On Mapcrafting | A Guide

Lazarus

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Rubempre
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#1

Hello, this is Rubempre. I had the idea of making a map guide when I began to frequent the forums even more so, and noticed the state of the map submissions. Some builds were decent, but let down by their abysmal parkour, others were disappointing in every aspect, and good maps were far and few. Then you had the maps where information was left unprovided; we as players did not know what the parkour looked like or where it was. This ensemble of malpractices sparked this idea, and so here we are today.

I will be going through all the steps I think important in the process of building a parkour map, and at the end you will be able to find a regularly updated list of useful links as well as an interview with a special guest Mapper. Stay tuned!
I - Theme

Originality is the most important step to having your theme work. Shinx's list of maps is the best place to go to find all the maps and their themes already on the server. Working on previously done ideas isn't a bad thing, either, because you can innovate and potentially create something even better. Brainstorm the idea and get a general idea of what you want to build.

Originality.

To have a real chance of having one’s map accepted, the map needs to be different from others as much as possible; this requires an understanding of what has and what hasn’t been done heretofore. I recommend, almost oblige, one to look at Shinx’s list of maps wherein he has compiled the names and themes of every Parkour map, including those to come.

But, as we can’t possibly have an infinitude of map ideas, one doesn’t always have to go off-piece. Building from a pre-established concept or doing something innovative with an idea already used can be just as good, if not better. If a dragon has been done, why not have a dragon perched upon a mountain, or a city built upon its scaled back, or just a different design of one? The possibilities depend on the extent of one’s imagination, and building capabilities I imagine. As more maps are accepted biweekly, if I daresay that, this won’t always be the case. If there are three castle maps, you just won’t be able to scratch your way through the map review process no matter your expertise.

Conceptualisation.

Your idea is but a concept bound to your mind. You might be able to visualise parts of it, imagine how it might appear in-game, but until you plan it out you won’t be able to reproduce it no matter how much you try. This theory might be wrong when you’re building simple structures, like houses, but as the scale of the build ascends a pen needs to be put to paper. One of the worst feelings is forgetting something important and, let me tell you, your visions of a map will fade away if it isn’t noted down.

So, what does one start with? Even a simple brainstorming is enough to filter out the thought and ensure the idea won’t disappear. From there on forward you can find link words, random ideas, entire paragraphs detailing parts of the map. If you want a roof to look like the beak of an eagle, a floor to be checkered using the alternation of yellow terracotta and red wool, or a wall to be seven blocks tall, then note it down. Even if it is incoherent blah blah, this step is important.

II - Planning

Plan out your build and make sure it's your own. You can put your ideas to paper by sketching or planning out on a separate space in your plot. Make sure you also plan what blocks you will use to build with and who you will build with.

Evolution.

Then we move onto the research stage; inspiration is valuable so long as it does not traverse the borders into plagiarism. Copying a YouTube video block by block and then putting some ill-thought myriad of floating blocks is an example of this, one of which I have even seen happen on the Manacube server. However something like finding an image of a pillar design to the image of an entire fortress and relating your work to it is absolutely fine. As long as the idea starts as original and ends as original, little bits of influence aren’t going to ruin the work ahead. It’s even encouraged to draw elements from others. Tutorials that help you build in the medieval style, that help you create custom tree foliage, are much better than tutorials on how to build a pirate ship wherein you follow every piece of the puzzle and claim it as your own. Plagiarism is rarely detected for Minecraft is a long living gem that shelters a large community, but I can’t image you’ll feel good about yourself if a copy and paste is your only accepted map in the portfolio.

What you can do now is put the plan into motion. You have some form of idea for the theme, keywords to what you want to build, and so it is up to you to realise this concept using any form you desire. I personally have never sketched a map idea but others find the process therapeutic and a good way of conceiving thought. Real-life architects, for example, will find themselves at ease designing individual layers, implementing architectural style, and so forth. You could also draw a quick mock-up on a software, perhaps sketch out a simple outlining of the build with a marker pen. Really, if you have a hard time passing by this stage, you could ultimately leave destiny to guide you and visually represent it as soon as you log on to the server with the blocks at your command.

Techniques.

Another important thing to do is think up the tools you’ll need to use. I personally recommend building a separate platform from that of where your build will grow, and start placing all manners of blocks and decorations that might aid you in the process. If you want to build tower crenellations on a castle, cobblestone and variants, as well as walls and fences, would most definitely come in handy. Were you to have a beach come into play during the map, you’d want to find blocks close in texture, colour, or appearance to that of sand. I use sandstone and end stone to diversify my sand landscaping, for example.

And since solo projects can be a heavy burden to manage, even the smallest of help from other people will benefit in the long term. If you are to have no more inspiration, someone could give you feedback and future ideas. If you don’t know how to build insane parkour, get a prestiged player or mapper to come in for a few minutes. Maybe you will need a couple blocks placed down by someone else, maybe you’ll want to build the map entirely with a friend. You do what you want with plot claiming, and this is reflected in the project planning. From yourself, to a duo build, to having an entire group participating on a mega build, it is up to you to decide whether or not you will build alone.

III - Construction

Focus a lot on the first layer of the build and then build up accordingly. It doesn't matter how it starts, it could be big boxes for all we know. Later you want to add detail, start carving the boxes into elaborate shapes and add decoration as you see fit.

Framework.

The enemy of the common mapmaker is the first layer. In most cases this first layer will decide what happens in your build. If you are planning the landscape then its curvatures and height will depend on the space you allow it to thrive in; furthermore, if you plan a small square for a house you must respect these dimensions lest its foundations intervene in those of the other houses around it. You don’t have to build the entirety of the first layer in one go, no, but even if you continue the build from earth to sky at a later time, it will still provide the same effect. I started building a grouping of houses and conjoined towers to it later, but the fact remained that the first few blocks were absolutely important to follow no matter what.

And so this leads us into the framework of your build. This doesn’t exactly apply to landscaping but you may decide to have rectangles design the different sections before detailing it at a later time. Framing a build not only gives you an idea of a build’s size, but it also helps you decide on the shape. Houses may begin from quartz cubes, and that’s just fine. Your alien city could be layers upon layers of random blocks that help you differentiate what is where. It doesn’t matter how you do it; it matters that you do it. People prefer to head into a build and detail a build elaborately so, others prefer to plan every element and put care into the build. Either way the result might be fruitful or become a complete disaster of nature.

I’d recommend building all manners of buildings beginning by flat and plain geometrical shapes. Cubes, cuboids, cylinders for towers—you get the idea. You can place smaller shapes upon larger ones to indicate a change in size or pattern; you can have a different block to map out the rooms. Depending on the nature of the build you will either need everything in a uniform block of your choice, or a multitude of blocks if you are to layer an entire build up, each level at a time. The framework will not look pretty, unless you use pink and cyan wool for your foundations, but that’s not the point. The next step, detailing, will make sure the build is pretty as long as you have the right vision and know more or less how to build.

Detail.

Think the framework as a block of marble, or ice, and you are now going to chip and carve your way through the build as to make it the beauty it should be. If you consult your block palette, that we mentioned should be predetermined, you can start changing blocks with others.

You can do so many different things when building in Minecraft. You can build patterns out of blocks, use slabs and stairs to create elaborate structures, and enlarge or decrease the size of your frame in order to house more diversity in your map. It’s not about cluttering the build with stair designs, it’s about changing things now and then, so it represents what you want to see and hopefully what the players will want to see.

Where you had landscapes, gravel paths with scattered pressure plates and buttons will begin to form, and trees will sprout, and snow will surface, and coarse dirt will be used in conjunction with dirt, and grass, and podzol, and mycelium, and thereon gates will line territory, and houses will dot the hills, and water features will appear far and few, and once you know that you have detailed it all as much as you want… Then you can hang your hat up.

Remember to use WEdit, it's a really useful tool and helps save time. It isn't VIP-locked in the Map Maker world so use it whilst it's given to you. I recommend using //brush sphere sand 5 to help lay out landscape and then //replace sand dirt , remembering of course to use the Wooden Axe tool to mark both positions ( also //pos1 and //pos2 ), as to start a basis for its look. You can do so many different things with just these two basic commands.

IV - Parkour

Make sure the parkour is varied in that it doesn't have the same jumps all the time. Remember as well to value the parkour more than the map. And finally have the map difficulty consistent and take into account the amount of jumps to determine it.

Diversity.

The map itself will greatly affect how the parkour is built. Towers spiralling into the clouds will be scaled, more often than not, whereas houses will be entered by the player or have their roofs jumped upon. You don’t have to follow this but it is generally advised to stick to the norm and not diversify the parkour too much. This preface is the first stepping stone in what makes a parkour stand out from others.

If one builds an entire parkour out of evenly spaced floating jumps, jumps of which are looked down upon for future reference, then the parkour isn’t enjoyable. Just because you’ve built fjords doesn’t mean that you’ll be accepted. If anything the parkour matters a lot more than the build itself because, after all, we are on a Parkour game mode and not on Creative. The build serves as a basis and a means of decoration and contextualisation, but the parkour is where the submission points will be dedicated to the most. This means that a variety of different parkour jumps is almost required, albeit unwritten.

So instead of placing floating blocks everywhere, you can just start by having flower pots instead; mini blocks, maybe, or fences. Even the change of block type is enough to get a different rhythm going. Then you can build from this and think of implementing neos, slime jumps, chest water jumps. There are so many mechanics that have been in game for so long, and others created by players even in our community. It requires an inventive aspect of the mind to change the parkour up but once you have gotten a handle of it, future builds won’t nearly be as hard. You can go on certain member’s plots and look at the jumps they’ve built, or take from personal experiences when you’ve played maps.

And finally, remember to keep the parkour linked to the map theme. Do not have nether fences leading the player around a festive winter wonderland.

Consistency.

Before you had begun the parkour, you must have surely thought of its difficulty. Scale of the build can play into how hard it might be, but you can do whatever you like. Sometimes the smallest of ideas can become Insane maps. Perhaps I exaggerate. This means that you must keep a consistent level of difficulty: do not have easy jumps intercepted by extremely difficult ones. It’s fine to have a slight change in ease but not so much as to put off the player on the parkour. They don’t want to finish all of the map to fail on the last jump which is near impossible. And remember to never neglect the amount of jumps. Just because the jumps may be considered somewhat intermediate, if your map has 100 jumps its difficulty will become ambiguous. This is where you get the help of experienced players to help judge it for you, if you really must.

And as a little note, use the /barrier command to get invisible blocks to then limit off areas of exploit or areas you don't want players to go.

V - Finalisation

Perfection and presentation are the last two steps. Make sure you have done all that you can. Do your best to place checkpoints in the best of places and check for exploits. You can bring in another member to help you test the parkour. The presentation of your build is necessary too; properly add the introduction to your map and format the thread in a way that is presentable.

Perfection.

If you want your masterpiece to thrive and really be appreciated for its everything, then this is where perfecting the build will make it so much better. If your time and effort has been put into a build, don’t you want to make sure you’ve given it all you’ve got? Detail to the shift of a speck of dust? No, not quite. But having things done to a high standard and not missing things out will keep a consistent aesthetic. It won’t provide just an interior sense of satisfaction, perfection may or may not be the deciding factor of your map being accepted. Have the landscape look as natural as possible, have buildings decorated the way you wanted. Even if these areas will never be traversed by the player, it provides a background and an added sense of immersion.

These final moments of desperation will also be the opportunity to have players test the map for exploits, or just simple feedback. They can help see things you might not because you’re biased, or maybe tired by the effort. Elaborating on this, checking for exploits and errors are definitely important. The player shouldn’t be able to skip half of the map by making an unforeseen turn in the parkour, neither should they fall in holes you didn’t fill up along the way. They shouldn’t feel lost and the general direction of the parkour should be marked by blocks or logically seem. The flow of a build and its parkour helps reinforce its value.

You will also want to go through the parkour again, make sure it is the right difficulty and have checkpoints in strategic places. If you’re face to face with a triple neo you’d preferably want a checkpoint before; after a long sequence of painful jumps a checkpoint would be like the glimmer of an oasis in a desert landscape.

And so you might find yourself wanting to submit this right away, and if you think you should then there’s no point avoiding it, but doing so isn’t always the best solution. You might need to go through it again, take a couple days to reflect and escape its existence. That’s perfectly fine and helps the stage of perfection. Once you feel happy you can submit that baby and shake the world with your expertise.

Presentation.

The beauty of the build isn’t solely from the build itself but of its, let’s say, accessories. The map name should attract people and not be incomprehensible. If your build is torn from a video game then a semblance of its origin should be cited in its name. You want the map clean, smart, and ready for whatever awaits it.

So this also encompasses the providing of information. All maps should begin with an introduction platform more or less original and tied to the build’s theme. Here you should mention the parkour name, difficulty, number of jumps, and credit anyone who helped you along the way. If you like, you could write up a little introductory lore, or even have it running through the jumps of the parkour if you’ve fleshed it out enough. Not everyone will understand English, not everyone will care, but for those that do it may just make their experience better.

And finally, this presentation segment will lead onto submitting the map itself. When you are making a thread you want to provide the usernames of those who helped or participated, the map name; screenshots of the parkour and a means of getting there, so a /plot tp command; and then the number of jumps and thus its difficulty. Format this however you like, underline what you wish and embolden others, it’s really up to you and it won’t be paid much attention to. That is if you don’t have a wall of capitalised text or something unthinkable along those lines.

Set the map into the wild now, and await what happens! Will it get rejected? Will it get accepted? Whatever the case, it has been a learning experience and if you don’t get the result you quite wanted, you can always do some more work.
 
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Lazarus

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#2
Interview with Axetk

I wanted to bring an experience perspective to this thread to feed its value a little more, and so I organised an interview, and well, caught up with resident mapper Axetk to talk about it all!

Hello, Axe! So, before we get into map making, I wanted to know what you think of the state of map submission. Are enough people involved, should people put more effort into maps, and so forth?

I think that a greater deal of knowledge needs to be taken before a person begins a map. people don't really understand the process that much and it leads to bad maps in many ways. Also, I think there could be more people making maps; the time and detail is lacking. I take a long time to make a map if I want it to be accepted, and go over it for hours before I submit to make sure it as good as possible.

Yes, it’s interesting to see how effort differs from person to person. And so, do you think the mapmaking scene is accessible to people or not these days? Criteria is harder and harder and original ideas are hard to come by, no?

Well, there are millions of ideas. It’s finding them and making them into a good map that takes time and skill. But I feel map making is something you need to love to do, or at least have a drive for and then it is accessible. With more knowledge of map making and the rules and judging scheme, that will and should be lowered. Like I asked Shinx hundreds of things about my first map. and what he looks for.

I guess it’s all about starting from the bottom. Now, say someone finds a good map idea, what do you think the most important parts of a build are? What should a builder focus on perfecting?

Ha, now we get into things I don't even know myself, hahah. I'd say that a builder needs to focus on making the map fun. That's why he is building it. That doesn't mean it can't be hard, but it should make you want to do it again for fun later on and interest you while you play. They should also focus on the build. just adding that extra stuff to make it look nice. Even as time goes on, and things change like textures and the build is seen more and more. But I’d say fun, varied, and good parkour is the main thing, in culmination with a good interesting build.

To you, what makes map building so different to normal builds? What do builders have to think about because of the added layer of parkour and strategy?

Well when I do a map, I build it, then do the parkour. I guess a note when building of where possible parkour can be added needs to be taken in to account, but really no difference. Like, I only began building when I began parkour so I don't really know. But that is the main thing, otherwise builds and maps are the same.

Great minds build alike! As a final note, do you have any tips or tricks to tell the budding mapmaker that might read this?

1 - Build what interests you and something you have at least slight knowledge on. That always makes a build better as you know what you are building.

2 - Take your time; don't rush it. Make sure everything is perfect the first time, and it is as good as possible when you add it.

3 - Have a clear mindset of what you are building at first, then as you build and time goes on, manipulate that idea and change it to be better. Don't lock yourself to one set idea or build. Have fun and change it as you see fit!

4 - Finally. have fun while building. If you are building and the map looks bad, or you are not having fun while building, change the build or stop building. Building a map needs to be fun and interest you when you.

Thanks very much for your time Axe, hope to see you around.

Useful Links

https://www.planetminecraft.com/collection/718/builds-for-inspiration/
A large handpicked compilation of impressive minecraft creations that could become the source of your inspiration.

https://www.plotz.co.uk/minecraft-sphere-generator.php
An easy-to-use sphere generator. The site contains other generators, like a snowman one for some bizarre reason, but this one is the most useful.

https://donatstudios.com/PixelCircleGenerator
Elaborating on generation, this circle generator is one of my best friends, without which my towers and circular builds would die. Fully customisable and comprehensive.

https://minecraftbuildinginc.com/
A site housing ‘how to’ guides, design ideas, pixel art, among many other things. Another source of inspiration for the creatively deprived.
 
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Blurpyfied

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#3
Remember, Pixel Art is not rarely accepted anymore!
 

Lazarus

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Rubempre
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#4
Changelog 1: 09/12/2018.

Each section has been enclosed in a spoiler as to tidy the thread and not scare away potential readers. A basic summary has been provided at the head of each section to give a taste of what is to come; readers can continue if they feel like it.
 
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#5

Hello, this is Rubempre. I had the idea of making a map guide when I began to frequent the forums even more so, and noticed the state of the map submissions. Some builds were decent, but let down by their abysmal parkour, others were disappointing in every aspect, and good maps were far and few. Then you had the maps where information was left unprovided; we as players did not know what the parkour looked like or where it was. This ensemble of malpractices sparked this idea, and so here we are today.

I will be going through all the steps I think important in the process of building a parkour map, and at the end you will be able to find a regularly updated list of useful links as well as an interview with a special guest Mapper. Stay tuned!
I - Theme

Originality is the most important step to having your theme work. Shinx's list of maps is the best place to go to find all the maps and their themes already on the server. Working on previously done ideas isn't a bad thing, either, because you can innovate and potentially create something even better. Brainstorm the idea and get a general idea of what you want to build.

Originality.

To have a real chance of having one’s map accepted, the map needs to be different from others as much as possible; this requires an understanding of what has and what hasn’t been done heretofore. I recommend, almost oblige, one to look at Shinx’s list of maps wherein he has compiled the names and themes of every Parkour map, including those to come.

But, as we can’t possibly have an infinitude of map ideas, one doesn’t always have to go off-piece. Building from a pre-established concept or doing something innovative with an idea already used can be just as good, if not better. If a dragon has been done, why not have a dragon perched upon a mountain, or a city built upon its scaled back, or just a different design of one? The possibilities depend on the extent of one’s imagination, and building capabilities I imagine. As more maps are accepted biweekly, if I daresay that, this won’t always be the case. If there are three castle maps, you just won’t be able to scratch your way through the map review process no matter your expertise.

Conceptualisation.

Your idea is but a concept bound to your mind. You might be able to visualise parts of it, imagine how it might appear in-game, but until you plan it out you won’t be able to reproduce it no matter how much you try. This theory might be wrong when you’re building simple structures, like houses, but as the scale of the build ascends a pen needs to be put to paper. One of the worst feelings is forgetting something important and, let me tell you, your visions of a map will fade away if it isn’t noted down.

So, what does one start with? Even a simple brainstorming is enough to filter out the thought and ensure the idea won’t disappear. From there on forward you can find link words, random ideas, entire paragraphs detailing parts of the map. If you want a roof to look like the beak of an eagle, a floor to be checkered using the alternation of yellow terracotta and red wool, or a wall to be seven blocks tall, then note it down. Even if it is incoherent blah blah, this step is important.

II - Planning

Plan out your build and make sure it's your own. You can put your ideas to paper by sketching or planning out on a separate space in your plot. Make sure you also plan what blocks you will use to build with and who you will build with.

Evolution.

Then we move onto the research stage; inspiration is valuable so long as it does not traverse the borders into plagiarism. Copying a YouTube video block by block and then putting some ill-thought myriad of floating blocks is an example of this, one of which I have even seen happen on the Manacube server. However something like finding an image of a pillar design to the image of an entire fortress and relating your work to it is absolutely fine. As long as the idea starts as original and ends as original, little bits of influence aren’t going to ruin the work ahead. It’s even encouraged to draw elements from others. Tutorials that help you build in the medieval style, that help you create custom tree foliage, are much better than tutorials on how to build a pirate ship wherein you follow every piece of the puzzle and claim it as your own. Plagiarism is rarely detected for Minecraft is a long living gem that shelters a large community, but I can’t image you’ll feel good about yourself if a copy and paste is your only accepted map in the portfolio.

What you can do now is put the plan into motion. You have some form of idea for the theme, keywords to what you want to build, and so it is up to you to realise this concept using any form you desire. I personally have never sketched a map idea but others find the process therapeutic and a good way of conceiving thought. Real-life architects, for example, will find themselves at ease designing individual layers, implementing architectural style, and so forth. You could also draw a quick mock-up on a software, perhaps sketch out a simple outlining of the build with a marker pen. Really, if you have a hard time passing by this stage, you could ultimately leave destiny to guide you and visually represent it as soon as you log on to the server with the blocks at your command.

Techniques.

Another important thing to do is think up the tools you’ll need to use. I personally recommend building a separate platform from that of where your build will grow, and start placing all manners of blocks and decorations that might aid you in the process. If you want to build tower crenellations on a castle, cobblestone and variants, as well as walls and fences, would most definitely come in handy. Were you to have a beach come into play during the map, you’d want to find blocks close in texture, colour, or appearance to that of sand. I use sandstone and end stone to diversify my sand landscaping, for example.

And since solo projects can be a heavy burden to manage, even the smallest of help from other people will benefit in the long term. If you are to have no more inspiration, someone could give you feedback and future ideas. If you don’t know how to build insane parkour, get a prestiged player or mapper to come in for a few minutes. Maybe you will need a couple blocks placed down by someone else, maybe you’ll want to build the map entirely with a friend. You do what you want with plot claiming, and this is reflected in the project planning. From yourself, to a duo build, to having an entire group participating on a mega build, it is up to you to decide whether or not you will build alone.

III - Construction

Focus a lot on the first layer of the build and then build up accordingly. It doesn't matter how it starts, it could be big boxes for all we know. Later you want to add detail, start carving the boxes into elaborate shapes and add decoration as you see fit.

Framework.

The enemy of the common mapmaker is the first layer. In most cases this first layer will decide what happens in your build. If you are planning the landscape then its curvatures and height will depend on the space you allow it to thrive in; furthermore, if you plan a small square for a house you must respect these dimensions lest its foundations intervene in those of the other houses around it. You don’t have to build the entirety of the first layer in one go, no, but even if you continue the build from earth to sky at a later time, it will still provide the same effect. I started building a grouping of houses and conjoined towers to it later, but the fact remained that the first few blocks were absolutely important to follow no matter what.

And so this leads us into the framework of your build. This doesn’t exactly apply to landscaping but you may decide to have rectangles design the different sections before detailing it at a later time. Framing a build not only gives you an idea of a build’s size, but it also helps you decide on the shape. Houses may begin from quartz cubes, and that’s just fine. Your alien city could be layers upon layers of random blocks that help you differentiate what is where. It doesn’t matter how you do it; it matters that you do it. People prefer to head into a build and detail a build elaborately so, others prefer to plan every element and put care into the build. Either way the result might be fruitful or become a complete disaster of nature.

I’d recommend building all manners of buildings beginning by flat and plain geometrical shapes. Cubes, cuboids, cylinders for towers—you get the idea. You can place smaller shapes upon larger ones to indicate a change in size or pattern; you can have a different block to map out the rooms. Depending on the nature of the build you will either need everything in a uniform block of your choice, or a multitude of blocks if you are to layer an entire build up, each level at a time. The framework will not look pretty, unless you use pink and cyan wool for your foundations, but that’s not the point. The next step, detailing, will make sure the build is pretty as long as you have the right vision and know more or less how to build.

Detail.

Think the framework as a block of marble, or ice, and you are now going to chip and carve your way through the build as to make it the beauty it should be. If you consult your block palette, that we mentioned should be predetermined, you can start changing blocks with others.

You can do so many different things when building in Minecraft. You can build patterns out of blocks, use slabs and stairs to create elaborate structures, and enlarge or decrease the size of your frame in order to house more diversity in your map. It’s not about cluttering the build with stair designs, it’s about changing things now and then, so it represents what you want to see and hopefully what the players will want to see.

Where you had landscapes, gravel paths with scattered pressure plates and buttons will begin to form, and trees will sprout, and snow will surface, and coarse dirt will be used in conjunction with dirt, and grass, and podzol, and mycelium, and thereon gates will line territory, and houses will dot the hills, and water features will appear far and few, and once you know that you have detailed it all as much as you want… Then you can hang your hat up.

Remember to use WEdit, it's a really useful tool and helps save time. It isn't VIP-locked in the Map Maker world so use it whilst it's given to you. I recommend using //brush sphere sand 5 to help lay out landscape and then //replace sand dirt , remembering of course to use the Wooden Axe tool to mark both positions ( also //pos1 and //pos2 ), as to start a basis for its look. You can do so many different things with just these two basic commands.

IV - Parkour

Make sure the parkour is varied in that it doesn't have the same jumps all the time. Remember as well to value the parkour more than the map. And finally have the map difficulty consistent and take into account the amount of jumps to determine it.

Diversity.

The map itself will greatly affect how the parkour is built. Towers spiralling into the clouds will be scaled, more often than not, whereas houses will be entered by the player or have their roofs jumped upon. You don’t have to follow this but it is generally advised to stick to the norm and not diversify the parkour too much. This preface is the first stepping stone in what makes a parkour stand out from others.

If one builds an entire parkour out of evenly spaced floating jumps, jumps of which are looked down upon for future reference, then the parkour isn’t enjoyable. Just because you’ve built fjords doesn’t mean that you’ll be accepted. If anything the parkour matters a lot more than the build itself because, after all, we are on a Parkour game mode and not on Creative. The build serves as a basis and a means of decoration and contextualisation, but the parkour is where the submission points will be dedicated to the most. This means that a variety of different parkour jumps is almost required, albeit unwritten.

So instead of placing floating blocks everywhere, you can just start by having flower pots instead; mini blocks, maybe, or fences. Even the change of block type is enough to get a different rhythm going. Then you can build from this and think of implementing neos, slime jumps, chest water jumps. There are so many mechanics that have been in game for so long, and others created by players even in our community. It requires an inventive aspect of the mind to change the parkour up but once you have gotten a handle of it, future builds won’t nearly be as hard. You can go on certain member’s plots and look at the jumps they’ve built, or take from personal experiences when you’ve played maps.

And finally, remember to keep the parkour linked to the map theme. Do not have nether fences leading the player around a festive winter wonderland.

Consistency.

Before you had begun the parkour, you must have surely thought of its difficulty. Scale of the build can play into how hard it might be, but you can do whatever you like. Sometimes the smallest of ideas can become Insane maps. Perhaps I exaggerate. This means that you must keep a consistent level of difficulty: do not have easy jumps intercepted by extremely difficult ones. It’s fine to have a slight change in ease but not so much as to put off the player on the parkour. They don’t want to finish all of the map to fail on the last jump which is near impossible. And remember to never neglect the amount of jumps. Just because the jumps may be considered somewhat intermediate, if your map has 100 jumps its difficulty will become ambiguous. This is where you get the help of experienced players to help judge it for you, if you really must.

And as a little note, use the /barrier command to get invisible blocks to then limit off areas of exploit or areas you don't want players to go.

V - Finalisation

Perfection and presentation are the last two steps. Make sure you have done all that you can. Do your best to place checkpoints in the best of places and check for exploits. You can bring in another member to help you test the parkour. The presentation of your build is necessary too; properly add the introduction to your map and format the thread in a way that is presentable.

Perfection.

If you want your masterpiece to thrive and really be appreciated for its everything, then this is where perfecting the build will make it so much better. If your time and effort has been put into a build, don’t you want to make sure you’ve given it all you’ve got? Detail to the shift of a speck of dust? No, not quite. But having things done to a high standard and not missing things out will keep a consistent aesthetic. It won’t provide just an interior sense of satisfaction, perfection may or may not be the deciding factor of your map being accepted. Have the landscape look as natural as possible, have buildings decorated the way you wanted. Even if these areas will never be traversed by the player, it provides a background and an added sense of immersion.

These final moments of desperation will also be the opportunity to have players test the map for exploits, or just simple feedback. They can help see things you might not because you’re biased, or maybe tired by the effort. Elaborating on this, checking for exploits and errors are definitely important. The player shouldn’t be able to skip half of the map by making an unforeseen turn in the parkour, neither should they fall in holes you didn’t fill up along the way. They shouldn’t feel lost and the general direction of the parkour should be marked by blocks or logically seem. The flow of a build and its parkour helps reinforce its value.

You will also want to go through the parkour again, make sure it is the right difficulty and have checkpoints in strategic places. If you’re face to face with a triple neo you’d preferably want a checkpoint before; after a long sequence of painful jumps a checkpoint would be like the glimmer of an oasis in a desert landscape.

And so you might find yourself wanting to submit this right away, and if you think you should then there’s no point avoiding it, but doing so isn’t always the best solution. You might need to go through it again, take a couple days to reflect and escape its existence. That’s perfectly fine and helps the stage of perfection. Once you feel happy you can submit that baby and shake the world with your expertise.

Presentation.

The beauty of the build isn’t solely from the build itself but of its, let’s say, accessories. The map name should attract people and not be incomprehensible. If your build is torn from a video game then a semblance of its origin should be cited in its name. You want the map clean, smart, and ready for whatever awaits it.

So this also encompasses the providing of information. All maps should begin with an introduction platform more or less original and tied to the build’s theme. Here you should mention the parkour name, difficulty, number of jumps, and credit anyone who helped you along the way. If you like, you could write up a little introductory lore, or even have it running through the jumps of the parkour if you’ve fleshed it out enough. Not everyone will understand English, not everyone will care, but for those that do it may just make their experience better.

And finally, this presentation segment will lead onto submitting the map itself. When you are making a thread you want to provide the usernames of those who helped or participated, the map name; screenshots of the parkour and a means of getting there, so a /plot tp command; and then the number of jumps and thus its difficulty. Format this however you like, underline what you wish and embolden others, it’s really up to you and it won’t be paid much attention to. That is if you don’t have a wall of capitalised text or something unthinkable along those lines.

Set the map into the wild now, and await what happens! Will it get rejected? Will it get accepted? Whatever the case, it has been a learning experience and if you don’t get the result you quite wanted, you can always do some more work.
Thanks for the guide! It helped quite a lot and I'll be referencing it a lot as well.
 

Tas

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ManaLabs
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#6
Bump.