First and Third Person Multiplayer Maps

There are a lot of obstacles a designer must over come when designing multiplayer maps. Players need to be engaged by the map, its needs to be accessible and memorable while also providing a challenge and having enough variety and complexity to give players choices and the option to create there own strategy for tackling the enemy team or objective.

Gaming Culture: What makes a good FPS Game Map Design?

This video gives a good explanation of what makes up a good map design and explains how the origins of level design come from Dungeons and Dragons. The people who made the first FPS maps would often play a lot of Dungeons and Dragons where they would have to create their own maps and environments for their characters to explore and from seeing what would work and wouldn't work in these Role playing experiences. They could then use that experience to help design FPS maps which would work and engage the player. He also covers a lot of over great points about players choices, flow of the maps and how a good map will give a slower player an advantage if they understand their surroundings and know how to use them to their advantage.

Mike Stout Makes a lot of good points in this post about what makes a multiplayer map fun

https://www.ongamedesign.net/designing-fps-multiplayer-maps-part-1/

Choices

He makes good points that choices are very important within games. In multiplayer games players are constantly having to make choices and create their own experiences using the tools you as a designer provide.

Terrain options, giving the players different choices based on the terrain (walls, cover, high ground and low ground) is a good way of providing different experiences to players. A good or more experienced player will know that having the high ground will be the better choice than the low ground where they will be easily attacked from players in higher positions.

Multiple pathways, having multiple pathways leading in and out of major conflict point on a map is also important. If there is only one way in or out of a specific point then all the players must do is remain at that one location and watch that one entrance the entire game. Having multiple pathways give players more choices and different ways to escape or attack objectives.

Risk and Reward, having risk and reward choices is a good thing to have in your game as it can encourage players to make choices. Placing a really good weapon pickup out in an open field would be a good example because the player has to risk being shot out in the open field, but there is the incentive of a reward for the player which will give them a good advantage over other players.

Flow

The flow is how you want players to move through your level and tackle certain objectives. Having a good placement of weapon pickups, objectives and spawn points is all a part of having a good flow and if you are misplacing these objects then this can often lead to a bad flow. A way to create a good flow is sketching out flow diagrams using just arrows where you want the player to go and simple shapes to mark out buildings, pickups and points of interest.

Interesting Spaces

Focal points are an important feature of multiplayer games as they help provide areas of interest for the players, this could be a large tall building in the centre of the map which will catch players eyes straight away. Another examples of a focal point could be pickups which players will attract players attentions as they can give players advantages.

Verticality is also an important feature to make a space more interesting. If you have that added fear that enemy players could be above you or below you then it means you must be much more careful with your choices. It also allows you to fit the same number of players into a smaller space, often leading to more player interactions and a better time for everyone.

Cover is also very important in your level designs because players need to be able to hide and manoeuvre around enemy players otherwise the winner would just be whoever had to quickest reactions. Having cover also allows players to advance throughout a map without the fear of being killed and also encourages player to stick to specific pathways, with the exception of the risk/reward scenario where no cover should be used to add the risk factor.