20 Brush Challenge Voting: BRUSHWORK

Well time to open up some discussion

Out of all the categories I think this is a hard one to vote on, as on face value it's hard to see the actual complexity of the brushes used to create these maps. I think im gunna open up skysilcox's map in UT3 editor and have a look, as that looks fairly complex. Lunaran's also looks quite complex. I however can see 6 that won't be getting my vote (including my own).

To me, its not about the complexity, but the unique design, and James defo got my vote.

i would also say that complexity is not a winning condition, although popular opinion seems to dictate so.

Does unique design not come under visual. I would certainly consider it to.

Would have thought brushwork is for technical ability and how difficult something is to construct, hence why I voted Reno. (besides, Reno's to me has as much an original design as shard)

Personally I voted for Reno in this because I thought each brush served a bunch of different functions, gameplay / silhouette wise. Or at least that's how I interpret "brushwork"

I think everyone deserves some feedback for their effort so I'm gonna try and go through all of the levels and share my thoughts for each voting category. I think it'd be great to get more discussion going on about the entries, so share your thoughts people!

Siteless265 by callguinness

Makes really good use of the brushes. The layout is relatively complex for just 20 brushes, with a good amount of height variation, and every face is used not just for visuals but to contribute to the layout and gameplay. Plus it's a really memorable and discernable design - the angled white-topped brushes rising up on one side and cutting down into the orange base is a nice idea and well executed.

20b_Barragan by CampaignJunkie

Not much to say in terms of brush usage here, they're used pretty much how you'd use them if there wasn't a brush restriction. What does impress me though is that this scene aims for realism and hits it - it feels believable as a real place *as it is*, as if even if it had more brushes it wouldn't bother to use them. With most people taking an abstract approach to try and avoid the issue of making something realistic in just 20 brushes, I feel that deserves some recognition.

Unnamed by Dmx6

By my reckoning you could make this exact same level out of 16 brushes, and I think that if you'd done so then those extra 4 brushes could have added quite a bit to the level, so I think that inefficiency drags you down in this category.

Shard by JamesKing3D

Wow, this has quite an epic scale to it! Definitely larger than I'd expected, and I think in terms of building something epic and imposing this is the most impressive level entered. I honestly didn't even try to count how many brushes were used, but it makes great use of subtractive geometry to get an end result that looks like significantly more than just 20 brushes. A strong entry for brushwork.

VR20 by killertomato

Being sculpted entirely out of blocks it is hard to get too excited about the use of brushwork here. I do like the little objective arrows you've got in there though.

Don't Mess With Hexas by KungFuSquirrel

Nothing much to remark on here from a brushwork point of view, but hexagons are pretty much always nice

DM_20B by Leon Kilean

Amibitious and inventive. As I mentioned in the gameplay thread, I didn't care too much for the moving parts in the end, but in terms of making the most of the brushes it is certainly more interesting than keeping them static. The map is very clearly landmarked, looking unique and indentifiable from any angle, and nothing felt superfluous or wasted, so all in all I'd say it makes good use of the 20 brushes.

Ludonarrative Dissonance by Lunaran

Unfortunately I don't have Q3 installed to play it, but it looks like a really good use of the brushes available. First off, nice dodecahedron! But really I was more impressed by the simple yet fun looking layout that also creates an interesting to look at structure. There's no filler here; every brush adds something to the scene. Equally importantly, none of the brushes are *overworked*; each brush only covers a small area instead of being expected to cover a huge expanse, which lead to many of the other entries feeling stretched thin. Plus it's beautifully asymmetrical.

Satmush by quazilin1

It's a fairly simple one on the brushwork front, but then it is working with older tech so some concessions have to be made. Maybe a bit repetitive with all those identical platforms, but hey, at least there's a few other shapes in there so that puts you ahead of a few competitors for variation

dm_reflex_contest3 by ReFlex

I feel there was the potential to do a bit more with your idea here. By my count you use 19 brushes (are you counting the low grav trigger as a brush? Think you coulda gotten away with it for free since people use kill brushes and the like for free...), and I think even having an extra floating platform in the middle of the level (or a walkyway joining to the 2 mid-height corners?) would have made it a more interesting arena.

InCubed by sarge mat

I didn't think the brushwork here was particularly well done, being mostly made up of simple blocks. Some of them also seemed oddly - almost haphazardly - positioned, too. Like the 4 taller pillars around the edge of the central building - some are flush with the walls on some faces but not others, which may have been intentional but comes across as a bit sloppy. I'd also say that some of the brushes used don't add anything to either the visuals or the gameplay, which isn't good when you've only 20 of them to play with! The little square pillars at the sides of the ramp end of the level, for example. On the plus side, the arena that the brushes build offers open plan, long range combat, multiple heights to battle over, cover to take advantage of, and some close quarters sections too, so it is very playable.

Miniature Sun Observatory by sentura

I liked this on more in-game than in screenshots, it actually feels pretty nice just running around and leaping between the ramps. Being made up predominantly of simple ramps (though some are subtly angled, which I hadn't noticed in the screens and looks nice in-game) means it isn't very ambitious in how it uses its 20 brushes however, so I don't feel it does too well in this category.

VCTF-Glitch by skysilcox

MY VOTE

You've made really good use of the brushes here, creating something that looks like it's built out of far more of them than it is. I can't even begin to get my head around how you made the weird glitchy part of the flag arches, but then I've never done much Unreal editing before. This took my vote for best use of brushes. Lovely.

Dolphin by SNDXR

Seems your download only includes the VMF and not a compiled BSP though, and I don't have Hammer setup to work with L4D2 (doesn't it just work like other source games? doesn't seem to...) so wasn't able to take a look. I like the idea behind it, and I think making it a L4D2 survival map was a good call too. That said, I feel it could use a bit more work. The shape of the ship is a bit awkward, and leads to it looking extremely back-heavy, and some of the brushes I'm not convinced add that much to the scene and so could have been more productively used. Good job on trying out such a different theme and gameplay type though!

Unnamed by Term!nator525

I wasn't able to load this in-game as it kept crashing, but it appears to me like what is there *could* be built in 13 brushes, so I have to count that as a bit of a negative in this category. If it had been built in those 13 brushes then I think with a further 7 to play with you coulda improved this one quite a lot, so it's a shame. On the other hand, when I first saw the screenshots I thought "ace!". I love the idea and your ambition in trying to do it in just 20 brushes, but in the end I think those 20 brushes coulda been stretched a bit further.

DM-Crystal by Vilham

Octagons rather than hexagons? Going against the crowd here I really like the way you've used them. Having them protrude at odd angles and jutting through each other creates (from the beauty shot angle at least, and maybe elsewhere) a really nice view with interesting parial lines of sight.

ctf_20cubes by WhiteDevil

I think you made good use of the 20 brushes to create a layout both viable for gameplay and yet still interesting to look at. The only brush I questioned the use of was the 2nd huge angle cube off to the side of "high" route. I guess it provides a surface against which to hit explosives for splash damage, while if it wasn't there they would just sail off into the sky, but it felt a little off on its own and outside of the play area, and with only 1 face providing a sort of indirect benefit, I felt there was maybe room to use it elsewhere to greater effect. Overall very good job though!

Outline by Zyndrome

They're nice, stylised hexagonal prisms, but it's still just 20 hexagonal prisms, so it isn't particularly exciting from a brushwork perspective.

Thanks for writing all that ReNo.

And yep, I uploaded the wrong files .

Heres the bsp and nav if anyone still wants it.

http://www.filefront.com/17854673/Dolphin.bsp

http://www.filefront.com/17854678/dolphin.nav

reno's was my favourite, like a work of art

wow Reno, I'm impressed by your extremely extensive and usefull feedback. thanks alot for showing so much heart!