Blavier's Mapmaking Guide

So you want to make a map eh?
This guide will teach you the basics.
Here, take this swordyou'll need it.


Step 1 - Find a Suitable Drawing Program
There are very many art programs but you need to be able to find one that follows some specific criteria.

1. Must be able to save the map in 24-bit PNG Format.
2. Must have an “Eye Dropper” tool.
3. Must be able to have multiple tabs open at the same time.
4. Must have Anti-aliasing as an option to turn off.

Here are some free programs many people use to design maps on.

1. GIMP
2. Paint.net
3. Microsoft Paint

I personally use Pyxel Edit you can grab it for $9, but I don't recommend doing so if you aren't serious about digital art as a whole.


Step 2 - Gather Resources
Now, you will need a few things before beginning your mapmaking journey.

1. This image which contains all the blocks of King Arthur’s Gold

I have created an alternate beginners version of the above image



Step 3 - Configure Your Map
Start by deciding the size of your map
Most maps are around 200 x 75 pixels but this is for medium CTF maps.
TDM maps are usually quite a bit smaller though.
Some maps even reach up to 800 x 200 pixels and more.

Step 4 - Designing Your Map
Now we have finally begun designing!
-The following image examples do not represent an ideal map, I added them in just for you to have a reference.


Let us begin by filling the background with the sky color you can use a color picking tool on the color sheet I posted above.
Then draw in some dirt and bedrock.
Your map should look something like this:


Make sure you make your map symmetrical to give both teams an even chance at winning.
Next, add some stone patches and inside the patches add thick stone:


There is a problem with my stone placement
In your maps, you must have some stone visible from the surface, not all stone patches have to be visible but at least a few.
I'm going to fix this by making trails to the surface made of stone:

This way, the builders know where to mine to find the stone.

Next thing I'm going to do is square out the terrain.




This 45-degree terrain may look visually appealing but in reality, it is relatively hard to navigate
An improved version would look like this:




This is easily scaleable by either a single slash or a quick grapple.
If I incorporate this into the map, the map should look a bit like this.



Now to add grass to your map by adding the grass color directly above your dirt blocks


My map in its current state looks like this:


The next step is to add tents and flags,
Tents should be placed 1 pixel above dirt like the grass, but the flags should be positioned 2 pixels above the dirt.


Next, plant some trees on your map the amount will vary but tipically place 4-5 on each side and 2 at the center.


Now i will add in a sort of structure in the middle to make combat and building more interesting.


Finally the last step in completeing my map is adding gold . Have some gold located by the tents and some below ground, but the center is where most of the gold will be located, to encourage taking risks and not just staying at base building away.


Welp, that concludes my guide to creating simple maps.

 

Thanks Blav

 

pretty cool tutorial, about the softwares; i would definitely recommend Aseprite for mapmaking, spriting and stuff like that. costs around 15 euro on steam but its really worth it. if you're looking for some free software though i can agree with Blavier only about paint.net. i used gimp for spriting a few times and its really bad for it in my opinion.
good tutorial anyways, you could improve/expand it a bit for medium-level mapmakers

 

I think the last step should be testing out your map then making edits. I only say this because I have no idea how to do so and would love some help when anyone is available.

 

@CrispyChicken030
Once you've made your map put it in /Base/Maps which is located in the main KAG folder. Open autoconfig.cfg and change /sv_gamemode [gamemode] to your gamemode of choice; RTDM/CTF/TTH After that run KAG through runlocalhost.bat. Once in-game open the rcon terminal with the home button and use the loadmap command;
/loadmap [mapnamehere] (without brackets)
Happy mapping!