Map Development TheoryCraft - The importance of usability.

Heres a little discussion i thought i might try and get going: the importance of your maps interface and ease of control/usability.

In my current map project (about 85% complete) i have come to a point where i have needed to devote my efforts towards the gameplay interface and usabilty of my map. In effect i have been trying to find ways of ensuring that the multitude of options available to my players are as easy to access as possible, yet not cluttered to the point that play is made difficult.

Many a map i have seen fall under the wight of the many features available, featues that are often diffcult to manipulate and use. It is thus i propose that the mapping theory freaks out there help list any useful tips they have for ensuring that a map is easy to pick up and play.

I'll start with my own:

1) Using the Interface:

In my map i use a series of 'control points' that grant the owning team resources periodically. Rather than using a mulitboard or other cluttered interface item i made use of the Food Used/Food Produced bars as an easy to access, quick representation of the players income of each of the two resources. While i am aware that this would not work for all maps i am simply stating that things like this, when used in conjunction with the easy to edit game interface strings can greatly enhance the ease of passing information onto a player. Many game interface variables are not used in all maps, and thus can act as a way in which to present additional data without a clumsy multiboard.

Another example? Using food to represent the number of seconds till a hero revives in an AOS, (or lumber if that isn't used).

2) Information at their fingertips.

Often in maps, i find that the tooltips do not provide the sort of info a new player actually *needs*. In my map i have tried to add actual, targeted gameplay information and tips to the tooltips, as well as the neat fluff that makes us all feel good about our writing skills:P Thus at the very end of every tooltip i have added 'developer notes' of a kind that give the sort of information that a new player really wants. For example (an Upgrade).

Hidden information: Grooved Spines Spiker - Tier Two Through increased aerodynamics and organic composition the Spiker's attack spines have increased range. Increases attack range by 50. A useful strategic upgrade that allows for the vulnerable Spiker's to be arranged more strategically on the battlefield, while still maintaining their effectiveness as ranged assault units. As Spikers are fragile units, the range upgrade also increases their survivabilty as they will not need to be close to the front lines. A useful upgrade for a player planning on specialising with ranged units.

I feel that information like this can help inexperienced players who would otherwise be inundated with choices and options.

Another example i've used is placing a dummy abilty on every unit that provides a description and outlines the basic strengths and weaknesses of every unit availbale to the player.

Ultimately i believe that players shouldn't *have* to consult the quest log everytime they need information - it should be available at all times as close to the object in question as possible.

3) Keep the clutter down:

Another useful skill in making maps is knowing how to consolidate the players options into a small number of areas. Instead of 25 shops and 140 items consider a different system that gives the same freedom, yet makes the process more streamlined, crafting/fusions for instance. Good game design ensures players don't need to spend any more than 20 seconds to find what they are looking for. And consider placing similar items together - unit upgrades should be on, or very near the unit spawners. The ultimate goal is to make the enitre experience as intuitive as possible.



Well that's it for now, feel free to post any comments and add your own ideas to making gameplay a more inuitive experience, especially for new players!

I tend to find you have to spell everything out to most players on B.Net. For example, probably 50% or more of people cannot grasp that they could kill stuff, even though they appeared to do no damage much of the time. This was despite the fact that they had killed stuff, and quite a few.

So providing any information you can, as prominantly as possible, is important. Also note - putting information on the loading screen is often completely ignored by players. So don't expect them to have read it.

Basically, assume they are dumb, and design the interface accordingly.

Keep the game simple is my motto. If the game is simple, you should have no trouble with making an understandable interface. If you need a more complicated interface, make sure you structure it well.

Tooltips. You definitely have to spend some time on them, not just write them in the last five minutes before you release the map. Rewrite them and rewrite them, until they are polished to great simplicity and understandability. Spellcheck them, in fact, spellcheck every text you ever use, ever. If english is not your strong point, get someone to advise you on the subject.

Hotkeys. Make sure there's no conflict between them, write down the spells each hero has so you can be sure no two spells use the same hotkey. Keeping them close together also helps, so players can place their fingers on all the keys they'll need. The simple method to accomplish this is to assign hotkeys based on the spell's icon position, but I find it a lot more intuitive if the hotkeys are letters from the ability name.

while I agree, I also think you shouldn't have to make thier strategy for them, by telling them the weaknesses and strong points of every unit. For sure you should do that in an RPG when picking your hero but for the kinda map your describing, I don't know. Wc3 doesn't spoon feed you everything but there are plenta noobs out there.

Wc3 does however offer online stratergy guides. Why not have that information in game?

Too much information can annoy players and make the interface cluttered. It kind of offends the eyes when a tooltip opens up and covers up half of the screen. It depends on the map type, too. In a quick, competitive game, there's not much time to read tooltips anyway. You just have to fight the enemy and get a feeling for how different tactics work out in practice as you go along. On the other hand, in an RPG, which is filled with various content and plays over a longer period of time, giving some hints to the players in new situations seems more appropriate, and the tooltips should also have another very important component in story-based maps, flavour. While in a competitive game, functionality is appreciated above everything else, adventure players are looking for flavour, for content.

BBDino: You know, a usability discussion is probably the single most useful thing when it comes to making better maps. You certainly have some nice ideas already, especially when it comes to keeping things uncluttered and understandable.

I'll share some of the usability considerations I am currently facing with my own map. This is a terribly long post, but I guess it reflects how important I think usability is.

First of all, I'd like to make an example of one well known map, namely DotA. One reason DotA is a lot more popular than the tenfolds of DotA clones may be as trivial as the fact that DotA is simple. You have a hero, 4 abilities to learn, and some item-shops where you spawn. That's it!

Now what does the typical DotA-clone have? More abilities, fancy item-system, upgrade-options for creeps, town-management, ten times as many shops and items, more lanes to fight in etc etc and etc. When I play a map for the first time it is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff in it. And being overwhelmed is the exact same feeling as "not being in control". A lot of design literature stresses that the user (in this case, player) needs to feel "in control", and it does make sense right?

When I play a round of DotA, I am in control. I know the map, I know what the items do, I know what the heroes do and so on. This is comfortable, and is why me and so many many others just keep playing DotA instead of the arguably better alternatives.

When I join a new map, I have no idea what the heroes do, I don't know which item to get, it beats me whether I should spend money on upgrade X, and hey, if the map-terrain is complicated I may not even know exactly where I should BE.

I guess that was the long reason why the best maps are the simple maps, those that make sense almost immediately. Now the challenge is to introduce new and interesting elements without complicating things.

I'll list some of my attempts in this, with my own AoS map Valley of Dissent 2:


Challenge 1: Can a custom Item System be introduced?

First off, the New Item System. I think everyone that has played a public game on b.net on any map that features a new item-system have realized that players do not understand new item systems. Sure, maybe 50% do, but the other half doesn't. Then they quit when the guy that WAS able to figure out the item system owns their ass with his Sword of Ultimate Wooping.

This is why I spent not only weeks implementing an item system I thought would be easy to use, but I actually completely scrapped this system because it wasn't easy enough. Then I spent EVEN MORE TIME on the second system. I finally have a system I do think 95% of all players will be able to use. It works as follows:

I have a spellbook with a backpack icon. Whenever a player buys any item that is considered "outfit", it is automatically equipped in the correct slot within the spellbook backpack. Buy a weapon, and you will get the icon for that weapon inside the spellbook-backpack. Buy an armor, a shield, a helmet, boots whatever: it will automatically equip itself in the correct slot. If you already have an item of the same type, it will be sold for you with a friendly message of "Your old weapon has been sold for X gold".

But how do you sell an equipped item? After all, you can't pick up an icon from within the backpack spellbook and drop it on a shop. If I had't found a solution to this, I would have scrapped the custom item-system alltogether, but then I came up with the following: All the icons in the backpack are based on abilities that can be autocast. In the tooltip for each item, the following message appears "Right click to sell this item". Simple as that. Right click and the item is sold. And for the complete idiots that can't understand that, the items will be auto-sold if they buy new equipment anyway.

Now, the reason I really needed a new item-system in the first place is simple. The hotkeys for the reglar item-slots are cumbersome to use. With the new system, to use a sword that can cast chain-lightning, simply press 'E' for equipment followed by 'F' (which is the hotkey for the weapon). Oh, and the normal item-slots can be used for consumable items like potions and whatnot.

I basically spent over a month making this item system only to let people use proper hotkeys for items. That is how much I value usability. (Btw, it took so long because I had to for example write a whole item-attribute system from scratch, along with quite a few other things)

Challenge 2: New Hero Ability System

We have all seen tenfolds of different ways to pick and levelup skills for your hero. From the "custom hero" approach that lets you pick your own skills and level them up in various ways using either skillpoints, lumber or whatnot, to systems that change your unit into different units or add skills based on misc criteria. Usually, these systems aren't too difficult to understand, at least for me, but they have one flaw that can hinder even a seasoned war3 player like myself: they take TIME to use and understand.

Again, in DotA, after you have picked a hero, you only have 4 skills to pick from. That's good, because thats all you have time to read before the action begines. I recently played The Great Strategy. There I stood baffled with the 50 abilities I could choose from. I just had to pick something and run off to the battle. Again, DotA presents the player with a more comfortable situation.

But, I really want to give players more creative strategic possibilities than "use these 4 abilities". This where my God system comes into play. Basically, each hero is forced at the beginning of the game, to pick one out of six gods. The hero will now be able to learn his "standard 4 abilities" and also 7 other god abilities.

This sounds complicated, but I actually made it for the sole purpose of making it easier for the new player. Does that sound counter-intuitive? Then let me describe how a new player will see VoD2 for the first time.

1: The player's screen is locked at a tavern. The player can not scroll his screen anywhere or do anything until he has selected a hero from the tavern. (btw, I think a tavern-hero-selection-system is the most comfortable to use)

2: After selecting, the player's screen will scroll to a statue. The statue will be selected for him, revealing an icon reading "Select your deity". Clicking it will open a menu of 6 icons, each giving a general impression of the gods, like "evil aggressive", "combat master", "chaotic", "defensive" etc. Again, the player cannot do anything until one of these gods have been selected.

3: Finally the hero will be spawned and selected for the player. He can now click the familiar looking big red plus icon and view his available hero abilities. It will open up a unified menu displaying all hero skills AND god skills in the same menu. Yep, 4 hero-abilities and 7 god abilities. Wow, omg, 11 abilities, thats extremely confusing! Therefore, the hero's ultimate will be greyed out until the hero is level 6. ALL god skills will be greyed out initially, becoming available at level 2-3 or higher.

Now, did anyone notice the magic trick?

Each hero has a total of 4 + Number of Gods*God-abilities to choose from. That is a total of 46 abilities. Yet, with this system, the player will make one simple god-choice, and will be presented with a friendly menu of 3 initial skills he can learn.

This system was designed only to keep the vast number of possible options easily manageable. Again, usability is the prime concern.

Now, since a hero's command card can't fit 4 hero-abilities AND a bunch of god-abilities, there is a menu that works just like the item menu, the will hold the god abilities. Again, a double-hotkey is used, 'W' + desired god ability hotkey.


I do have several other usability issues I have been putting much thought to in VoD2, but this post is already long beyond any sense.

I generally go along the lines of giving people the information, and then some help if it is hard to understand, but when push comes to shove - its like teaching a bunch of 5 year olds (which, by the way, is very hard; repetition times 10^6 is required). Many people can't get the hang of gates that takes 5 seconds to open, even though it says so clearly in the quests (which a message tells you about), AND it is shown for 60 seconds at the start of the game.

In the end, you have to just give up on the 50% that can't read English/are completely thick. Either that, or you'll end up with something so watered down to appeal to the masses that it isn't a good map.

If more than 10% of the players of a map fails to understand something, I would take personal responsibility for it. Any other attitude leads to inferior usability.

In my opinion at least 90% of the players must be able to understand every basic aspect of a map, regardless of what language they speak.

This is one of the bits of genius in ToB. Simple, short yet extremely informative spell tooltips, done I would say, to perfection. Givining information like target type is ALWAYS nice for a firsttime player, when you first try you see a spell, you don't know if its AoE no target, or AoE target, or even single target, and so you may avoid using it so as not to look like a fool.


Multiboards can be useful, you can display a lot of useful information in a relatively small area. Even smaller if you keep supperfluous crap to a minimum(debate I am having with myself, how much to cut from DoD's multiboard).

Also, in tooltips is may be nice to have a "Framework" section that describes how the spell reacts(see Blades and Billets).

Which raises the question of how compatible is being a popular map is with being a 'good' map. Many popular maps may have to be reduced to the lowest common denominator to satisfy the needs and wants of the largest possible population. I agree with your points karukef.

You have to find the balance. You can't compromise quality just because idiot b.net players won't understand, you just need to find more intelligent ways of implementing things.

Now THAT is the right attitude.


There is no need to lower oneself to the lowest common denominator. What you do is, as Chuckle_Brother says, raise the lowest common denominator by being a more intelligent usability designer.

but you have to wonder when making single player maps/campaigns, are your players more intelligent than the average b.netter?

The main advantage single-player maps have is, I would think, the fact that the player can take all the time he needs to understand how it works. There's no other players pressuring him to "pick a hero already before everybody else is level 10". This also means that the first mission of a campaign shouldn't have a challenging timelimit. Of course, if the game is too difficult to understand, an impatient player might give up on it anyway. Single player maps/campaigns may be more complex, due to less time pressure, but the author should still strive to convey the game mechanics to the player in the most easy to understand manner possible.

Regarding hero selection, I'm having problems with it in my arena map. Having been developed continiously for years now, the map still features the relic of mapmaking that is the wisp selection system. I kept it for nostalgic reasons, but I realise more and more how lacking it is. My alternatives are Vexorian's hero selection system or a tavern system, but I have issues with them too. Vexorian's, while great, offers too much information. A new player doesn't have the time to study 12 sets of 4 abilities to see which hero he would enjoy playing most. All he needs is a short description of each hero's playstyle, something that the tavern system has to offer with it's tooltips. However, a tavern system eliminates the presence of the hero in the selection process: all a player can see is the hero's icon and a tooltip, but no actual hero.

So, I'm considering a sort of a hybrid system, utilising floating text tooltips in a classic wisp selection system to give first time players the information neccesary (gameplay description and visual appearance) to pick their favourite hero.