Design Tips for a Fun Brickbattle Map

Now that Roblox supports multiplayer user maps, I thought I would put together a short list of tips and pointers for budding map-makers to think about, drawing from my own experience. This article is intended to help you design fun maps that people will enjoy playing.

Right-Size Your Map

First things first. When starting out with a new map, think about how many people are going to be playing it at once. A lot of user maps are made as huge as possible - this is fine if you think 50 people are going to be playing your level at the same time. However, if only 4 people are playing in a huge map that takes forever to walk across to find someone, then it is going to get old fast. For comparison, Chaos Canyon is only 300x300 studs large, and no one has ever complained that it is too small.

Make Things Destructible

I don't know about everyone else, but I like blowing things up. For me, being able to blow things up is one of the best parts of Roblox. Battles are more epic when there is rubble lying around everywhere. In order for buildings to blow up well, they need to be made out of small bricks. A lot of people make their levels out of huge bricks, which is a fast way to build a level, but makes it less fun to play in general.

Don't Use Too Many Bricks

At the same time, if you use too many bricks, your place will be slow for people to load and laggy for people to play. When I am making an official Roblox map, I try to keep the brick count to under 2000 bricks. The take-away point here is to use lots of bricks on elements that are important to your level. For example, if you are making a cool castle level, spend a lot of bricks on the castle. Mountains, trees, and background scenery need fewer bricks.

Empty Space is Booooooooring

Empty space is boring. If your map is mostly empty space, you should do one of two things: 1) make your map smaller or 2) fill up the space with something interesting. At the very least, throw in some mountains or something.

Many Paths

Imagine a multiplayer map that is just one big long hallway. This map would get dull real fast. When designing a level for people to fight in, you want to build the level so that your players have options. For example, in Chaos Canyon, PilotLuke's Battlecube has at least three ways in: the front door, the really long staircase, and the smaller staircase on the other side of the map. If I decide that I want to storm the Battlecube, I have an interesting choice to make: which way should I go? This makes a map more fun, especially for team games.

Balance Secrets

Secrets in maps are great. There is a secret passage to Blackrock Castle in Crossroads and there is a secret opening under the temple in Chaos Canyon that can let more experienced players sneak up on others. Having secrets in your map makes it more fun to explore - this is a good thing. However, you don't want to build a map where everything is a secret door because that makes it not fun for players who are new to your map. It will quickly become frustrating for them and they will leave.

Lock and Anchor Terrain

It is good practice to Lock and Anchor your terrain. Locking will prevent people from picking up your mountain and moving it around. Anchoring will stop big explosions from knocking off parts of your mountains.

Don't Put Every Weapon in Your Map

A lot of people when they first learn how to put new weapons in their map go hog-wild and add everything, including the Death Laser, which was never meant for online gaming. Unless you really want people to be able to destroy any part in your map permanently, I suggest you take the Death Laser out of your map before publishing it. You might also consider removing the model dragger tool unless you want your players to be able to pick up your castle and throw it off the side of your map. Now that's something to think about...