that encourages modding/mapmaking.
This tool released by Blizzard has fueled an active modding community
for games like Starcraft and Warcraft.
So to those aspiring mapmakers who want to make it to the list next year,
here are some notes from Atchucan Gaming.
1) Putting the word "Defense" in your title seems to work their magic. Get a good title for your map. Something that has a good name recall.
2) A dedicated website is a must to get gamers who like your map to get together. This also serves as the mecca for those newbies who want to know more about your game. Plus, a community will be a great place to get feedbacks about your map from the people who play them.
3) Get a nice graphics guy. Nice map previews and loading screens gives a boost in terms of mass appeal. It also makes your map stand out from the flurry of other generic looking maps.
4) Encourage competitive play. Setting up leagues and tournaments ensures support from hard core followers.
5) Keep up map support by releasing map updates to fix bugs and leaks, update content, do more balancing and to basically improve the overall quality of the map.
6) Do map protection. Unless you're a Linux advocate and want to encourage open source, map protection minimizes unofficial clones of your map. Map protection greatly decreases the number of people who would give their favorite heroes imba buffs and mess up your map. Plus cheat versions of your map won't multiply that much.
7) Submit your map to mapmaking communities. Sites like TheHiveWorkshop and Garena give a lot of exposure or your map. Plus you get reviews from fellow mapmakers.
8) Get a Beta testing team togeteher. These guys would help out in spotting stuff you missed and contrary to popular belief, Beta tests actually increases the hype for your map.
9) Host your map.
Nothing better than going down and dirty to spearhead the spread of your map.
10) Have your map reviewed by gaming blogs like Atchucan.
Nothing much more effective than going grassroots and encouraging word of mouth.
We've already done blog reviews on a couple of maps.
If you want your map to be reviewed, feel free to let us now by pressing the comment button.
