How long? Doing some reasearch

[m0j0]

Hi,

I am curious about the amount of time it would take an experienced mapper to make a solid, competition-centric (i.e. 5v5 league-friendly, well-balanced) map.

Obviously people do this in their spare time. If there was a bit of an incentive, can you comment on how long it would take to get it to at least a general play-test stage? Then how long past a general playtest to address the playtest issues and fix bugs?

Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[Korgoth]

That depends really. Do all the assets (props) need to be created and all the textures need to be created by the mapper. Or can they mix and match textures and props that already exist. Because obviously it would take longer if all items had to be custom....

I'd say a couple of weeks, to a couple of months.

 

[m0j0]

no, I would say that the assets could be re-used from stock maps for sure. Any custom would be at the discretion of the mapper.

 

[JFry]

Depends on the incentive hehe. I agree with Innervision, anywhere from several weeks(only if you're really inspired) to a few months. However, playtesting/optimizing can take just as long, if not longer than the actual creation process.

 

[Kozak]

Well from experience with other engines a good singleplayer map would take two months ( a long single player map). But a smaller 5 vs 5 map would do about 2 weeks ( and maybe 3-5 hours a day?)

 

[Adamtehgreat]

Its actually pretty hard to get a map just right for even battles.
I wouldn't be surprised if a good multi map took 2 months...

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

That is of course an 'average'...You could suddenly get a flash of inspiration and lay down most of the map within days. Likewise, you could get a mental block and take several months before you really make progress.

 

[Tynan]

Well in Unreal Tournament it used to take me more than 3 months to complete a map. And I worked every day.

The different was that I was really hard-core on the originality so I created all new content comme ca:

That's what will really eat time. BSP geometry is really rather simple and fast to do.

 

[Ennui]

jesus tynan, thats pretty

 

[eiric]

Well in Unreal Tournament it used to take me more than 3 months to complete a map. And I worked every day.

The different was that I was really hard-core on the originality so I created all new content comme ca:

That's what will really eat time. BSP geometry is really rather simple and fast to do.

This is just unbeleavable!