Level Editor/Workflows/Your first map

This walkthrough builds a small, playable two-team map from nothing: a floor, some walls and cover, spawns for both teams, a capture point for the starter gamemode, navigation for bots, and then a playtest and an export. It takes about half an hour. Each step links to the page with the details.

1. Set up

1. Open the editor and click Settings. Set TeamSpec Executable Path to TeamSpec.exe. (Settings)
2. File > Save As... and choose a new, empty folder for the map. From now on auto-save keeps it saved. (Maps are folders)

2. A floor

1. In the Snapping tab, check that Grid Snapping is on and the grid step is 1 m.
2. Pick the Box tool. Drag a footprint about 40 by 40 m on the grid, let go, pull up 0.5 m, click.
3. Click a material in the Materials tab and double-click it to put it on the selected floor.

3. Walls and cover

1. Draw a few boxes on the floor as walls and crates. Start a box on the floor and it stands on it. Smart guides help line them up and space them evenly.
2. For a building: draw a solid box the size of the room, then Tools > Hollow... (Ctrl+H) with a 0.5 m wall. Cut a doorway: draw a box through the wall where the door goes, select the wall, then the doorway box last, and choose Edit > Subtract Brush (CSG). (Brushes and CSG)
3. Drag a few props from the Props tab: barrels, crates, fences.
4. Turn on View > Show Player Figures to check doorways and cover against a player's size.

4. Spawns

1. Functional > Spawn Point: click at one end of the map. In the inspector keep Team 1. Place two or three.
2. Place two or three at the other end with Team 2.
3. Turn each with the Rotate tool to face into the map. (Spawn Point)

5. The world boundary

Functional > World Boundary: click a few meters below the floor. Anyone who falls off the map dies there. (World Boundary)

6. A capture point

A new map's starter gamemode scores a point for your team every time you walk into a zone named CapturePoint, and the first team to 10 wins.

1. Draw a box in the middle of the map, about 4 by 4 m and 3 m tall.
2. In the inspector tick Is Area and set Trigger Name to CapturePoint. (Zone)

You can change the rules later in Map Config > Gamemode. (Scripting a gamemode)

7. Light

1. Open Map Config > Environment and turn the Sun so the light comes in at an angle you like.
2. Add a few lights with Functional > Create Omni Light where it is dark. (Lights)
3. Leave Bake lightmaps on export ticked in Map Config > LightmapGI: the export bakes the light for you. (Lighting and lightmaps)

8. Navigation for bots

1. Functional > Nav Region, click on the floor. Set its Extents so the box covers the whole floor and reaches a few meters above it.
2. Choose Functional > Bake Selected NavRegion. The walkable area appears. (Bots and navigation)

9. Playtest

Click Quick Playtest / Apply. TeamSpec starts on your map. Walk round, check the spawns and the capture point. Leave the game open: change something in the editor and click Quick Playtest / Apply again to send the change. (Playtesting)

10. Export and share

1. File > Export to TeamSpec (.tsmap)... and choose where to save the file.
2. In TeamSpec, Host / Join Game > Import Map loads it, or publish it on the Steam Workshop. (Exporting and publishing)

Where next

• Shape the ground with terrain or displacements.
• Add doors, supply pickups and logic.
• Make both halves match with a Mirror Node.
• Write your own gamemode.