| When I'm designing zones for an MMO, here's my general flow:
Pre-planning: Come up with a bunch of random, stupid ideas and throw them down on paper (or a document of some sort). Things tend to emerge from random ass ideas. I'll just start describing my process from the point after which I know I am making a zone and have some idea of what it's for.
1. Determine what purpose the zone serves. Is it an evil forest? Who lives here? What needs to be communicated about the creatures and people who live in this area?
2. Rough out points of interest and locations within the zone. These often communicate the purpose of the zone and are rarely arbitrarily added (for example, if a race of native voodoo skeletons enjoy the water and worship waterfalls, that's the reason there is a river with a waterfall and places of worship right at the edge for the voodoo skeletons).
3. Run it by someone else. Get their input. Don't marry yourself to anything.
4. Start on the map. I draw with a pencil and graph paper. Typically I'll go through about 5 sheets of paper before I have a fairly concrete idea of where things are going to be.
5. Get more in-depth with the points of interest, locations, creatures, and anything else that needs to there.
6. Figure out how players should flow through the zone and make everything serve that flow.
7. Run it by someone else.
8. Finish the pencil version of the map, scan it in, color it in Photoshop, label it, etc.
9. Get more feedback from a broader audience.
10. Refine everything based on feedback.
Then I'm done with my concept of a zone. Depending on how good an idea I have of the zone and all of the other things I have to do, it can take anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks to concept it out.
I also have a few tricks that I use to make the zone even cooler, but I'll only reveal two of them here: Foreshadowing and Nostalgia. See that tower high on the cliffs above? Yeah, you can't get to it. Okay, you can, but way later. Or, look at this vista shot of the area you were in a while back. Remember the good times?
Foreshadowing and Nostalgia can be pretty damn powerful. |