I've been pretty active lately at ReachingPerfection.com

There, I've started posting a few short offerings of my understanding of level design. Since that sight is full of people who create maps using Halo Reach's Forge, I have many references to Halo maps. Just keep that in mind when reading them. In the spirit of keeping all my things together, I'll be bringing those over here as well. Starting now...

Landmarks

Landmarks are unique objects that make a location memorable. These are used for orientation and communication. Examples of Landmarks are: a giant statue, satellite dish, huge cliff face, a building, a raging inferno, etc. Just make sure that it’s a unique object, and there aren’t a thousand of them on your map, as this will lead to disorientation. You want each of your landmarks to be one of a kind. One way to test if you have unique landmarks on your map is to listen to what people say when they are calling out location during a game. Examples of callouts when you have good Landmarks are: the fan, waterfall, ribs, dish, cliff top, the base. Example of when you do not have strong, unique Landmarks are: grey hall, long grey hall, grey ramp, grey room, second grey room, pillar beside you, pillar beside me, ummmm.

Landmarks, being big, cool things, draw people in. Because of this, it’s important to use them to draw people to the best places. If you have a specific area you want people to go to fight, put your coolest Landmark there. All your less cool Landmarks should be in slightly less important places on your map. Do not let your Landmarks direct players in a way that will make them miss something. If you want players to pick up your rocket launcher, put it between where they spawn and a Landmark. They will not check behind them.

Don’t put too many Landmarks too close together either. If I spawn and see two Landmarks, then I may not end up going to the satellite dish like you wanted me to, because I decided to run toward the hanging chandelier. Each Place (next lesson) needs no more than one significant Landmark.