From Idea to Form: Forging the First Piece
Everything begins from somewhere. Perhaps you read a good book or watched a brilliant movie. It might come from a game or some arrangement of buildings you see while driving down the road. When applying these images to our shared interest in Halo's forge, it takes only this idea or inspiration to begin something.
But how does one find that inspiration, and where should you begin once you have the idea? These are two of the most common questions I hear from newer forgers, and they remain some of the largest obstacles for me when I create something. As easy as it sounds, finding an idea and making it take shape is far from it more often than not. You may have help along the way from some friends, but that first step is often yours alone, and finding your footing can be difficult.
The Art of the Brainstorm
I had a friend who once said something like "lets have a brainicane". I had to ask him what he meant. It tuns out a 'brainicane' was a far more intense brainstorm. It was a delightful notion. How you decide to find your ideas is completely a personal journey. My friend preferred having everything mapped out and ready to go before he began much of anything. As far as I am concerned, I prefer to adjust things as I go. Perhaps, when considering forge, I have a drawing of what I want to do. I'll copy about half of it, but let the rest take shape without the drawing's guidance, balancing out areas as I see fit rather than how the paper does. My drawings are often very hastily scribbled anyway, I don't want to sit down and read those blasted things.
Finding Form
1: Find References
One of the most important things I did when learning to forge, and continue to do today, is to look at other creations. Other people can be brilliant. It doesn't matter who: Bungie, Valve, or maybe that username with a few maps of his/her own. Maybe a architect made something amazing in our own non-virtual world (I would recommend looking at Frank Lloyd Wright's work, such as Falling Water). Use them as a resource, learn from them how to use pieces creatively or how a certain layout worked. You can take from their designs, just try not to take too much. You can use their example, but it's your map that you want to make, not theirs. This is, of course, not a statement applicable to anyone making a remake. In that case, take everything.
2: Question Yourself
The question could be anything that would lead you to a map. What if I fused a Halo 3 map with a Halo CE map and put in Extraction? What if I created a Flood map where the first place you spawn had three doors that opened at the same time. Each had an advantage, but you must choose one. What if I took a floor plan of the San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane and made it a 1v1? Even if the initial question's answer doesn't come out well, it may give you some inspiration for a new idea.
3: Shape Association
Think of a shape, any shape. A square, a pyramid, the letter S, maybe even an Arabic letter. The shape can be anything, for everything has a shape. Whatever you choose might just be the form that your map takes on, or maybe just a structure in it.
4: Draw a Sketch
Perhaps one of the easiest ways to start seeing your ideas before they are in forge, drawings don't have to be followed to the point. Often, especially in Halo 4's time, I've drawn a sketch of what I think might play well with whatever game mode I'm trying to create for. Sometimes they turn out well and I decide I want to see it made. Other times I can already see issues like bottlenecks or dead ends and can fix those with swipe of my eraser rather than deleting half a map in forge. The sketch can give you an idea of what will and won't work, and thus it has become one of my favorite tools for mapping out some idea. Sometimes it's just a line, not really anything else at all. Then I realize that line looks a bit like Narrows or Elongation, and work off that as inspiration. Perhaps that line is more like the house down your road, and you like the way that building looks with a little yard around it. A yard that, perhaps, could be recreated in Forge Island and infested with flood or an approaching force trying to take the dominion points you have. The opposite end of this is that you draw a clean sketch and follow it exactly (for this, I would recommend using graph paper with each square being x by x units), only making adjustments after tests. This is no worse or better a way to go about things, and in fact some amazing results have come of it. Google Sketchup is another amazing resource that you can download here. With it, you can make a 3D model of a map, which can allow you to see any issues with it before it is made in forge. I'm no good with it, but I know a few people have put it to great use, and the map they put out afterwords is often well made. However, it's up to you to determine how to follow your drawing.
5: Quick Forge
I like quick forges, even if they do wear at my soul and make me hate the game most times. What I do is load up an empty canvas and just make something. Only a rough idea exists in mind. I often need to accompany myself with good music and I'm set. This is, in fact, how I made my most recent map. This is however, a potentially terrible idea. While it can be done this way, you'll often need to make some massive edits and in my example, throw away hundreds of designs, not even bothering to save most. Still, it gets the ideas flowing sometimes, and you get to see the pieces rather than an blank piece of paper or a computer program.
How I Came Up With My First Halo 4 MapI'd like to follow this all up with an example, one that I know well, how I made Jade. The map began when i first got Halo 4, for the first thing I did was open up Forge. However, I didn't know what to do, so my quick forge ended abruptly and with disappointment. I had been playing Mass Effect 3 a lot at that point, and so I took some inspiration from maps in its cooperative multiplayer. I found floor plans for some that i liked and began sketching my own remixes of them. However, I never liked any, so i moved off the project for a while and began trying to adapt old Roman and Greek structures into Halo. Those failed as well, I'm afraid, and so I went back to the Mass Effect inspiration, just because I loved Firebase Jade so much.
I failed again and sat on the project for a while longer. One day i looked at a few of my sketches and just went into forge. I started small, thinking about a different map as inspiration first. The long red hall was formed and the bridge adjacent to it came up next. I just began making things, some of them were in my notes already, though as I went along I looked at my notes less and less. Later, when i finished and got my first test, I had to make some major edits, but it was a whole lot further along than before.
My point for telling you that little tale is that everything takes time and deliberation. You may even need to mix up your inspiration or just start making things that you can fix later. It took me months just to start this map, and then about 2.5 months to finish it with the help of several very kind people. For your maps, it may not take as long, but there are three pivotal things you should do. Test often and with several people, receive feedback, and adjust your map to the latter two suggestions. There are plenty of testing lobbies out there, so chances are you can attend some if you can't just pull people off your friends list. Before you can do all this though, you must start your map.
