Seventeen years after its release, Team Fortress 2 continues to thrive, receiving regular content updates and community-driven additions multiple times a year. While the last major Valve update, Jungle Inferno, dates back several years, TF2 still benefits from community-created maps curated into the game three times annually.

At launch in 2007, TF2 featured just six maps. Fast forward to 2024, and the game now boasts over 100 official maps.

This growth is a testament to the game's enduring popularity, but the current matchmaking UI hasn't evolved to match the scale of TF2’s content.

Key information—like screenshots, game modes, and player counts—is often missing, limiting players’ ability to explore new maps or engage with lesser-known modes. Community servers frequently go unnoticed, while alternative game modes like VSH, Passtime, and Mannpower remain buried at the bottom of the menu.

Seasonal events further highlight these shortcomings, as holiday-themed maps are grouped together under a single tab with little context beyond map names, leaving players unsure of what experience they're queuing for.

My redesign aims to address these issues, while being able to seamlessly fit within TF2's current interface.


For the sake of simplicity, and the fact that this is just a mock-up pitch, i've only designed the user journey for joining a casual game. If there's enough interest, I can possibly design the paths for MVM, community servers, and competitive.

• Featured maps that are automatically and/or manually curated, so lesser-known maps or seasonal maps are thrown at the top.
  
• Individual photos and game mode info for each map.
  
• The ability to mark which maps are your favorite, so you can automatically queue for your go-to maps without having to manually check them off each time you want to play.
  
• Recently Played tab
  
• Exact player counts for each map.
  
• The option to include community servers, for those wanting a more "quickplay era" experience.

Are these actual in-game screenshots?

Originally posted by author:

This is purely a mock-up designed in Figma, and is not a functional experience/mod. Valve would have to implement this/something similar.

Can you make this a mod?

Originally posted by author:

I do not believe something like this is possible to make as a mod.

Why did you make this?

Originally posted by author:

I just like this game a lot and I truly believe TF2 has a UX issue, not a map count issue. I don't expect Valve to use this design, but I hope this submission inspires a quality of life update to TF2's UX in the future. This is purely a pitch to Valve, and isn't a design that's been tested in an actual player session, so it's likely not perfect.