Design a map that plays well

In the editor you look down at your map from above. In the game you stand inside it at eye height, seeing one direction at a time. This page helps you build for the game.

Rough it out first

1. Lay out the shape with plain floor and wall pieces: rooms, doorways, the path between them, and where the player starts.
2. Play it while it still looks plain.
3. Fix the size and layout, then add the details.

This is the cheapest time to find out a courtyard is twice as big as it needs to be. Details you add to a bad layout end up deleted.

Build small

Spaces that look cosy from above feel huge when you walk them. A map you can cross in thirty seconds plays better than five minutes of empty street.

If you're not sure, make it half the size. A small corner packed with props and robots beats a big square with three props in it.

Show players where to go

From where the player starts, they should see something worth walking to: a lit doorway, a robot, a shape at the end of the street.

Put the interesting thing where it can be seen from the start, and you won't need to tell anyone where to go.

Choose where players start

The Spawn Location marks where players arrive. It's the first thing anyone sees of your map.

• Turn it to face something interesting, not a wall or an empty floor.
• Keep it on its own entity (anything placed in your map), not on a prop or a robot, so moving those never moves the start.

Line up your pieces

The city kit pieces are made to fit together. They snap to a half-unit grid as you move them, so floors meet without gaps.

To stop props floating or sinking, use the buttons that appear when you pick something (hover them to see their names):

• Drop onto surface below puts it down on whatever is under it.
• Surface snap keeps it stuck to the surface while you drag it.

Small gaps show up in the game as holes and floating props, and they make a map feel unfinished. More in tools and arranging.

When a building looks right, pick all its pieces and press Group. Then you can move it in one go without lining it up again.

Use robots as signposts

Players walk towards robots. Put them where you want players to go: at a crossroads, in a doorway, next to whatever you want them to ask about.

Two robots who know each other in one square are more fun than six standing alone. And adding a Point of Interest to a statue lets players ask about it instead of walking past.

Cut before you add

When the map is nearly done, delete the part you like least. It's often the part a player would notice first, and you kept it because it took a long time to build.

Next: playtest in the game, the only way to find out if it works.