Level Design 101/General information

Planning

Before you start mapping, it's important that you have a basic concept of your map. Different designers do this in different ways, ranging from a design document that outlines the theme and the gimmicks to be used to a full-blown drawing of the map's layout. The extent to which you want to plan your map beforehand is up to you, but even though it might seem boring at first, it's important that you do this. If you just start mapping without any clue of what you're about to create, the result can become unfocused, unstructured and confusing, all of which can be avoided by planning. However, this doesn't mean that you should stick rigidly to your original plan while mapping. Often, you will find that certain ideas don't work as well as you thought and need to be adjusted or even replaced. You might change your mind on certain things while mapping or even come up with entirely new ideas. All this is normal, and spontaneity is encouraged. A level will often change dramatically during development, but you need a basic concept to start with.

Gametype

Choosing a gametype is usually the first thing you do. Sometimes, however, you have an idea and don't know what gametype it is good for. Therefore, it's important that you know how each gametype works, and what ideas can work with what gametype. Play some rounds of the gametype you plan to use to make sure you're familiar with it and know how it plays, and then play a few more rounds and look at the design of other maps for the gametype. Make sure to note what you did and didn't like about the levels you played, so you can avoid making the same mistakes in your own stage. Trying a lot of other stages before making your own can give you a really good idea of the type of things that work and the things that don't work in a gametype.

Testing

Make sure to test your own stage throughout the development process to make sure it's actually fun. Once your stage is complete, you should start to test it more extensively. Give your map to other people and ask them for feedback. One of the best techniques to test Single Player stages is to have a friend host a game with the file in Coop, and use F12 to watch them play through the level for the first time. This can allow you to see first-hand where your friend gets stuck, lost, or otherwise frustrated. This can help you massively because you will know where the problem spots are and can come back to the editor with a goal in mind of what to correct. With multiplayer stages, be sure to test it in a real game with other people. In both cases, get feedback from your testers on what they did and didn't like. This kind of information is invaluable to improve your level and make it more enjoyable.

Gimmicks

Gimmicks are essential to making a truly exceptional stage. While it's possible to make a fun stage without a gimmick, having one will really help set your map apart from the hundreds of maps already around, as well as providing something new for your players. Just about everything can be made into a gimmick, from an unique style of sector layout to a custom obstacle or enemy. Everything that makes the stage different from others is a gimmick. The usage of small ideas to base your map around, from simple recurring concepts to large overarching ideas, can make your map go from generic to inspired. Never underestimate the power of this technique.

In Single Player maps, gimmicks are almost invaluable for making your stage interesting, since most of the player's enjoyment derives from having to overcome unique and interesting obstacles. For example, Arid Canyon Zone Act 1 uses rope hanging, TNT barrels and cacti, making the stage feel unique as the rest of the game doesn't use those mechanics. Single Player levels without any gimmicks are in most cases considered boring. To a smaller degree, this also applies to Race stages, which should challenge the player with simple obstacles while they race to the finish, but be careful not to interrupt the flow of the stage.

Match and CTF stages can also have gimmicks, although they are not as much of a requirement here. For example, Tidal Palace Zone uses a rising-and-falling-water gimmick, which makes the gameplay physics change back and forth during a round, making it feel unique from other Match maps. However, be careful not to overload your level with gimmicks that disrupt combat between the players, which should still be the main focus of a Match or CTF stage. One underlying gimmick is more than enough.

• Gimmicks should never disrupt the flow of the stage. In Single Player stages, gimmicks should never make the player stop dead and wonder what they should do. Even if the gimmick is supposed to present a complex challenge or hinder the player, they should be able to figure out quickly what they have to do to get past it. Otherwise, they will be frustrated and might give up. For example, if your level has a door that needs to be opened by activating some kind of machine or button, make sure that machine or button is in plain sight. Otherwise, the player might not see it and have no idea how to open the door and continue.

• Gimmicks should not distract from the goal of the gametype. Usually this is not a difficult rule to follow in Single Player stages. But in multiplayer stages, it can be tougher to strike a balance, as the primary focus of the game will be how the players interact with each other, not how they interact with the stage. In Match stages, gimmicks should not make players stop dead (this will make some players sitting ducks), or actively separate opponents (this will minimize contact between opponents, which will mean less fighting). In CTF, you should be very careful about gimmicks that make it more difficult for players to reach the opposing team's base; in moderation this can provide an amusing challenge, but it can also easily make levels drag on forever as players constantly fail to even get to the opponent's flag, let alone bring it back to their base. In Race, it can sometimes be good to add obstacles and impediments, but it should always be set up so that an experienced and attentive player has a decent chance to get past them without being slowed down or stopped.

• Don't neglect sector layout or Thing placement for the sake of gimmicks. Despite the effectiveness of creative and intuitive gimmicks, they are icing on the cake. If the structure of a level is not sound, no amount of gimmicks can save it, and a gimmick will only ever be effective if it's incorporated solidly and logically into the level architecture. Even Egg Rock Zone, which relies heavily on gimmicks, doesn't sacrifice its basic layout for them.

• Don't create unavoidable hazards. Make sure that if the player doesn't know about a trap or hazard and triggers it, it's still possible to avoid taking damage. For instance, if a player doesn't know that a platform over a bottomless pit will collapse when it's stood on, they should still be able to react and save themselves from death when it starts falling. If necessary, introduce hazards in relaxing environments before using them in more difficult situations, like the rope pulleys in Arid Canyon Zone Act 1. In some situations, it might be useful to demonstrate what a hazard does before the player has a chance to interact with it, like the room that pulls players into space in ERZ2.

• Gimmicks should fit the theme of the level. For example, a space countdown section in a jungle-themed level or maces in a factory stage would make no sense, because it would be illogical to encounter a vacuum in a jungle, or medieval machinery in a high-tech stage. Before you implement a gimmick, make sure that it logically fits the theme of the map you want to put it in. In some cases, you can transform gimmicks to fit certain themes without abandoning the original concept behind it. For example, gusts of wind normally fit into mountain-themed stages, but when used with large fans, they can fit a mechanical theme as well.

• Be extremely careful when importing gimmicks from other games. What's good in another game isn't necessarily good in SRB2. Taking an idea from another game can frequently work in SRB2, but make sure the idea actually plays well in SRB2. If the gimmick doesn't translate cleanly to SRB2, don't use it. For example, loops are a common feature of Sonic games, but SRB2's physics don't support them. While some mappers have simulated loops with FOFs and a zoom tube, they end up being pointless since the player has no control while inside the loop.

• Changing map-wide gravity is not usually a good idea for a level. It tends to break gameplay, whether the gravity is high or low. Use sector-based gravity swaps for only parts of the stage. When using upside-down gravity, remember that the player cannot see anything directly in front of them at the same height, as the camera makes the character itself the blind spot.

Sector layout

Sector layout is the most important part of level design, and is much harder than a lot of people realize. Besides defining the proportions of your level, the sector layout controls how the player can move around in your stage. A flawed sector layout can prevent a player from properly interacting with the map's features, and it can also make them lost.

• Make sure your level has the right size. This regards both the size of the whole map altogether and the size of each room. Cramped, small passageways make it hard to run fast and break up the flow that makes Sonic tick. Very large rooms tend to look empty and boring. The size of the level itself is usually not a big concern in Single Player, but it is essential in multiplayer modes: Overly huge maps make other players hard to find in Match mode, and will make the stage drag on forever in Capture the Flag and Race mode. Likewise, overly small Match and CTF stages tend to be crowded in larger netgames, which leads to imbalance in the distribution of Rings and power-ups. In very short Race stages, it's hard to catch up for players who lag behind in time.

• Sonic the Hedgehog, SRB2 included, is about flow. This means that the player should be able to be in motion, not having to stop and wait for things like elevators for too long. This doesn't mean that the player should be able to run through the stage at full speed (which would be boring), but obstacles that impede the player's progress shouldn't stop them dead in their tracks.

• The player should always know where to go. If the player has to stop and figure out where to head next, this will also impede the level's flow. Make sure the path through the level is always clear, especially when entering a room they haven't seen before, and that paths splits and detours are always clearly identifiable as such.

• Anything that damages the player, such as slime and lava, should have a way out. Nothing is more frustrating than falling into a pit with no means of escape, still in control but unable to do anything but intentionally die, especially if the player is in Super form. The spike pit in Mystic Cave Zone Act 2 in Sonic 2 is notorious for exactly this reason, which is likely why it was removed from the 2013 mobile port.

• Don't overuse death pits. If the player can't move without dying, the player won't tend to move much, and that's not fun at all. This also applies to other hazards like damaging liquids. Those hazards should provide a challenge, but they shouldn't be so omnipresent that the player can hardly avoid them.

• Overly accurate platforming can be annoying. SRB2 has fast and momentum-based controls that require the player to backpedal carefully in order to stop moving. This makes it difficult for the player to control exactly where they will land after a jump. For this reason, don't force the player to perform extremely accurate jumps or walk along narrow gratewalks, especially not over death pits and other hazards. There should always be some leeway for failure. Some very difficult levels like Aerial Garden Zone make use of very small platforms for difficulty, but this should be the exception rather than the rule. Likewise, spring chains that require mid-air adjustment of the player's position should be rare and require careful fine-tuning to ensure the player has a decent chance to make it through.

• Make sure your level has a proper amount of vertical variation. Overly vertical levels are annoying since the player has to jump without pause, whereas overly horizontal levels are boring since the player has nothing to do except holding forward. Find the right amount of balance to make sure the player has a fun challenge.

• Make sure that the stage is bright enough to see in. Light levels below 140 make things hard to see, and if the player can't see, they aren't going to be able to move around freely. If dark areas are part of the level's concept, use some kind of light source to provide orientation when the player can't see anything else, and don't hide hazards in the dark spots where the player can't see them.

• Make sure your level doesn't cause framerate drop. Framerate drop makes the level unnecessarily harder to navigate and move around in. If software rendering is trying to render tons of FOFs at once or render a very large room that will be a strain on the processor. An overload of Things in one area can also cause this to happen. Use the showfps console variable to determine the framerate of your map.

Thing placement

Thing placement is highly important for making sure your map is fun and balanced. Improper Thing placement can lead to a player not having enough or having too many items, not having the right items at the right time, and other major problems. In general, use moderation when placing Things onto your map, and find the fine line between too many and too few. For guidelines for enemy placement, refer to the Enemy placement section of this tutorial.

• Use Risk vs. Reward. The concept of Risk vs. Reward is the most important concept for Thing placement, especially for power-ups. The more rewarding an item is, the more difficult it should be to access it. Having powerful items in areas that are clearly dangerous presents the player with a choice. They can run after the power-up into the dangerous area, possibly getting hurt and/or dying to reach it, or they can play it safe and leave it alone. Since they chose to go into the dangerous area, they'll consider themselves having screwed up if they die, as opposed to blaming the level designer for making a cheap hazard. Noxious Factory Zone uses this technique to make getting to the SRM hazardous. The player has to run through crushers and lasers to get to the item, and then take a slow elevator out of the area, potentially getting hit and losing the item as well.

• Place power-ups throughout the map in an even manner. In other words, don't place a large amount of items in one place and none in another. In multiplayer, if you have a randomly respawning monitor on the map, make sure it's far away from the weapons, which are in turn far away from an area with plenty of rings. Spreading items out makes the players move around the stage instead of staying in one place. In Single Player, providing items throughout the map helps players have items at all times, as well as giving the player the incentive to hunt around for more powerful items.

• Rings should be numerous but not everywhere. Make sure that there are rings next to every place a player can start, from Match Starts to Star Posts. It is very important that a player can load and get rings right off the bat. If there is a lack of rings when the player spawns, it can lead to frustrating deaths which could ultimately degrade the overall quality of your map. Note that there is such a thing as too many rings: In multiplayer, too many rings make the stage boring because it's not necessary to shoot other player to gain items, and in Single Player, too many rings make it too easy to gain extra lives from them. Make sure the player has enough rings but doesn't always have more than they need. Just enough is the right amount.