Flow

Map flow is the movement of the players around your map.

Flow
"Flow: refers to how a map's geometry and item layout encourage map-movemnt and a sense of constant forward motion" -Solo xiii

Maps with good flow incorporate cover, but do not allow for dead ends. This blocks off escape routes and puts an abrupt stop to the flow of the map. A good in game example is the long top hallway of Construct. You would never run down the pathway if it weren’t for the sword that conveniently spawned all the way the end. This forces a player to back track, if he/she were being chased the player has no options, or routes to take, and dies. Quickly declaring the map sucks and rage quits. Geometry Geometry is the basic structure of your map. It is often good to have inspiration when building a map. The geometry of the map is the main structure players play on. It is the skeleton of any map. It contributes very heavily on the flow and balance of a map. Take a great deal of time to make sure you have a decent layout for the map's geometry.

Constant Forward Motion
Part of designing good flow is to make sure players have a sense of constant forward motion when moving around your map. Major routes should be obvious and uninterrupted by trick jumps, sharp corners, dead ends or anything else that can slow a player's movement. Players should be able to freely move from anywhere to anywhere else on the map easily and smoothly.

This is not to say that there is no place for alternate routes. Many a map has become beloved for its use of jumps, teleporters, or other alternative movement options that spice up gameplay. As long as there are obvious easy flowing routes between major locations of the map, other routes can do a lot of good for giving a map its own personality.

Designing Flow
Think of the player as a river... The river only wants to keep moving forwards. As a good design progresses the forger will give them the room to move forwards. So how do you go about making a player continuously moving forward without having to stop and turn around? A circle! Generally, a map needs to have a circular flow on the macro level. Not necessarily resembling a circle, but a flow in which the player doesn't have to turn around and do a 180 all the time but instead can just run around the map in loops.

Dead ends or turn around are a bad idea because it traps the player and then provides them with only one possible exit. If a designer wants to use a dead end. there are a few key things to think about. First it should only be used to gain access to power weapons or power-ups / special abilities. This way the player has to make the gamble to decide whether the high risk situation is worth the reward. A perfect example of this is Guardian's drop down shotgun, or Lockout's shotgun area. The player then has to conciously make the decision, "is the shotgun as a power weapon worth the risk of potentially dieing from assassination or being trapped by gernades?"

If a map has good flow, some designers will say this map has good connectivity. With that being said, it is bassically how many options a player has to get from one area to another. A map with bad connectivity will only have one or two ways into a room. This leads to choke points and boring gameplay.

Good ways to improve map connectivity is a rule of thumb is to use the "RULE OF THREE!" This may sound comical but it is a minimum to have at least three ways into a room and three ways out. This allows the player to enter and leave from danger in multiple ways. This also give the player a choice on how he or she feels is the best way to attack a room. Then adding some verticality between rooms and you are starting to get a complex map design.