So, I thought this might be a cool thing to try and do. Here we go.
At this point I'm doing anything to further procrastinate things I actually need to do, like studying for my exams.

Maybe a bit about me, I'm DrSqua, I've been creating maps since January 2021. You might notice that is quite a couple months before the workshop was released.
Some of the newer players might raise an eyebrow here and wonder how maps were shared back then.
We used a spreadsheet, first created by ManiakMig and later on managed by one of the most valuable members of the map-making community and the creator of the first player-made map that made everyone go "This is heaven". I like to think this map in particular is how I found myself creating maps.
For the unaware, I'm talking about Panguino and Deadly Play <3.
Back to me, I'm a pretty alright map maker with quite a bit of experience.
I place an emphasis on smaller, gameplay-focused maps with a neat ambience and quite a bit of 'relayability'. (although this map is a bad example of a "small" map). I hope you find this guide useful :)).


So you want to make a doorkickers map.
In my opinion it is important to have an idea of what you want a map you make to feel like.
Opening the editor and playing around until you find something you like definitely falls under the definition of brainstorming.

A fun example here.
While creating maps I find myself quite often sending progress to another awesome map maker I can now promote, ash_kay.
For those who haven't played any of his maps, imagine a professional graphic designer made a 3D scenery in a program like Blender or Unreal engine -something from a bond film maybe- and then directly imported that into Doorkickers 2, that's an ash_kay map.

We usually discuss the maps we are both making quite thoroughly and find ourselves debating the same topic.
Him: "If you do this then the map would look even cooler"
Me: 'Yes.. but it adds no value to the map other than looking cool, the player can't go there'


Now to be clear, don't take this example as a black and white definition of "this is how it should be". That part -although a little more nuanced- comes later.
I wanted to indicate how every creator has his own goals, ideas and tendencies. If everyone made the same 'style' of map the game would quickly become tediously boring.

In summary, create what feels right to you.
Make the map 'for yourself'.

I created this section about halfway through when writing the guide to add words I'm not sure everyone will understand at first glance, maybe have a quick read through?

Map Geometry
This is a quite obvious one, with this I mean how your map is divided by walls.
But take a moment to ponder the implications. If I say 'map geometry' your mind should be summarizing possibilities to solve a certain problem.
Corridor? Long? How wide? With doors? Straight? Cover?

Path/Gameplay Path
Is a possible route which the player can take to get from point A to point B. (visually explained later on)

Map making in the beginning was very chaotic and all over the place for me. After creating about 30 maps I've arrived at a pretty solid step-by-step process.

• Brainstorming
  
• General building shapes
  
• Building features (doors, windows, balconies, big furniture)
  
• Painting and enemies
  
• General decoration
  
• Lights
  
• Smaller Decoration
  
• Sounds

Is this completely personal and quite useless for anyone reading this? Almost, not quite.
Because from this list I can draw some tips and tricks I'd like to give out.

Work Big -> Small
This is pretty intuitive I feel, but an example will answer any questions.
Imagine a map with two buildings.
Some creators might finish house one first. By that I mean furniture, deco, lights, sounds. And only then start working on the second house.
What I propose with this tip, is working on both houses at the same time.
Finish both shapes first, then plan out the large furniture objects, etc. By this you keep a pretty good overview of how progress is moving along, play testing is easier because you can rate every portion of the map the same and the style (for example which carpets, lights, smaller decoration objects) are similar.
Another big 'plus' with using this technique is that is it much easier to string your map together.
If you're not making a comic-book map (check out Bhubbles), then your map should be like neatly fitting puzzle, not a sample of buildings glued together.

Decide what makes your map special
Never, ever, be oke with "I know it's not amazing but I'm just going to release it anyways". That's demotivating as hell. Find something that excites you when you think about your map and how you will play it.
An example:
With ARC-25 I kept having this scene in my head from a tv series called "Seal Team". Iirc, somewhere in the second season a squad of SOF operators have to capture a HVT deep in Mexican slums. That image of densely packed buildings with enemies hiding behind every door and window is something that never failed to inspire me while working on the map. When you release a map, release something you like to play, something you love, that's what makes the difference. This is great advice for life in general if you ask me.

Now this might comes as a suprise to some readers, but I like to create drawings of my maps before I start creating them ingame. Usually I don't go through many iterations here, it's all about the brainstorming for me.

For most creators all this brainstorming is probably more trail and error based. Or imagined while busy with others tasks. It doesn't really matter how and when to be honest. The point I'm hammering here is that you are obligated (yes, you are) to excite yourself for a scenario. Imagine all cool aspects of it, what features will excite others who play your map.

Some things to note here:

• General building location and shapes are present
  
• Mission elements (the red 1 and 2) are indicated
  
• I've already indicated where and how many operators I want available to the player on this map, but that's more like a side thought
  
• The finished map looks quite different. Duh! Don't create a plan and stick to it when you get a better idea. This is brainstorming.

So, this is the first picture I have of the map in-game.
As mentioned, I usually work from big to small.
In this case, that means focusing on large objects and vague building shapes.
I'm not focussing on "oh I'm not sure if I would move this wall two more blocks to the right" or "is this door oke?" but more along the lines of "this alley, is there any reason for the player to go here".

My maps usually settle somewhere between "a little special" and "oh damn" in terms of weird geometry. I would advice the same to anyone reading this. Diagonals, unregular shapes, uneven buildings, sightline blockers, tight corners and partial geometry (where a corridor is only semi visible), there are all tools in your toolbox you can use. (do note I emphasize can, not should).

If you find this a little daunting at first (so did I), maybe look at existing building layouts. Search "appartement layout" on google an you'll see all sorts of neat designs. Don't reinvent the wheel all by yourself!

This a continuation of the previous step. I've established the rough location of my buildings.
An important thing to note hear in my opinion, is that nothing is set in stone. Don't be lazy, change is good.

During these steps you might be inclined to speed ahead and start adding missions objectives and enemies, don't.
Your map is still in an early stage of development.

I live by the "perfection through iteration" mantra. Try different things midway through and see if they work! Only by failing do you learn.
(I'm an engineering student, getting things right on the first try is quite rare for us).

Painting the floor!
Again, iterate. Try different materials, different material combinations.
How you 'paint' your map will guide how you decorate it later on.
Don't bother with and decals like scratches and fluids for now, there is no need.

Now for this particular map I wanted a clear distinction between interior and exterior. The streets alleys are a bright grey where as you'll fine no grey in the interior, which I paint later on.
Why I didn't paint the interior now? No particular reason to be completely honest. I know it would be wood and I know it wouldn't really matter for now, so I thought "eh, I'll do it later".

Besides the painting I added a couple more map features.
This is where I notice things like "Oh those two doors are basically right next to each other, that's useless.", add a couple deploy zones and start adjusting my map to where the player will go.

Still just adding building elements (doors, windows, ..) here. Cool for a slideshow but not much to discuss here.

Do you remember watching videos about soldiers practicing room clearing? In those wooden constructions, without any enemies. Exactly that is what I'm doing here a lot. Imagining how I would clear a certain corner and adjusting map objects/walls/etc to make the challenge harder or easier.

Gameplay
As stated before I'm very keen on gameplay.
For me, what makes good gameplay (and this goes for everything game-related thing in life tbh) is giving the player options and challenging him with changing scenarios.
A player that accomplishes a goal and feels like he made it there himself, is much happier than a player who followed a clear, set out path.

I've drawn out some -what I call- gameplay-paths here to show you what I mean. I value these 'gameplay' paths quite a lot because the guide my efforts and how I rate my difficulty.
Disregarding any of the alternate concealed and/or light-equipped deployment spots, there are already six option to get to the plaza in front of the insurgent building and three "entry methods".
This count doesn't even include the right side or the front of that building.

In the screenshot you can see I've finally added enemies. So, gameplay elements.
When placing enemy combatants I always try to

• 1) Keep their ambush chance high and investigation chance low to make the map challenging, but not difficult
  
• 2) Try to keep myself to a "at least three possible spawn locations per enemy" minimum
  
• 3) Place them in quite realistic positions and not hidden behind a wall in a corner, ready to 1911 your operators when he opens the door.
  
• 4) Keep the insurgents to a certain 'style', by that I mean, use the same type of enemies

I've seen quite a couple rage-inducing design choices on previous maps made by map-makers who were not completely familiar with the whole arsenal. Allow me to be the one to say.
Don't. give them. 1911's

No as to point three, allow me to insert a quote from another mapmaker.
"""
In a gunfight bad guys can be anywhere. Behind doors, hiding under beds etc they can be in the weirdest places possible to either hide or ambush you or it's just what was the most convenient for them at the time. Or they got surprised and decided to wait in the toilet because they ♥♥♥♥ themselves. For example. Having them behind a wall in a corner after things have gone loud is not outside the realm of possibilities. What can be argued is where you put enemies before things "possibly" go loud in your scenario. If the first enemy you encounter is in a place that doesn't make sense, yea sure. After that? anything's possible. I think it's important to reward the player that'll check every corner and not leave deadspace behind. Killing an enemy in a weird place can be rewarding because you're like " ha, got the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ " because you didn't necessarily expect them to be there and yet you were prepared for it.
""" - Ganjirah

In general, there are four ways to make a map challenging

• Armored enemies
  
• Ranger weapons (be very careful)
  
• High ambush and low investigation chance (and coupled with a large radius)
  
• Enemy placement (behind a wall or sitting on a couch)
  
• Map geometry

Again, tools in a toolbox. You can use all five together and call yourself Bhubbls (check out his maps, I love them). Or decide you want to allow a relaxed experience by only using a couple tools of that toolbox.
Applied to me? I like to think my map geometry combined with enemy placement and the high ambush chance are what make my maps enjoyable and challenging (by that I mean, 3star it in max 1 to 3 tries).

Oh boy can civilians be a pain. But I must confess I have faced relatively little issues with them on the current map.
I use civilians exclusion zones to block them from entering any building (the yellow zone) and make an attempt to always keep a flee-zone between them and any possible firefight. I detest losing a star because a random civilian decided to walk into flying bullets.

Quite a couple changes here again. I've added the market decoration on the right side of the map as well. Changed the cars at the middle of the map, moved some enemies, adjusted the staircases and added waypoints. This was all done after I received feedback from a couple of my playtesters. Something I very strongly encourage every map maker to do.

Playtesting and feedback
Now for probably the most important sections of this guide. Playtesting.
You play your map how you intend it, duh.
But I don't think it is beyond your imagination to image a different player doing something completely different and maybe doing something unexpected that ruins the map.
Because, let's be fair, we all love finding loopholes, but if they're overpowered that makes the map/game/thing a bit boring.

Send your map out to some friends. If you don't have friends, PM some known creators you'd like feedback from, I'm sure they won't mind taking ten minutes out of their week to send you their thoughts. If that doesn't work, maybe join the DK2 discord and post something in map_discussions asking for playtesters. Quantity is not a bad thing here.

There, a map making guide.
Did you hate it? Find it useful? You can always send me feedback, much appreciated <3.

When I drag myself away from university studies and finally decide to create another map I'll be sure to take plenty of screenshots for another one of these "hm, I should do something with these screenshots"-guides.

Until then, enjoy the game!

Thankyou to
@Ash_kay
@Panguino
@Konkelbar
@Mich
@Ganjirah