"Boxy" map

[Repacharge]

I'm trying to make a map, but in the parkour section, pretty much everything is inside a box. I don't know how badly the aesthetics are going to be hurt by doing this, but I really want to make a good map and im paranoid that this is going to make the map worse. Any thoughts?



PS: sorry if im posting this in the wrong forum page

 

[Big]

If you feel your map is turning out too boxy, try to smooth out the corners a bit. Adding shape to the corners almost always makes a room look much better!

though FYI, questions like this should go in the “greenies only” section in the future due to it pertaining to a green only subject.

 

[maxoubar]

I started the same way with my first map fee : It was basically parkour inside a big box. In the end I managed to make it look a lot better by trying to use the walls as a parkour element, and make them less flat and good to look at. So I believe there is always a way to turn a box into something good. The key is to make your map look natural, and flat walls making a box doesn't look natural. But don't worry, if you have a nice base, I'm sure you can make it look really good Or you could always start from scratches and take a different turn.

 

[Fire]

Generally speaking, giant cube foundations for maps are not good, unless you plan to make something of a completely different shape inside the cube (such as Torsion's area) or to greatly reshape the cube. That’s not to say a map can't work with a giant cube in maps like Canvas, Perspective 2, and Funky Town, but most maps that do make it work I think could be better with a more unique shape. Despite this being a cube-based game, it’s much more pleasant to look at rounded objects, and this I think rule is amplified the larger the scale. Here is an image from a review by @Pro Luma on the original wormhole explaining essentially the way you should go about designing a basic parkour map:

In the same way you want the parkour to be linear, so also do you want the setting to be linear. Usually you want your map's aesthetics to change to some degree as it goes on—if the whole map takes place in one big room, there is very little potential to do that. A linear setting over a boxy one also ensures that the map stays fresh and new to the player as they progress—in a giant cube, the player will see everything there is in the map nearly instantly, so it will not hold its charm or attention from the average player for as long. If you really want to stick with a giant cube foundation, then what I recommend rounding the edges out, as Big said, and also making separate, smaller rooms/sections off to the side or have buildings inside as sections to keep the map at least somewhat segmented and more similar to the design on the right.

The last reason that cube maps don't work is that they have a much harder time filling in the space with meaningful content as linear settings do. Giant cube maps, generally speaking, have a disproportionate amount of space high up in the air compared to the design on the right. This will often lead to “floating block parkour” as creators try to fill in that space up above, which is generally looked down upon unless done well, and that's is quite a bit harder than doing parkour in the ground well.

So to summarize, giant cube foundations are not good because the shape is bland, there is little room to vary aesthetics, it doesn’t hold players' attention for as long, and it’s much harder to fill in the empty space above unless the map has an open sky. Given this, if you do go ahead with your entire parkour section being in a single box and do not make efforts to smooth it out or to make disconnected sections to segment it out somewhat, it will likely end up being a detrimental characteristic to your map. There are, of course, exceptions in maps to all of the reasons I mentioned here, but they are still generally applicable. Hope that helps!