Layout:Basic Level Design

Use cover

Think of a cube about 10 units all around. Shove a player start and respawn points in there and all you have is a cube of death. Sounds novel, but not fun unless you love to respawn. But, throw a few sand-bags into the mix and you have a fighting chance against the other team. Instant multiplayer happiness, for a little while at least. Include plenty of things to hide in, around, under and behind. It’s not fair at all if your enemies have machine guns and you have nothing to hide behind. Things like sand-bags, desks, boxes, trashcans and even posts provide good cover.

Create an environment of constant threat

Good level design is supposed to make the player keep guessing. Not the kind of “where do I go” guessing, that would be crap. It should make the player wonder if they’re in another player’s crosshairs. Include some high points that look like they could be used as sniper roosts. The accessibility of these points is up to you. It’s better to be able to use them, but make it considerably hard to do, a broken ladder or a small access tunnel works wonders.

Adapt the environment

There should be a few corners to hide behind, and make the door-frames stick out about 0․50 units from the wall. This will let players hide behind them, making for more tactical gameplay. Hallways should be wide enough to let 2 players through at once, no less than 5 units.

Be considerate

Don’t use the greatest, most detailed texture you can find or else you may experience new worlds of lag (lucky you). When you bend or rotate brushes, be sure you can climb them. One time I made a hill for a D-Day type map and the AI couldn’t scale it, which automatically meant no-one else could either.