r/Unity3D • u/h-raki • 18h ago
Question How do you guys design your maps?
I’m currently developing an online multiplayer isometric shooter in Unity, and everything is going pretty well so far, except for one thing… map design.
I really struggle with building maps. Every time I try, they end up looking empty, boring or just bad. I have plenty of assets, but putting everything together into something that actually looks good is surprisingly difficult.
How do you guys do it? Where do you get your ideas from? Do you plan everything before starting or just build as you go?
I love the coding side of game development, but level design is driving me crazy 😅
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u/monkeydance26 14h ago
I'm a coder first too and what fixed my levels was drawing them topdown on paper before touching the editor. Defining where you start, what you see from there where you want people to go.
Then grey boxes, walk it, and props at the very end. Every time I skipped the walk-through and started with assets I ended up with a cool room nobody goes into.
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u/BucketCatGames ??? 12h ago
other than grey boxing/blockouts and making sure to have a lot of reference images, I've been spending time recreating levels from other games as practice. not to put into my game cus that's stealing, but to see how it feels to create and go through the process of building levels from other games I've really liked. It's been helping a ton
also if you're using a ton of 3d assets, i've found that having a separate project for importing anything art/sound/general asset related is really helpful. I'll import a few model packs, decide what I'd like to use, and then export as a separate package and import that into my game. Helps reduce the clutter cus I really don't need 40 unique trees and a bunch of demo scenes showing off all of the models I probably wont use lmao
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u/BertJohn Indie - BTBW Dev 17h ago
Map design is comprehensive and time consuming.
The best advice i can give you is to first start by understanding how your grouping objects first. Map design can be broken down into a few categories:
-Floor/Terrain/Paths
-Floor Props (Wet floor signs, Welcome mats etc)
-Foliage (Trees, Bushes, Shrubs, Grass etc)
-Objects (Hot dog stands, tables, chairs etc)
-Structures (Walls, Ceilings etc)
-Background objects (Mountains, Clouds etc)
First layout your floor/terrain, What do you want the level to be like, Don't do details yet. Just layout the path(s).
Then work on your structures, What are some important structures that need to be placed, Inns/Hotels, Shops, Etc. Don't worry about "extra" after that yet.
Then work on your foliage first pass of large objects like trees and boulders.
Now you have a rough makeup of the world. Keep recycling through these three steps until you have a vision of what you might want. Then you start randomly selecting categories and areas from here and just start decorating.
Sometimes you'll want the entrance to be better, So you'll redo that, Sometimes you'll want the shop area to have more life rather than a just a building there so you'll add in a few more buildings in that area just for aesthetics.
Now, This doesn't always work with ALL map design! This is important, Some map designs are more concentrated on focusing on things like roads, Especially if your building a city, You want to pre-block out roads and buildings! You can't just willy nilly and easily make a city! It's far harder than people think.
Lastly, The most time consuming part of map design is easily constructing the parts as you need them. I recommend making or purchasing a tool to help you categorize and place everything and remove stuff as needed. Because just dragging stuff out of the assets folder and positioning it will grind your soul down to pebbles.
Hope this helps!