SC2Mapster

Update!: Blizzard just made a post on Battle.net that will interest you!

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As part of our preparation for patch 1.1.0, we wanted to quickly highlight for map creators an upcoming change to the way custom game starts will function after the patch is released.

Currently, when launching a custom game, players in the game lobby are allotted a certain amount of time, specified by you, the map's creator, to make adjustments to their team and race compositions. After this, a three-second lockdown will occur and, during this time, no adjustments to teams or races can be made. This means that if you were to select a seven-second countdown for your custom map, players would actually be required to wait for a total of ten seconds.

In patch 1.1.0, we will be amending this structure slightly so that the final three-second lockdown will be properly deducted from the creator-defined time instead of being added to it. This means that if you select a seven-second countdown for your custom map after the patch, players will only be able to adjust their races and teams for four seconds and then, at three seconds remaining, all of their selections will be locked.

As a result of this change, custom maps that you've created and published may need to be altered and then re-published if you want to keep the countdown your map currently has, post patch 1.1.0.

Bounty Hunters by Tenshi

During the first Custom Live we've played the map Bounty Hunters published on EU and were really impressed by the quality of the gameplay. This is a sniper-type of game with fast action and a nice amount of skill required :) Since then, Tenshi kept improving the map and you really should give it a shot! If you are german and can't see the video, use

Typing of the Zerg by Halohalo

I'm pretty sure you have all played once those games where you have to type as fast as you can to see your awesome e-peen skills. Halohalo took this concept and implemented it inside Starcraft 2. This results in a really crazy map that you will love :) It's called Typing of the Zerg and is released in the US!

ModCraft

If you missed yesterday ModCraft you are not lost! You can still watch it :) It was really impressive to see what's possible to achieve when you are skilled with 3dsMax!

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Highpoly modelling, Visual Tricks, Lowpoly Reverse-engineering, Meaningful Choice, Modelling a tophat (Baking normals and basic diffuse map), Attaching the tophat, Designing hero roles.

Compendium on Map Creation and Design by EternalWraith

EternalWraith has spent a great time analysing the process of making maps and extracted many important points on how to succeed in creating a great map. He also interviewed renowned map makers and sc2mapster moderators to get their advice. The result is a must-read!

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2. What would you say are some of the elements that make a good and fun map?

Sixen : A big part of a fun map is the ability to play through it once and be amazed... But then the rest of it is replayability. Maps that are just good when played once are not good maps. This is why DotA got as big as it has.

Bibendus : The most important elements of a game are the amount of possible customizations and replayability. A game is fun when you can choose different strategies to achieve the victory and you can replay it making different choices. Look at the SC2 campaign, isn't that funnier then WC3 now that you can upgrade units and buildings? Another important element is the graphical aspect of the game. A good terraining and different ambients are more appealing that a single room with a low quality terrain. Last but not least the game must be easy to understand, the majority of players leave a game after 1 minute if they don't understand how to play it.

b0ne123 : Balance and challenge. A nice looking map and a bunch of new units are fun two but they can't make up for imbalance and a to easy or to hard map. Balance is important in nearly every kind of maps. If one unit or tower or spell is enough to win the game players are not going to play it a lot of times.

Malu05 : I think that all depends on what gametype/mode we are talking about. Some maps are good when they are repetetive some must be evolving. But the single most importaint thing is gameplay. A map developer can spend weeks on making some great terrain but if the gameplay is not fun noone is going to play it anyway. Rather a flat empty map with good gameplay then a heaven with rainbows that suck.

s3rius : Easy understandable gameplay. Not much to say about it. However, at the moment people tend to neglect eye candy. For a map to be great everything needs to fit together. Adding sounds, special effects and other nuances is what makes the difference between a good map and a great map.

Mozared : Balance, looks, pacing and lore. Maps are in every circumstance better if one of these points are improved, and it's really hard to do any of these elements completely wrong if you just pay some attention to them. Lore and looks might argueably be the most important ones in the list - any map that has some kind of background and interesting terrain will immediatly draw somebody's attention.

Bifuu : Well that depends on the map, but generally game play, which is also based on the map haha. an RPG Map should have an engaging storing line, while an action game should have awesome controls.

progammer : Mainly gamplay make the map/game fun. Just like what blizzard has done to their campaign. The core game is no different but the catch/rush/defense/upgrade mechanics made it fun. A little bit polished on the art department wouldnt hurt either, but that's not my concern.

Karawasa : This can perhaps be summed up by the "easy to learn but hard to master" concept. A good map should be accessible to new players, but should also not be lacking in depth. There must be a reason to come back. I also can't stress polish enough. The right models/icons/effects, proper tooltips without spelling mistakes, quality terrain that fits the game etc. all add up to deliver an experience.

Alcoholix : A good fun map is a map that has it's objectives and controls clear from the start. And this doesn't mean a loading screen full of instructions on how to play. It actually needs to be intuitive or made clear in some easy to digest way during gameplay.

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