So how do you guys do it?

[9.3 Random thoughts on mapping]
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+ Make sure to communicate ideas explicitly with the player,
for example, when expressing a laboratory, make sure
computers, lasers, and biological tanks are present. Like
writing and other media of communication, better to show it
than to declare it on your textfile!

+ A dominant color theme will turn an otherwise good looking map
beautiful.

+ The music has got to match the environment, it shows good taste
and once again reinforces the communication of the level's theme
to the player. Example: AV Map30: Point Dreadful.

+ If one's eyes were nuanced enough to see the subtle tone and shading of
Fredrik's tech, one would recognize that Vrack3's art direction is genius.

+ WTF is green marble doing with redrock? They need to stop designing
levels like that. There is no Christmas theme in hell.
RED or BLACK marble goes with REDROCK.

+ In Hell, you cannot run out of black and red.

+ With black textures and flats, you can get away with many mapping crimes,
like flat ceilings for example. If you don't believe me, check out the
Minas Morgul map.

+ The secret to making a good hell map? Absorbing Alien Vendetta's Map29,
remember its lighting, monster placement, and most importantly, its shape.

+ Yes, the looks of the level do affect gameplay, because the ingame
atmosphere is a part of gameplay... how much a part of the gameplay is the
atmosphere? How much do you feel it should be?

+ Windows are multipliers of details.

+ Altitude, whether at the top of a mountain or under the basement of a
tomb, is a good indicator of level progression. Use it liberally.

+ Skyboxes? No no, fully-scaled, 360-degree backgrounds are better!

+ Why would I want to go through rooms connected by a bunch of hallways?
I don't get it.

+ There is a difference between level progression and leading the player
through a maze. Level progression happens when you tell a story with
architecture, leading the player through a maze is when the story gets
boring with nonsense... I hope you can tell a good story.

+ It's not so hard to close off the levels with four walls that has nothing
behind them, but the mapper who has done so has missed his chance of
showing the player a beautiful vista that reinforces the atmosphere
of the level.

+ Easy it is to make a level difficult, but could I trick someone else into
playing it?

+ I don't care what anyone else thinks, the default Doom/Doom2 pistol isn't
fun to use in the slightest bit, not even if had a different look, not
even when it had a different sound, not in ANY fight, not under any
circumstance.

+ Having the player start off with the default Doom/Doom2 pistol and asking
them to kill enemies with it... pisses me off.

+ Good traps must not only surprise the player, they must be logical
as well. Don't just trap the player, trap him in with a tomb and a
skeleton to boot.

+ The best placement of the exploding barrel, ever, is located at the start
of Ander Johnsen's AV Map02: Rusty Rage. [I'd have to agree with Mike
on this]

+ Enemies popping out of walls and coffins are far scarier, thus more
effective, than teleporting peeps.

+ Cyberdemons are only scary when you don't give the player enough
ammo and space to deal with them. Not enough space is scarier though.

+ You can beat an archvile to death with your bare fist, all the funner
with beserk.

+ The megasphere isn't there for you to grab like supermarket grocery,
it belongs to the monsters and they want it back. Did I mention that the
monsters have sharp claws and hurl fireballs?

+ Finding a secret gives me that same feeling when I find an extra coin
in the phone booth.

+ What makes or break gameplay? Movement of the player. When the player
feels good moving about in his virtual environment without even fighting
the enemies, that builds a foundation towards good gameplay. A strong
example of this concept in action is Super Mario 64, where the player's
movement feels good no matter where they are or what they're doing; Mario
could be romping around the castle courtyard doing triple jumps and that
in itself is already entertaining.

+ Proportions in a level is very important to player's movement and enemy
contact. If a given space is too big, enemy contact will feel loose and
sloppy; the baron of hell can be rendered harmless as a lampost with too
much open spaces. If a given space is too cramped, the player's movement
is restricted, and he will continually bump into things, making player
movement an exercise in frustration rather than smooth play. Like all
aspects of map design, moderation here is key. Good examples of level
proportions include John Romero's maps, Anders Johnsen's maps, Kim Malde's
maps, Erik Alm's maps, Kama Sutra, vrack3, and even ChordG.

+ The above statement still holds true in the face of some supposedly
open maps, like Epic Map05, where extremely large open areas are
moderated by islands of fights in smaller spaces.

+ PV = nRT... where P = Pressure of Opposition
V = Area of a given space
n = Number of monsters
R = Mean monster movement speed
T = Average area controlled per monsters

+ One of the biggest violators of player movement are 8-unit posts that
sticks out the wall... or even eight-unit posts... Period.
Get rid of them; they are hurting gameplay.

+ If details get in the way of player's movement, put them on the ceiling,
like vrack2b.

+ Spending lots of time detailing that chapel room is nice, but that won't
determine the optimal number of revenants to insert into that area.

+ What is dynamic space? A room, hallway, area, etc. that drastically
alters the general vector and elevation of the player's movement.

+ What is beautiful space? A room, hallway, area, etc. in which the player
feels good moving about.

+ What is beautiful dynamic space? Good map design.

+ Exhaustive playtesting is the only theoretically sound way to
ensure that your map is fun. Game Law.

+ A bad gametester will tell you that "your map stinks."

+ A good gametester will tell you that "your map stinks, and here's why..."

+ A good gametester will never deem your map flawless.

+ Belial's, Brian's, and Mike's bitchings are worth their weight in mapping
gold.

+ If your testers tell you that a particular fight isn't fun, quit being
defensive and remove the perpetrating monster(s).

+ If your testers tell you that a particular fight is too easy, you know
what to do...

+ There is no fucking way I can vertically align those fucking BRIK_06J
textures in the fucking Suzzallo Library, Belial... JUST BE QUIET
ALREADY! =p

+ Listen to your gametesters, they are the canaries to your mapping
mine shaft.