Everyone loves making adventure maps. When you see things like 'The E.D.E.N Project' and Shadow Of Israphel' you want to make one just as amazing as those. But you can't.(No Offence) Things like Shadow of Israphel took months to build, and a team of 20 people. (I Think)

So, here is the tutorial.

1.) DO NOT DO DETAILS!!!!!! (Yet)

You must get the buildings and the story down first. Make the map with the buildings first. Maybe after that write down the story and see if it makes sense.

2.) Redstone.

A very well thought out and planned adventure map uses alot of redstone. In my challenge map 'The Hallway' I use quite a bit of redstone to get the winning door open. You will always need doors. That is common sense. A noob would use iron doors all the time (don't criticize my map, its tiny!) I recommend a piston door or two to spice things up. (I'll post a blog on how to make a 2X2 piston door!) If you are doing a map where you need to make something open to win, you can use many things. I have come up with two that you could use:

A.) Shoot an arrow at a painting knocking it off onto a wooden pressure plate, which is connected to a door or something.

B.) You pull a lever with and inverter which would power off a piston, opening the door.

3.) DETAIL!

Anybody knows what detail means in an adventure map. Making the signs that tell the story, a .txt for different notes about game play. Even the simple placing of some hidden chests and torches (for a dark adventure map) All adventure maps boil down to details. Yeah it looks pretty, but the story is the shit that dog shit scrapes off HIS boot.
I would play an adventure map that was recommended for story, not architecture, because of the fact that the maker got the details right on the nose. (The irony cos I got a whopper brewing XD)


4.) Texture pack.

A texture pack is important for any adventure or challenge map. I tend to use DokuCraft dark when I play Minecraft. This is mainly because I like the older and simpler times. If you are going for a futuristic look, I recommend making your own texture pack, or use this:
http://www.planetminecraft.com/texture_pack/plaff656s-sci-fi-pack-mkxi-new-new-new/

5.) Other information.

If you are planning on making a HUGE adventure map with lots of different parts, then continuity is key. don't leave your player drifting in space and then make him/her end up on a planet that was behind the way they were going.
If you are using mods to make things better in the maps, include them in your description. If you use the piston mod, ( http://www.minecraftmine.org/more-pistons-mod/ ) and you use some of the modded pistons, you will crash Minecraft. This means that if the player does not use the mod, the game will replace the modded pistons with the vanilla ones and this will crash the game. So make sure that it is installed or mentioned in a .txt somewhere.

6.) The download.

I use MediaFire to do this. Make a MediaFire account and upload your adventure map. YOU MUST HAVE THE SAVE PLACED IN A COMPRESSED .ZIP FOLDER! To do this, download and install winrar. Then right click on the desktop, go to new, go to the bottom of the list where it says 'Winrar zip archive' make one, and place all of your files inside of it. Then all you need to do is place the URL of the upload into the place where it says place URL here for download.

http://www.mediafire.com/

I hope this helps you. If you want to, place a comment with a link to one of your adventure maps and I'll have a look.

~Panther