfied. It's a slow process, I'm certainly not a very good mapper lol.

[Nevander]

The maps I've done have started as room by room but I have some layouts already drawn and imagined for a few of my future maps. I just know making the ones with layouts are a hell of a lot easier to get finished.

[Lycaon]

Well there are certainly many different ways to approach mapping, this I found reading through the posts in the links some of you shared as well. Personally, I find it difficult to make maps that have fun room designs (such as different platform heights and traps) following the room by room method, but I never tried anything else. I almost always end up with a room than can be sniped clean from the door, even though I add platforms and stuff. Just recently i'm starting to improve that, but I might try to do the layout thing in the next part of the map i'm making and see the results.