For the past eight years, I have been creating multiplayer maps for the Call of Duty modding community. Over the years I have mastered various rules and principles of design that I successfully apply in the process of level design. I will tell you step by step how to create an interesting multiplayer map.

In this article I will talk about the development of a multiplayer map for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Let's call her "Tugurios". It will be created in the slums entourage. Now we will talk a little about the history and the setting of the map.

• Tugurios means slum in Spanish. The map is visually based on the appearance of slums in Venezuela.
• Gold was found in the hills, so slums appeared next to them, supplying gold miners with labor.
• Years later, the source of gold was exhausted. In the face of unemployment, slums have become a staging post for weapons and drugs.
• When the situation got out of control, the government sent a special forces detachment to solve the problem.
• The action takes place at noon. One team spawns in the slums, and the other on the road on the other side of the map.

Here is a top view of the map:

The map has the following areas:

The hills
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• The hills and surrounding areas will be shown dry and dusty, with a variety of angles and cuts showing the effects of gold mining.
• All buildings in this area will resemble rusted metal sheds with oaks, which were previously used as service premises.

Ditch

• The ditch has a mud bottom with water flowing in the middle and vegetation on the slopes and banks. To provide shelter at the bottom, we will place several large stones.

Slum

• Small huts of red brick, cinder block and rusty sheets of metal.
• Everywhere heaps of garbage and waste that can be used as shelters.
• Some shacks have 2-3 floors.
• Electric cables hang everywhere.
• On the walls a lot of stubborn dirt and graffiti.
• Underfoot or broken concrete with open drains, or green grass with lush vegetation.

Road

• Place spawn team A. It consists of broken dirty asphalt. In different places there are cars that provide shelter.
• It is half a floor or a whole floor above the main ground level, therefore it is invisible from the ground. The player must either climb the ladder or climb a certain point to see it.

Crane foundation

• Massive concrete foundation of the crane, which was used in the extraction of gold. The crane has already been removed, but the foundation has remained in place.
• It looks like a concrete bunker with bars of reinforcement and rivets protruding from broken corners and surfaces.
• Upstairs there is a large rounded pedestal hiding one entry point from another.
• The foundation resembles the concrete foundation of heavy anti-aircraft guns of the Second World War.

• Red is the slum area.
• Small, randomly scattered huts piled one on top of the other, reaching three floors in height.
• Green is the road zone next to the hills. Due to gold mining, hills have rugged slopes.
• The two zones are separated by a deep ditch, marked in yellow. It has a depth of one floor. You need to cross it to get to the other side of the map.

Height variations

On the map there are many variations of heights. They are used to overlap the scope and make the map more interesting.

• The unit indicates the level of the ground or ground floor, which is 10 feet high (about 3 meters) from floor to ceiling. This will be our reference size. The ditch is located at a height of 1.
• Other numbers indicate height in the number of floors.
• For example, the road is 3 floors above the ditch.

Team Spawn Points

• Special Forces (team A) will spawn in a zone on the road marked with a green spot.
• Militants (team B) swim in a hut area marked with a red spot.

Goals

I have always developed multiplayer Call of Duty: Modern Warfare maps, taking into account the Domination mode. This is very helpful in creating a well-balanced map, on which one team will not have an unfair advantage over another.

• Three dots on the map, labeled A, B and C, represent the three flags for Domination-style gameplay.
• Teams can easily capture A and C, because they are near spawn points.
• Point B will be the hardest to grab and hold. She is in the middle of the map and is shot through from many positions.

Paths

Critical path

• The red line connecting the two parts of the map indicates the critical, or shortest, path.
• This path is the shortest, but passes through the most dangerous areas of the map.

Flanks

• Green lines show secondary paths.
• Both of these paths are longer than the critical, but provide flank positions and bypass the active zone in the center.
• However, these paths have large line-of-sight limits. It is easier for snipers to “shoot” targets on them.

Important points

On the map there are several important, or "hot" points, which give an advantage to the team that occupied them.

• The first point is highlighted with a red circle. This is a ledge with a good view of the ditch. It is three floors above the ditch.
• Players can watch the ditch from here and from two more hot spots, which will be shown below.
• This point is more accessible to team A, which spun on the road.

• The point is highlighted in red and located three floors above the ditch.
• It is only accessible from the rear, so gangster players can quickly occupy it.
• At this point, you can follow the ditch, the point on the opposite side, and the point in the upper right part shown in the next image.

• The point is highlighted in red. This is a massive crane foundation used in gold mining.
• This point is accessible from both sides of the stairs.
• At the point you can follow the ditch and it is three floors above it.
• From here, players can watch the entire length of the ditch and the two other hot spots shown in the previous images.

• The point is indicated by a red circle. Here three passes intersect, as well as a critical path.
• The two-story building on the right side of the point can be used by team A to observe the critical path.
• Players of the enemy team can go here to the ledge on the left and destroy the players of the friendly team watching the ditch.
• If the enemy controls this point, he can control the ditch and the dominant point A.

• The point is highlighted in red. From there you can observe the point of dominance C and the paths passing from the ditch.
• This is a two-story building that can be reached from both sides by stairs. A passage at the back of the building can provide a safe road for attacking enemy players.
• Team B must hold this point in order to keep track of the paths leading to the base, and maintain a point of dominance C with fire.

Visibility limits

The visibility limits are very important in multiplayer maps, because they determine the range of capture and control the location of the shelters and AI on the map. For a better understanding, I indicated the limits of visibility in the map view above.

• Blue cones mark the visibility limits of players from protrusions or from windows of second or third floors.
• The cones are shown small to simply show the player's angle of visibility. These visibility limits will be much further.
• This helps to understand where the windows and other high places are located on the map, and which areas can be observed with their help.

Here are a few basic principles of design, they will help you begin your acquaintance with level design. Later I will consider other design elements, such as the mechanics of shelters, the process of playing the level, the location of weapons and vehicles.