Map Graduation Guide!
Hey Fighters!
Today, we’re going to graciously explain map graduation, yep, the mysterious process where your lovingly crafted map can ascend into matchmaking glory.
We’ll break down what it actually is (don’t worry, it’s not a diploma), how you can throw your creation into the ring, and, most importantly, what rewards await if your map survives the ordeal and makes it into matchmaking.
What is Map Graduation
Map Graduation is basically the moment your map gets transferred from the Level Hub and added into Matchmaking mix for all players to chance upon to see how it behaves in the wild.
If it gets picked (congrats, you did something right), it joins the live rotation, where unsuspecting players from across Squadblast will wander in, and fully experience what you’ve unleashed upon them.
Create and Submit your Map
Start by building your map in the Level Editor. Try to make something PvP related that feels smooth, balanced, and, dare we say, actually fun to play. A decent map has good flow, doesn’t trap players in soul crushing choke points, and gives both teams a fair shot at winning. Bonus points if it manages to feel unique instead of like every other corridor simulator out there.
Once you’ve forged your creation and are reasonably confident it won’t cause widespread emotional damage, you can submit it as a potential matchmaking candidate. Just drop it into the level hub channel on Discord and include some useful information, such as game modes, what makes your map special, and anything else that might convince people it’s worth playing.
For now, maps that fit the PvP nature of currently available game modes qualify for graduation. As we expand the available game modes.
Feedback and Improvements
If your map shows enough promise, you've earned yourself some feedback! This is where you find out what's working and what’s not.
We’ll offer you feedback to fix your map. You go back in, you make changes, you resubmit. That loop keeps going until it's matchmaking ready.
Graduation into Matchmaking
Once your map has done the work and cleared the bar, it earns a spot in the map pool. From there, players across the game can find it, and have a great time in it of course!.
You can keep updating it as time progresses, because you will notice things. Usually right around the time everyone else does. Just drop a note in the Level Hub with what you've changed, and we'll take another look and push the update through.
Every month, we raid the workshop and pick maps to throw into matchmaking, and maybe yours could be one of them, or more!
Extra Tips
Playtest regularly, and with players who'll tell you when something isn't working. Pay attention to where people get confused, which paths feel natural, and which spots seemed like a great idea at 2am but are harder to defend in the morning.
Keeping the layout clean and the balance consistent goes a long way. And if you hit a wall, the Level Editor Guide channel on Discord is right there.
Rewards
You’ll earn a frames and bit-chips based on how many of your maps make it into Matchmaking:
1 Map = Bronze Builder’s Mark
5 Maps = Silver Builder’s Mark
10 Maps = Gold Builder’s Mark
20+ Maps = Platinum Builder’s Mark
5,000 Bit-Chips per Graduated map
TL;DR: Make a map that fits PvP matchmaking criteria → Publish it for everyone to see on the Level hub → Add a post in our discord to get feedback → Once a month our team will select maps that qualify for matchmaking, if something is not quite working, we will offer feedback to fix the map in order for it to qualify for the next round → If all works, map is added to the mix!
