Want to know how you can get your map from 'good' to 'great'?

Hi there! Casper here, the designer of the official maps and the curator of the random workshop maps-list. I thought it might be a good idea to post a few tips & tricks on how I design maps, with the intent of sparking your creativity and making you a better SpeedRunners map-designer.

I'll be discussing three topics specifically; layout, checkpoints and graphics, for which I'll use examples from a map that I’m currently working on, which is by no means perfect (yet), as well as some of the official maps. It might be a long read, but if you're into map-making I hope you'll enjoy it. So here we go:

• Offer multiple routes
  The first item on this list is kind of obvious: make sure that your map has enough places where there are multiple routes to take. I know, this seems like an obvious thing, but I see plenty of maps that have long stretches where there is only a single path. So always be mindful of this, and see if there are opportunities to create multiple routes! Be careful not to go overboard with this idea though; since players are usually grouped quite close together, it becomes quite rare that they can be split into four different routes. Usually, a branch into tow or maybe three routes is enough.
  
  
• Allow interaction between routes
  It´s always fun and interesting for players to interact with each other. When a map branches into different routes, this interaction is taken away. Try to see if there are ways to bring that interaction back, for example by placing a trigger in one route, that opens or closes a gate in the other route.
  
  
• Keep different skill levels in mind
  While you may have played enough SpeedRunners to know all the tricks and strats, and landing perfectly on a slope has become second nature to you, keep in mind that new players can find swinging or even double-jumping to be rather difficult. Even if you're designing your map for advanced players, make sure that the map is still fun and interesing when you don't hit all the slopes perfectly.
  
  
• Add entry requirements to difficult routes
  If there’s a difficult, but very fast or rewarding section coming up, a good idea might be to make that section have an ‘entry requirement’. An example of this is at the end / start of Silo, when you need to use a swing to get into the left route. That left route is more difficult than the default route, and is quite dangerous - mess up a swing and you can fall down very far. So, as a map-designer, I need to make sure that whoever is in this section knows how to swing properly. I do this by making sure that the only way to enter this area is by showing that you've mastered swinging.
  
  
• Provide interesting choices ("risk vs. reward")
  The heart of SpeedRunners map design is balancing risk vs. reward. An easy example of this the right side of Metro, where there's a shortcut which gives you a big advantage. However, it's pretty difficult to reach that shortcut, and if you fail you will lose a lot of time. This provides the player with an interesting choice: shall I try and take the shortcut, and risk losing? Or shall I play it safe and take the normal, easy route? Another good example in Metro is right at the start, where the player can choose between getting an item and getting some boost. It's a very straightforward choice, which becomes more and more interesting when the player takes his own status (amount of boost, which weapon (s)he is currently holding) and their opponents status into account.
  
  Try to make sure that the player can easily recognize the choice, otherwise he or she won't even know that the choice exists, which would be a shame and a missed opportunity. So don't over-complicate your layout.
  
  
• Designing mini-races
  When I’m talking about mini-races, I’m talking about small sections of a level, where two (or more) paths are leading to the same “finish line”. The finish line is usually an insta-win area. Examples are the bottom of Factory and the right side of Theme Park. These mini-races can be fun because they add a certain rhythm to a map, where tensions rise because the stakes are high. There’s usually a big reward to whoever reaches the finish line first.
  
  While these types of sections can be really fun, they should be placed with caution, as these mini-races are extremely difficult to balance. For instance, I myself have spent countless hours re-working re-working the right side of Theme Park, and I’m still not 100% happy with it.
  
  
• Don't make your map too big
  Official maps are not very big. The later maps, like Festival and Resort are a bit longer than Metro and SS Royale, but not that much. I try to keep my maps short enough that I can run a single lap in under 50 seconds. The longer/bigger you make your map, the more difficult it becomes for players to start recognizing areas, which often leads to frustration.
  
  
• Use level geometry to guide players
  Getting lost in a map is always frustrating, so naturally you don't want that for your players. However, it's difficult for us as designers to get into the mindset of a player who is playing our map for the first time. Since we spent hours on making and testing the map, we instinctively know where to go, which means that what might seem obvious to us might actually be un-intuitive or confusing to others.
  
  One way to tackle this is by using the level geometry to guide the players. I do this a lot and I'm sure that if you'd analyze the official maps that you can start to see a sort of "language" that I use to tell players where to go. Here's example from Resort. This section:
  
  https://i.gyazo.com/d18e9f0e704c5b731878fa2660de81a8.png
  
  originally looked like this:
  
  https://i.gyazo.com/a6871b220405a6c895fc2380950b9ceb.png
  
  Notice how much that wall stick out now? There's no need for that wall to be so far to the right, gameplay-wise. In fact, not having that big wall there means there would be more different ways a player could potentially run through this area. So why did I place it there? To discourage players who are standing on the rightmost platform from making a big blind leap-of-faith type double-jump, and tell them instead that the direction of the map is going to be downwards a bit, making sure that they don't accidentally jump over the boostpad that I placed for them. Remember that players often can't look ahead very far, especially when they're in the lead, so any hint that they can get which tells them which direction the map wants them to go is going to be super helpful for them.
  
  
• Be aware of the limitations of the camera
  As you know, there's a limit to how much the camera in SpeedRunners zooms out. What you might not realize, or be aware of when you're designing your map, is that this limit gets smaller and smaller during Sudden Death. And you know, nothing is more frustrating when you think someone scored a point unfairly by jumping out of the top of the screen. So make sure you don't have too much distance between your top and bottom routes, and try to stay away from deep drops.
  
  Also, the camera that you get when running around in the editor by yourself works slightly different, in terms of zooming in and out and looking ahead than the in-game camera. A good idea is to spawn a bot (by pressing "B") and even trapping him in certain areas by temporarily placing some tiles, like so:
  
  https://i.gyazo.com/4fc1dc37e6dbea152ad1f4794e3f3d51.png
  
  
• Good boost and pickup placement
  Boost and pickups are a good way of rewarding risky or skillful moves. But also keep in mind that they can be used even better as a balancing mechanic that help out players who have fallen behind. Here, in Swift Peaks, for instance:
  
  https://i.gyazo.com/ec3db7f14ffd684fbef16f6aece183e5.png
  
  the fastest way is taking that swing, but that's not very easy to do. So, for anyone that fails to time their jump and swing properly, or for those that hit those spikes at the bottom, there's a boostpad that helps them get back into the game.
  
  Another tip is to group pickups together in packs of 2 to 4, to give everyone a fair chance of getting an item. If you only place one pickup by itself, this heavily favors the leader, as he'll be able to pick it up and thus deny his opponents the pickup. If you place 2 or 4 of them together, the players who are running behind can also pick up an item, maybe helping them get back into the game. Unless, of course, when you’re specifically placing an item as a reward, or for instance at the end of a mini-race.
  
  Finally, don’t place too many (or too few) boosts and items. Too much means they become worthless and there are not enough interesting choices. Why? Because you don't care about picking up a difficult-to-reach item or boost, if you already know that there’s another one coming up in a few seconds from now. Most official maps have 6 or 7 different locations where you can pick up an item, and between 4 and 9 places where you can get boost (depending on the size of the map). I've seen many workshop maps that have way more items and boosts and usually that doesn't make them more fun.
  
  
• Use Wind Tunnels, Lasers and Rockets sparsely
  Even though I made them myself, I'm not a big fan. So don't use them too often. Wind tunnels are fun because they make you go faster, but isn't it actually a lot more fun if you use slopes and grapples and other skillful moves to go fast?

• Watch this Tutorial video
  I assume you're already a little bit familiar with checkpoints. Otherwise, first open the checkpoint [TUTORIAL] map in the workshop. Then, check out this tutorial video that we made a while ago that explains the basic process of checkpointing your map. If you haven't watched it yet, it's a good place to start.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw40_bP9OtQ
  
  This video is a bit outdated, but most of what we discuss in it is still true.
  I'll write about the two most import lessons from the video here as well.
  
  
• Draw the main route with the main lines, sticking to 'inside corners'
  Let's start with an example from Metro:
  
  https://i.gyazo.com/b09b1bc441ee1462f9b7c7bcee0cac09.png
  
  I assume you are familiar with this section? Good. Here, you see that the main checkpoint line more or less follows the layout of the level. What's interesting to note is that
  (a) the main line follows the 'default' route - i.e. the route that isn't the shortcut, and
  (b) it sticks to the 'inside corner' - i.e. it follows the shortest path from one point to the next.
  
  The reason I make my main line follow the 'default' route is that this make sense from a player perspective. The left route, in this case, is intuitively seen as a shortcut, and there's a clear point at which a player can say that he has succesfully reached the shortcut: when he's reached the left tunnel before his opponents have closed the gate on him. From that point on, he can be seen as 'in the lead'. However, until that player has actually entered the shortcut (or, when the gate has closed) the player can be seen as on a path towards to rightmost tunnel.
  
  The color gradient you're seeing here clearly reflects that idea, which means that player A in the picture is in the lead, followed by player B, then C. Finally, player D is in last place.
  
  
• Use helper checkpoints to "block off" areas
  Here's an example from Powerplant that hopefully clearly illustrates what I use helper checkpoints for, and what I mean by "blocking off" areas.
  
  Here's Powerplant without helper checkpoints:
  https://i.gyazo.com/d6e29ca3a31cb2ace833874cfcba9d77.png
  
  Notice the abrubt color changes between checkpoint 39 and the start checkpoint. Notice also the 'error' in the gradient around the item on the right.
  
  Now look at that same situation with helper checkpoints:
  https://i.gyazo.com/dd98869d0806b6ac8e87063fe2084415.png
  
  See how it's a nice gradient everywhere? It's because I've used helper checkpoints to tell the game "here, this part of the map belongs to this area, and this other part belongs to this other section. Here, I'll try to clearify things some more.
  
  In the initial setup, the one without the helper checkpoints, the game devided the level in 'areas', based on the layout of the checkpoints. Like so:
  
  https://i.gyazo.com/4314b05be705d6f356baf3a720fdb971.png
  
  Notice how these areas don't really coincide with the level layout? For instance, if you were standing near the item on the right and jumped, the game would think you were part of the top (blue/purple) area. And that would be incorrect, as you actually were supposed to be part of the bottom (cyan) area.
  
  The helper checkpoints help designate areas so they follow the level layout more closely.
  See for instance the areas after I've placed the helper checkpoints:
  
  https://i.gyazo.com/16ad4c5ceebca1c292f71c05e8c54bdb.png
  
  Here, what the game considers to be the areas (based on the checkpoint layout) closely resemble the level layout. This means that the game won't make any mistakes in deciding who is the lead and who is behind.
  
  Placing these helper checkpoints is pretty easy - just look for places where you think the gradient looks weird, where it has hard transitions or where it doesn't properly align with the level layout. Then place the helper checkpoints close to the level layout, following the walls from one checkpoint to the next.

• Use graphics to point out where interesting things are
  Here are some examples from Resort and Festival of how we use graphics to indicate to players where they can grapple ceilings or land on slopes.
  
  https://i.gyazo.com/d6e1245cadcb207d3b3543bc3a3d5b1d.png
  https://i.gyazo.com/f75afbd77a286ee13ef2ddcb7919cb47.png
  Notice how we use big vertical poles to indicate the presence of a slope? This way, even when you can't see the slope below you (for instance, when it's outside of the screen), you can still make sure you hit that slope correctly.
  
  https://i.gyazo.com/260676091007eefb6d1141f9116e2521.png
  https://i.gyazo.com/9ae4002d6eb278e52dd2d9cedcdd438c.png
  Notice how there's diagonal lines pointing towards the start of a swing ceiling? Again, this helps a lot when timing your swing perfectly.
  
  https://i.gyazo.com/c3bb28bfdeea8272f69f3b14e59b7772.png
  An arching banner that communicates "hey, maybe it's a good idea to swing here!".
  
  These graphics are quite subtle, but give players a lot of subconscious hints about how the level works.
  
  
• ‘Ground’ platforms
  Another way to give hints on where swing ceilings or other platforms are is by connecting them with platforms, using graphics. See for instance this section in Factory:
  https://i.gyazo.com/9862aaeb053d8045eb320f5776b1a660.png
  
  It also simply just looks better to not have any platforms floating in mid-air ;)
  
  
• Indicate direction
  Finally, you can use graphics to indicate to the player which direction they should go to. Try to use more subtle tricks than simply placing a giant arrow though..
  
  For instance, we extend the platform with a dark background here in Factory, to communicate that the map is going to the right:
  https://i.gyazo.com/e1d7fa27be5b47a3716f45775bab87c3.png
  
  Here's an example from 'Surf's Up', a workshop map by Retro36, where the animal graphics are used to point the player in the right direction. It's a great way of letting the player know where to go without using big giant (and a little too obvious) arrows.
  https://i.gyazo.com/4efb338fb96cd6b8fb64ccfdc6399cc1.png
  
  To be honest, we don't use these types of tricks enough ourselves and should definitely use them more often. So, hey, here's an opportunity for you to do even better than us!

• Playtest & Iterate
  All the official maps have seen countless iterations, based on feedback from (obviously) players, and people around the office. You might not have the luxury I had of getting a lot of feedback from players, so play it versus bots or versus friends. Giving feedback to other map creators might be a good idea as well, as that will make them more likely to play and give feedback on your maps.
  
  
• Take a little time to add bot volumes
  I know it’s not easy, but it’s also really not that difficult (or that much work). This will not only help you playtest a map by yourself; it will also help you spot difficult areas. If placing AI Volumes correctly becomes too difficult in a certain area, that´s a good indicator that the area is also too difficult for a lot of players). Finally, it allows others to test out your map more easily as well, and provide you with feedback.

So there you have it; a big list of things to keep in mind when designing maps for SpeedRunners. Hopefully this is useful to those that are making cool maps, as I'm looking forward to playing them!

-Casper