How did you guys learn how to map?

[ShoDemo]

I personally went the worst way possible about my first map.

I had this plan in my head, where everything had a right place to be and got ideas from many different WADs I played before. So, I opened up the editor, watched basic tutorials about doors and sectors, created the starting room, where the player spawns and overdetailed the living crap out of it (for my mapping standards that is). Then I made more rooms, while adding enemies, even though I hadn't finished the basic layout yet. Afterwards, I tried implementing the features I thought of, in my plan. Whatever I couldn't do alone, I would search in more advanced tutorials or ask to find out. Of course, some things couldn't happen easily or I wouldn't like them in my final map, so I discarded them and went for improvisation at those points.

 

About the final result, I can say it is nearly done (85-90% progress) and I am quite happy about how it ended up. Maybe I was lucky after all (or not). However, I would suggest to everybody else, who is new to mapping, to follow what is being said in this thread. I know for a fact, that I will be more careful next time with the steps I will follow. The excitement I had about me creating my first map was so huge that I just wouldn't hear anybody in making a smaller map (stubborn, I know), but there is always room for improvement and I already have even more ideas for my next maps, once I am sure that I will have more experience that is.

[Fonze]

Thats good advice Not Jabba, but I disagree that thing placement should be done last; detailing is the last thing that should be finalized. You don't want to detail an area, place monsters then realize you made a crucial error on the design post-detailing; messing with a tangled skein of lines is never good.

[Vorpal]

I started with learning the basic vocabulary in one of those early FAQs, linedef, sector, tag, and so on. Then it was a matter of opening other wads to figure out how things were done. It's not as efficient as watching a tutorial but it's probably more memorable since you are doing it yourself instead of watching passively.

[Nine Inch Heels]

@stru, if you want, you can try editing an existing wad as well. It might not be the most efficient and comprehensive way to learn mapping from scratch, but perhaps it is something that offers a relatively low entry-barrier so you can get in touch with the process to some extent. If you're interested, I've opened up a thread right here, for a community project. If you feel like this something you may want to try (no strings attached), let me know. If there is something I can help you with when you encounter any problems, I'll do my best to explain things. How about it?

[40oz]

Refer to the IWADs, and attempt to reproduce what's in there to your own ability. As far as the correct order or "right way" to do things, youre going to get a lot of variation in your responses. Many of us are self taught and you're not going to figure out how to do it best until you:

 

1. Make up an opinion about what maps are good and bad.

2. Read peoples reviews and compare them to your own experiences

3. Release what you make and absorb the feedback.

[Dragonfly]

28 minutes ago, Fonze said:

Thats good advice Not Jabba, but I disagree that thing placement should be done last; detailing is the last thing that should be finalized. You don't want to detail an area, place monsters then realize you made a crucial error on the design post-detailing; messing with a tangled skein of lines is never good.

I disagree with both of you :P

 

The way I map, most areas tend to be in their final state before the next room is even started. This usually allows me to have more time to think about the layout of the map and allow it to slowly form. It also allows me to become inspired by my own architecture, often making me create more elaborate layouts that are far, far more interesting than anything I would have made with a thing-less startan ridden set of walls. :)

 

Fact of the matter is, you will find YOUR WAY of mapping with time and experience; so while I may preach my methods and others preach theirs, you may find that these ways of working are the worst way of working for you. :)

[Not Jabba]

37 minutes ago, Fonze said:

Thats good advice Not Jabba, but I disagree that thing placement should be done last; detailing is the last thing that should be finalized. You don't want to detail an area, place monsters then realize you made a crucial error on the design post-detailing; messing with a tangled skein of lines is never good.

I wasn't advocating it; I was just using Mech as an example of how someone who knows what they're doing can eventually develop their own methods.

[Paul977]

Doom builder 2 tutorial, practice, helps from doomworld forum

[BigDickBzzrak]

In early 2016 I wanted to learn this mapping thing. The first tutorial I stumbled upon was... dont laugh... the very basic tutorial on Doom Legacy's site. Legacy was my port of choice then. So i made two rooms, a door and a teleporter. Then, I downloaded 13 video tutorials from AlysiumX's channel and started building on that firt Legacy tutorial. Afterwards, I drew some random shapes, slapped in some monsters. After that, I made one more map.

Those two maps are now known as WNIEPOOH.WAD. They were reviewed by Aquarius199 a few months later.

 

A few days after releasing it, I discovered that those maps SUCK! That was a shock.

[Remilia Scarlet]

I had a friend teach me the bare basics using DEU in DOS. I think that was in 1995. From there it was just experimentation with gameplay, and paying attention to architecture both in real-life and in other games.

[Dragonfly]

5 minutes ago, YukiRaven said:

I had a friend teach me the bare basics using DEU in DOS. I think that was in 1995. From there it was just experimentation with gameplay, and paying attention to architecture both in real-life and in other games.

I miss when I had IRL friends who liked Doom. They all one by one moved on. It was great to be the 'leader / teacher' of a small group of mappers back at secondary school.

[GarrettChan]

5 minutes ago, Dragonfly said:

I miss when I had IRL friends who liked Doom. They all one by one moved on. It was great to be the 'leader / teacher' of a small group of mappers back at secondary school.

Yeah, when you have IRL friends with the same hobbies, that's a lot of fun. Now it seems that everyone is "tied" together with Internet, but back then, people are more "classic" (I don't know what word to use), you know.

[Dragonfly]

1 hour ago, GarrettChan said:

but back then, people are more "classic" (I don't know what word to use), you know.

Physical, real human interaction. I loved going to school with a floppy disk (and later USB storage) hyped about sharing my latest map, or being told by my friend at lunch that he too has finished his new map. Good times.

 

I still have a lot of 'real world interaction' with my friends but for different hobbies that are honestly far less involved / niche

[LordShadowZ]

I watched video tutorials on Youtube while copying what they did in Doom Builder. Then I just started experimenting, seeing what worked and what didn't, and tested the limits of what I could do and then went beyond that, until I got to a point of competency.

[Impie]

To be honest, I'm not sure I ever did.

[Phade102]

The best piece of advice I can give you Stru, is to look at maps that you liked personally, for their style. In your case, I believe that would be Valiant and Ancient Aliens. Skillsaw has a very beautiful, yet rather simplistic map design, so I suggest you open his maps in doom builder 2 and take a look to see how he builds. His builds are very precise, with specific sizes and lengths for the lines to keep a consistancy. You need to find your own style of mapping, but since in multiple of your skillsaw videos you've said you love the look of his maps it could be a good place to start.

[nxGangrel]

Mapping for me took off when I looked up tutorials on youtube for how actions and tags work. I experimented with looks  based from the IWads, custom maps, and now currently Quake. And practiced with making fun and interesting levels, and figuring out what was and what wasn't good gameplay. I also recently began focusing on style and consistency in level function.

[mrthejoshmon]

I never learned how to map, I just made awful shit that slowly got slightly better.

[Misty]

My first map was in gzdoom udmf and people who played said study maps and work more. My second map was in boom format, but way too long and hard. Before, I started draw maps for Doom I watched a lot of bad wad reviews and I said myself silently "I can do better than them". Yeah, right. Silly me. Mapping timelapses, videos, main wads, readings - everything comes handy when you're determined create your own world in Doom engine.

 

Remember - patience is a key and everything comes with experience and invested time.

[Doomkid]

I started off with 0 knowledge about Doom mapping. Dicked around with DoomCad and WadAuthor til stuff finally started working. There weren't many guides at the time other than (I think) one by Dr. Sleep so I referred to that for some basic things, but not much. I asked people on Doom Connector and the Skulltag forums when I ran into snags I didn't understand. Took a few years and the release of Doom Builder for me to even get to iwad standards in terms of visuals and gameplay, so don't be deterred if you're a slow starter when it comes to mapping.

 

Trial and error is what taught me the most!

[Tracer]

Youtube at first to learn the basics.  But then it was just trial and error for fancier stuff and texturing.

[Megalyth]

With some difficulty.

 

Before the advent of Doom Builder and 3D mode, there was trial and error, guess-work, and programs that were prone to crashes and/or corruption of files.

[Revae]

My dad taught me when I was like...  8?  9?  Something like that.  He used to be pretty big into map making for Doom, Unreal, and UT99.  Newer games don't allow for a single person to map as easily, so he kinda fell out of it.

Oh.  As for level flow: Practice.  That's it.  I don't claim to be a master level designer or anything.  Just keep getting a little better every time.

WADED ftw motherfuckers.  DOS ALL THE WAY EVERY DAY.

[NiTROACTiVE]

I learned how to map from these tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9E4BBB4089D9DD09

[damned]

In nineteens we have bought diskette with several shareware games and tools and there was also DoomCad included.
In that time there were no tutorials and DoomCad was really user unfriendly and full of bugs, but we loved Doom that much that nothing could stop us to make our own map. 
Then the transfer to Doom Builder was easy like "I'm too young to die". :)

[jazzmaster9]

I Opened Doom Builder, watched some tutorials, Sat in a corner and cried for 6 months and then finaly got the courage to release a collection of crap known as 32 over 32.

 

Though Seriously.

I learned by making LOTS of maps and getting a feel for the editor.

I also used other authors mapsets as inspiration and tried to mold it into my own style.

But basically I learned through repition and feedback from the community.

 

 I am also one of those strange mappers who learned with ZDoom format first then moved on to Limit removing afterwards.

Edited June 3, 2017 by jazzmaster9

[Flesh420]

I read a tutorial specifically on how to make a door because it confused the shit out of me.  Once I figured that out everything else fell into place.

[PhillMcHogan]

Doom Builder tutorials and screwing around in it till I got it down.

[PhillMcHogan]

On 6/1/2017 at 10:04 PM, NiTROACTiVE said:

I learned how to map from these tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9E4BBB4089D9DD09

I think anyone who uses Doom Builder needs to learn from those masterpieces

[Sharpie]

I first started mapping YEARS ago, making terrible maps in SRB2 Doom Builder (and not knowing how to make a MAPINFO lump), and then I got back into mapping when I saw Jimmy's "The Joy of Mapping" series. It reminded me that mapping was simple, and mapping for Doom wouldn't involve weird, out of map "control sectors" for special effects. I downloaded Zone Builder (A fork of GZDoom builder that works for Doom games and SRB2) and got to work. I then released my first map in several builds, getting different people to test each one for me. When I finished it, I submitted it to the Doomworld 2016 Mega Project.

 

it's map49 if you wanna play it by the way