As An Avid Minecrafter I Play alot of custom maps and record a few.. and ive noticed that some of the newer maps are unoriginal or just generally poorly made and/or presented
So i decided to make this guide/tutorial to making a good custom map!

Hope You Enjoy and Learn Something!

List Of Contents

Getting Started
Mods To Use/Avoid
Setting the Scene
Building
Uploading
Thread Presentation
Final Touches

Getting Started

Firstly you want to think.. do you actually want to make this map?
Am i going to give up halfway?
Do i have the time?

If you do then read on..

Firstly you want to decide what time of Custom map you want to do

Puzzle - Numerous Puzzles using redstone and other contraptions, usually fits into an escape map
however making these maps can be difficult if you dont understand redstone very well

Adventure - a Main quest to achieve a goal, most common among new custom map makers as they can build little or big villages and unique structures, however there are alot of the maps around and finding an original idea can be difficult.

RPG - lots of little quests with no main storyline, takes alot of time and dedication and you wont finish it overnight it would take up to a month maybe more.

Creation - something you've made that's really impressive and you would want to share with other users.

Once You've Decided You're Going to need a few things

Mods To Use!

Too Many Items - allows you to instantly place any item right into your inventory
You Need this to make any custom map more or less as you dont want to work for every material - http://www.minecraft...invedit-may-28/

Single-Player Commands - allows you to have over 100 commands which will aid your building for example
Time Control , Instant mining , and the most important in comes with world edit which allows you to flatten land, change land to a different block and for spheres and walls -
http://www.minecraft...9-1-new-update/

Zombes Mod Pack - Allows you to enable flymod which will aid in building tall structures and you want have massive towers to climb to higher places -
http://www.minecraft...-v426-upd-7jun/

Mods To Avoid

I Would say there was any mods to directly avoid but most people wont want to download a certain mod to play your map for example a shelf mod or a MOB mod these may be a nice touch but are not recommended

Setting The Scene

Now You've got your mods your going to need a storyline and a name for you're map

For the storyline
Be Original! Jot down a few ideas and see which one you like the best and then search the forums too see if its been done before if it has move on a try another. If you cant think of one just look around for inspiration and im sure you will find some!

Name Of Your Map

Keep the Name of your map as close to the storyline as you can so if you have a story about an island make the name something about that island!

Your May choose to use Notepad to add notes to your map .. it saves writing pages on signs and is what most maps use.

When writing an introduction you may want to include a small backstory or explain what is happening. How much information you reveal is your choice. You want to place a sign in the map saying " Read Introduction" As soon as they spawn into the world.

You Also may want to add another notepad file which states the rules
The Common Rules Are
1. No Placing Blocks
2. Only Destroy "Insert Block Here" You want to keep this too one block as not to confuse people. Also choose a block which doesnt require a pickaxe to break for example - Clay
3. Choose a Difficulty if you want them just to explore with no MOBS Peaceful is what to play on but if you want a challenging map set the difficulty to be on Easy or above

These are the main rules if you want to add more then thats up to you and edit these rules to how you please.

Notes
You may want to write notes in notepad to explain the storyline in detail .. keep these notes to medium size not to long but not too short and also if you want there to be an objective write that in the Notepad document. Also place a sign inside your map for when you want that map to be read.

Now Your Ready To Build!.
Building

When Starting Building you want to make a spawnpoint which is commonly a house, jail or crash site but the choice is yours as it would have to fit into your map and storyline.

At the starting area you may want to add a few supply's like food torches etc.

When building try not to make the buildings look boring and all the same try to be different and do something most people wouldnt of done before. Sometimes simple is better. If you decide to build a big object then plan it for example if you decided to make a castle or Palace you may want to plan it out and these big builds will take a long time and sometimes things may go wrong but if you feel that way take a break and carry on as you wouldnt want to mess up the whole map.

A Useful too for building is MC Edit - http://www.minecraft...or-mc-beta-165/ which is a program which you can use to edit your map, you can select copy and paste parts of your map again so for a castle you could use it for doing the walls etc.. how you use this software is up to you.

The Building Part of your map will take you the longest and shouldnt be rushed as it will effect your final product which we will move onto now!

Uploding

When you are satisfied that your map is done you want to go to
Start
Run
And Type In %Appdata%
Here you will see your .minecraft folder
Open it
Inside it will be a saves folder .minecraft/saves Open this
Then find your world Copy and paste it to your desktop.

Now if you have notes in you map make a folder with your custom map name and place the notes and the save inside this folder
Now Download Either WinRaR 7zip or WinZip - http://www.rarlab.com/ is my favourite

Now right click on that folder and click add to archive and then save it too your desktop now inside that file will be your custom map and notes

Now go to http://www.mediafire.com/ if you want to find out how many downloads your file gets then sign up! Its free!

And then click upload and then choose your file!

Your file is now uploaded!

Thread Presentation

When Setting Out Your Thread The Title Should Have
[Adv] [Puz] [RPG] Or [Creation] at the front to allow users to see what type of map it is then the map name!
You may want to add a short topic description to give people a small insight

Now you want to take screenshots of your map so

Go into your world and find some good spots to take a screenshot Press f1 to hide the HUD and then f2 to take the screenshot, then move to the next spot . These photos are in the same place as your saves but in the screenshots folder instead of saves so .minecraft/screenshots

Now Go to http://photobucket.com/ this site requires a sign up but its free so why not! but if you dont want to sign up go to http://tinypic.com/

choose your files and upload them once they are uploaded find the IMG code which should be under the picutre and copy and paste it onto the thread where you want the Picture.

Heres my Template Thread

- If you have a banner title image place it here
- Small insight into the map and what you would have to do
- Screenshot
- More Detail if wanted
- Rules
- Screenshots
- Videos if you have them
- Download
- Thanks

This is just the way i would present my thread.
If you enjoy making pictures you could make a signature and then allow people to have the IMG code to add to their Signature.

Dont Expect people to reply to your thread straight away as people have to play you map first and some people might not have even seen your map yet.

Also If you release a new version of your map place Version notes just after the download and also a the v.1.3 etc to the start of the thread explaining what's new and also add v.1.3 released to the title which may make people look and download you maps!

Final Touches

If someone suggests something dont just shrug it of give it a thought and maybe add it and dont be afraid to make additions to the map.

You may in future add a sequel which hopefully will be two times as good!

Also posting your map on more than one forum can be helpful and get the map more downloads and a youtuber may play your map!

Need Any Last Idea's for Maps view some youtubers playing maps for traps and just general ideas