Publishing a Map

Publishing a map

Those who have beaten hardcore have access to the outer world, and are free to construct their own creations. If the creator desires, their creation can be submitted for testing, and eventual publication into FFA.

Pre Submission

Mapmakers can submit an unfinished map for feedback from Greens+ during *any* stage of its building process. When submitting, comfirm somewhere in the thread that the map is unfinished. A board member will change its state to [TESTING].

Submission

Before submitting a map, you should have an admin set up all scripts, checkpoints and regions and you should play through your map in survival or adventure mode to ensure it is beatable and to check for errors such as map escapes, unstable mechanics and unbalanced gameplay. If you still need scripts, checkpoints or regions set up, please indicate this on the map submission form. The map submission form is how you formally submit a map, and you can find the map submission form by clicking here. A map will not be set to [ON BOARD] until it is completely set up. If you have any questions, feel free to contact a board member.

The Board Process

After submitting your map, it will pass through multiple stages. These include:

A. [SUBMITTED]: This is the default state and allows admins to set up checkpoints, signs, etc.
B. [TESTING]: Greens+ can play your incomplete map and give feedback.
C. [ON BOARD]: Greens+ can play your completed map at /warp board and post reviews.
D. [DENIED]: This is reserved for special and infrequent cases. If your map is denied, it can be resubmitted if significant changes have been made as well as providing a changelog and a restart of the board process. Your map will most likely not receive this designation.
E. [REWORKING]: There are significant changes that will need to be made to your map. These changes should take some time, and these will be indicated in the thread. Originally, maps which would've received the reworking tag would've received the denied tag.
F. [ALTERING]: There are some minor changes to make to your map. These will be indicated in the thread.
G. [NOMINATED]: A board member considers your map ready for FFA, using either their own review or community feedback.
H. [APPROVED]: Two board members consider your map to be ready for FFA, using their own reviews and/or community feedback.
I. [QUEUED]: Your map has been approved for 24 hours and is awaiting publication.
J. [PUBLISHED]: Your map is now in FFA and is playable by anyone on the server.

Miscellaneous Notes

Holiday themed maps should be submitted at least 2 weeks before the desired holiday in order to get testing done in time. If you are trying to meet a desired deadline, mention that in the submission.

This article is intended to be a surface-level overview of the map submission process. It does not mention some of the nuances and details of the board process. Full board protocol is currently located at: https://forums.minr.org/threads/new-board-protocol.2714/

Promoting maps

MINR often uses maps as part of promotional material. Unless you opt-out during submission, your map may be used to promote the server in videos or posts. If you do not want an existing map to be featured, please fill out the form, selecting Map Status: Published on the forum, and opting out when asked. This question specifically refers to Videos and off-site articles. MOTD messages and wiki pages may still be used regardless of the answer.

Content ownership

Ideally, all content of the server would be hand-built by greens on the server. In the event that someone wants to integrate content that already exists onto the server, consider the following.

1. Assets must be original content OR have the direct permission of the creator of assets being used. Permission should be submitted alongside the map-submission form. Existing builds/content should not be imported onto the server.

2. If taking inspiration from sources, they should transform / add onto / enhance the existing work into something different enough to pass as original content rather than a copy. We want to avoid creating "asset flips", where parkour or challenge mechanics are bolted onto prebuilt content.

3. Existing parkour levels from map sites should not be copied onto the server. The rules above are specifically for people building maps / challenges into pre-built structures or assets.

Poor practices

There are some practices that the server frowns upon. Some of these by themselves can be excused, but if a map contains a majority of these, it is not likely to pass the review process until some are removed. Many of these are left over from the days when the server was survival-only, and are less likely to occur with the addition of Theta. Practices that are considered undesirable include:

Single block themed rooms
Unnecessarily difficult or unbalanced gameplay
Poor or no lighting
Bad grammar or confusing storytelling
Lack of direction for a player
Maps that look like hollowed out cave systems
Awkward, random, unneeded, stupid, or useless signs
Basic survival builds (Dirt, planks, cobble, etc.)
Cube rooms connected by tunnels.
Floating block parkour (Specifically, single blocks; Sakura is a good example of properly implementing floating platforms)

Map setup

Staff, please see this forum post for the commands to setup a map: https://forums.minr.org/threads/how-to-publish-a-map.2846/