Play through the map yourself, and fix anything that needs to be fixed.
And then once you're done playing through yourself, wrangle up some friends and play through it cooperatively, not telling them where anything is. Even better, have them play while you fly around in spectator mode spying on them and taking notes. You are the worst playtester of your map, especially if there's an emphasis on exploration, since you'll take the intended route and find all the hidden loot every time.
Yay or nay to these little icons next to my map names that represent each map?
The idea is good, but those icons are really inconsistent with their resolutions and visual style. The first has a gradient and a solid outline, the second is mostly solid colors with a selective outline, and the third is upscaled pixel art with a minimal palette. Get the icons to have the same style and it'll look great.
Community question: Why do you make maps? What do you enjoy about mapping? How do you motivate yourself? And what do you aim for with your maps?
Game design is one of my passions, and I make games for a living. Mapping is a way for me to relax and focus on pure design; I no longer have to worry about programming or tedious menu making, because Mojang already did that. Instead I can focus solely on level design, balance, architecture, and most importantly, generating an experience for the player. It's a fast way to make a cool experience, and that's enough of a motivation for me.
As for what I aim for with my maps, I've only released one, but what that and all my prototypes have focused on is making something unique. Minimalist was a deliberate subversion of the standard CtM design, and my other large project (on hiatus) was intended to be quasi-open world map with a strong emphasis on story. Even my area in the community map was designed to be a very non-linear atmospheric area with unique architecture. Some of this is my penchant for experimenting, but also, why should I make a traditional map when so many others have already done that? I don't want to make the next Ragecraft or Vinyl Fantasy - Heliceo and Three-Two already did those, and did them better than I could. There's so many uncharted paths in map making to explore.
Hi everyone, thanks for all the feedback and kind remarks! I'm rather behind on updating the first post since the Let's Plays are coming in faster than In can watch them, although I'm super excited to watch the speedrun video tonight and see how badly my map gets broken. In awesome news, Minimialist has reached 1000 downloads! Whooo! An update should be coming soon, making some areas a bit less spammy *coughlethallaboratorycough* and more fun to play, so stay tuned!
I have a small You Tube channel, and I'm going to be starting a Let's Play of your map, well, probably tomorrow. LOL I'm sorry for short notice, hope it's okay, but I need a project for a pinch and this cute little pocket-map will suit my channel perfectly! Um, shall I link it here? I know you say it's okay to make videos, but not sure if I should link here or...?
You're absolutely welcome to link it here, in fact even encouraged. I've even been updating the first post with the Let's Plays since I love watching people play (and die in) my maps
I've considered it, but I think my next map is going to be larger. It'll definitely be as non-traditional as this one is though, that's for sure. I might revisit this concept again in the future though, since the level design was a very fun challenge.
Thanks for those kind words zenzangzong2, glad you're enjoying the map. I also set up bases every time I get to an intersection, so you're not alone there ^^ Anyway, the intersection 1 and 2 areas should've given you a total of 7 emeralds, assuming you didn't have a fortune pick. And I am indeed planning on making more maps, I currently have 2 in the planning stage right now and will certainly post some screenshots when I start building.
Thanks for all the feedback dbptwg! You're not the only one who had issues with finding those :
That book was hanging on an item frame above the altar, but it looks like it vanished somehow. The next version will have it in a chest instead, since item frames are way too buggy. Also, how did you find that one block hole, since that's really specific
Also thanks everyone who's downloaded and played! Minimalist has gotten over 300 downloads and my mind is quite blown. You're all awesome!
Either give the Fire Resistance command block a player radius condition or make it a dispenser surrounded in bedrock, maybe have the sign say "stand here" or something. I made a clock pointing into it and got unlimited fire resistance. Unless that's intentional, then by all means leave it how it is.
Nice trick there, I didn't even consider that. I'll add a nice 10 block radius in there to keep that from happening, thanks for finding that.
The biggest problems I see with this mod is it can only exist in a vacuum, and is very limiting to the other mods you could be using. Not only that, but it sounds like it is horribly optimized, and is chock full of bugs.
Also, for a CtM there's really not much point of an extended height limit. Everything is hand sculpted, and it's hard enough to make 256 blocks interesting, let alone 2^24. If you really need more height in a tower or something, clever use of teleporters should be more than sufficient
What do you think of this castle? (Still WIP) Anything I could do better?
PS: Don't bother mentioning how plain the cave is, I'm already aware of that.
Love that castle, it looks really strong and defensible like a castle should. Only suggestion I can think of is to add a few more of the fire braziers on some of the upper levels to really show off the scale of the place. Hopefully that will help instill fear into the hearts of players.
Thanks for the reviews and kind words everyone, it really makes me happy that people are playing and enjoying this. As for bugs and such, the
poison-to-blindness
effect in yellow wool seems to be broken for most people and will be absolutely fixed in the final release. That's what I get for using hopper clocks instead of fill clocks =/
Bert98, the teleporter does indeed sometimes act weird in multiplayer, thanks for pointng that out. Likewise, a book for the final wool seems to be missing for some people, so if anyone reading this is confused then :
The two souls are in Brown Wool and the Diamond resource area
Thanks omega1337 for all the feedback! Super glad you liked it, and here's my response to your comments:
I also hate primed TNT, and I like players to feel accomplished for noticing a trap instead of still blowing up even when they try to disarm it. And the Valkyrie's Feather was indeed put in because one of my alpha testers complained about walking, especially before I built the teleporter to I3
As for the custom armor, I'll have to double check that with the Burial Shroud. Speed I tend to do percent multiplier, but health and knockback resist typically additive, so yes, that was deliberate. In fact, knockback pretty much has to be additive since I think you have a base of 0
Steel showdown was indeed the iron resource area, just as Fueled Fissures was for coal and Gemstone Ghosts was for diamonds. I figured making an iron golem farm was more interesting then a big pile of iron and the wrestling matchesque theme amused me too much not to use it =)
I may have given out a few too many potions. I'll probably cut a few chests down a bit, and LULZ180 also mentioned replacing some late-game blaze spawners with skeles or something similar, which I'll probably do to nerf fire resist a bit.
The teleporter actually doesn't exist until you warp back to it from Intersection 3 (unless I seriously messed up this release too). If you noticed, it took about a second to teleport from I3, that's because it's using a clone command to put the return teleport in. If you break that sandstone open before that it's an obsidian cube with a sign saying "Future Teleport Location"
The intent of the more magic button was definitely to cut down on grinding, and I gave out more torches and such later on more for convenience. I really like the cooldown idea though, and I'll probably try to impliment that.
Tunneling has and always will be the bane of this map. I try to mitigate it the best I can using environmental cues and other tricks (ie: giving a chest of logs at the start of the tree area to decrease the odds of the player just hacking through), but there's only so much I can do. Although, many of the I3 and I4 areas do indeed have some bedrock to mitigate that.
4
And then once you're done playing through yourself, wrangle up some friends and play through it cooperatively, not telling them where anything is. Even better, have them play while you fly around in spectator mode spying on them and taking notes. You are the worst playtester of your map, especially if there's an emphasis on exploration, since you'll take the intended route and find all the hidden loot every time.
Edit : Page get and 100 posts \m/
2
The idea is good, but those icons are really inconsistent with their resolutions and visual style. The first has a gradient and a solid outline, the second is mostly solid colors with a selective outline, and the third is upscaled pixel art with a minimal palette. Get the icons to have the same style and it'll look great.
3
Game design is one of my passions, and I make games for a living. Mapping is a way for me to relax and focus on pure design; I no longer have to worry about programming or tedious menu making, because Mojang already did that. Instead I can focus solely on level design, balance, architecture, and most importantly, generating an experience for the player. It's a fast way to make a cool experience, and that's enough of a motivation for me.
As for what I aim for with my maps, I've only released one, but what that and all my prototypes have focused on is making something unique. Minimalist was a deliberate subversion of the standard CtM design, and my other large project (on hiatus) was intended to be quasi-open world map with a strong emphasis on story. Even my area in the community map was designed to be a very non-linear atmospheric area with unique architecture. Some of this is my penchant for experimenting, but also, why should I make a traditional map when so many others have already done that? I don't want to make the next Ragecraft or Vinyl Fantasy - Heliceo and Three-Two already did those, and did them better than I could. There's so many uncharted paths in map making to explore.
1
Hi everyone, thanks for all the feedback and kind remarks! I'm rather behind on updating the first post since the Let's Plays are coming in faster than In can watch them, although I'm super excited to watch the speedrun video tonight and see how badly my map gets broken. In awesome news, Minimialist has reached 1000 downloads! Whooo! An update should be coming soon, making some areas a bit less spammy *coughlethallaboratorycough* and more fun to play, so stay tuned!
0
Alright, I have to ask. What possible reason could you have for needing a map larger than France?
0
Watching this now, I love the clown car analogy ^^ As for the deaths, give it time *evil grin*
0
You're absolutely welcome to link it here, in fact even encouraged. I've even been updating the first post with the Let's Plays since I love watching people play (and die in) my maps
0
I've considered it, but I think my next map is going to be larger. It'll definitely be as non-traditional as this one is though, that's for sure. I might revisit this concept again in the future though, since the level design was a very fun challenge.
0
Thanks for those kind words zenzangzong2, glad you're enjoying the map. I also set up bases every time I get to an intersection, so you're not alone there ^^ Anyway, the intersection 1 and 2 areas should've given you a total of 7 emeralds, assuming you didn't have a fortune pick. And I am indeed planning on making more maps, I currently have 2 in the planning stage right now and will certainly post some screenshots when I start building.
0
Thanks for all the feedback dbptwg! You're not the only one who had issues with finding those :
Also thanks everyone who's downloaded and played! Minimalist has gotten over 300 downloads and my mind is quite blown. You're all awesome!
0
Nice trick there, I didn't even consider that. I'll add a nice 10 block radius in there to keep that from happening, thanks for finding that.
2
Also, for a CtM there's really not much point of an extended height limit. Everything is hand sculpted, and it's hard enough to make 256 blocks interesting, let alone 2^24. If you really need more height in a tower or something, clever use of teleporters should be more than sufficient
0
Love that castle, it looks really strong and defensible like a castle should. Only suggestion I can think of is to add a few more of the fire braziers on some of the upper levels to really show off the scale of the place. Hopefully that will help instill fear into the hearts of players.
0
Thanks for the reviews and kind words everyone, it really makes me happy that people are playing and enjoying this. As for bugs and such, the
effect in yellow wool seems to be broken for most people and will be absolutely fixed in the final release. That's what I get for using hopper clocks instead of fill clocks =/
Bert98, the teleporter does indeed sometimes act weird in multiplayer, thanks for pointng that out. Likewise, a book for the final wool seems to be missing for some people, so if anyone reading this is confused then :
0
Thanks omega1337 for all the feedback! Super glad you liked it, and here's my response to your comments:
As for the custom armor, I'll have to double check that with the Burial Shroud. Speed I tend to do percent multiplier, but health and knockback resist typically additive, so yes, that was deliberate. In fact, knockback pretty much has to be additive since I think you have a base of 0
Steel showdown was indeed the iron resource area, just as Fueled Fissures was for coal and Gemstone Ghosts was for diamonds. I figured making an iron golem farm was more interesting then a big pile of iron and the wrestling matchesque theme amused me too much not to use it =)
I may have given out a few too many potions. I'll probably cut a few chests down a bit, and LULZ180 also mentioned replacing some late-game blaze spawners with skeles or something similar, which I'll probably do to nerf fire resist a bit.
The teleporter actually doesn't exist until you warp back to it from Intersection 3 (unless I seriously messed up this release too). If you noticed, it took about a second to teleport from I3, that's because it's using a clone command to put the return teleport in. If you break that sandstone open before that it's an obsidian cube with a sign saying "Future Teleport Location"
The intent of the more magic button was definitely to cut down on grinding, and I gave out more torches and such later on more for convenience. I really like the cooldown idea though, and I'll probably try to impliment that.
Tunneling has and always will be the bane of this map. I try to mitigate it the best I can using environmental cues and other tricks (ie: giving a chest of logs at the start of the tree area to decrease the odds of the player just hacking through), but there's only so much I can do. Although, many of the I3 and I4 areas do indeed have some bedrock to mitigate that.
Thanks again for all your thoughts