MapCore Challenge Discussion

    Quote from Erratic

    How bout reinvisioning a scene from a recent game on an older engine? Make a scene from Killzone 3 in HL1 or Q2 or something. Simple, one screenshot, replicated in an old engine, reuse content or make new.

    thats a great idea

    A friend's level design test when he applied for a job was to take any level from a game that allows you to mod its original files, and change the way it was played. Like take a level from HL2, or Crysis, etc. and just rescript it completely differently, like you start at the end, etc. Erratic's suggestion reminds me of this, I thought it was a pretty cool concept

    One more suggestion from Lunaran on the walk to lunch the other day - we grab some old GameFaqs text walkthroughs, pick one at random, and have each person build the described level and see what interpretations come up. Like a game of level design telephone!

    These other ideas are pretty great, too. Good selection to work from

    Also, SamCom: I still really want to do a weekend challenge at some point, but I've been a bit swamped with work and personal stuff lately so this is all slipping behind where I was hoping things would be. If you (or anyone else) have any ideas for what that challenge might be, maybe we can roll one before we get the next big one started?

    For the weekend challenge, I think I'll steal your idea for a Half-Life 1 deathmatch map using only the Nightwatch texture set? I downloaded it and set up Hammer 3.5 to try them out, and they look pretty sexy for Half-Life textures. I think there's enough there for some cool maps.

    Would people be up for it this weekend or would the weekend after this coming one be better?

    Or does someone have a better idea for something that would fit in a weekend?

    Quote from SamCom

    For the weekend challenge, I think I'll steal your idea for a Half-Life 1 deathmatch map using only the Nightwatch texture set? I downloaded it and set up Hammer 3.5 to try them out, and they look pretty sexy for Half-Life textures. I think there's enough there for some cool maps.

    How many people would be in if we ran that this weekend? We've got 3 so far. (I'll put out a Twitter attendance check when I get home)

    Gives us some more time to put together the rules for the next big one.

    Quote from KungFuSquirrel

    How many people would be in if we ran that this weekend? We've got 3 so far. (I'll put out a Twitter attendance check when I get home)Gives us some more time to put together the rules for the next big one.

    I can't say for sure but I'd try my best!

    All right, I'm going to draft up quick rules tonight and post a thread. I'm curious how many people we can roll in to something like this on short notice - even if this one fails, it should be a learning experience if we try to do more weekend challenges.

    Is everyone on board with the requiring the Nightwatch texture set? I'd be fine running stock content, too, but NW-themed would be fun!

    I thought it would be great if it was a portal 2 pack with a specific theme.

    Co-op

    One idea I had was if both players had bombs strapped to them that would explode if they got to close to each other. Basically you would have to solve puzzles and walk through doors at different times and keep your distance when using funnels and stuff Could be really tricky

    I think if we do any multiplayer mapping contests in the future, some sort of semi-official playtesting time before voting opens would be awesome. I guess that doesn't prevent anyone voting from just screenshots anyway, but it seems silly to worry about gameplay when votes go to the prettiest map. We only heard two or three opinions, but it sounded like people that played the maps from the Nightwatch DM contest liked the ones that got the least number of votes. It's just an informal poll, so it's no big deal, but playtests seem like a lot of fun anyway.

    Yeah, I'm glad you guys were able to get that test rolling. As long as the challenge involves a single game, I think we can work towards that goal. Multi-game challenges are of course a bit trickier, but it'd be good if we could make that happen, too.

    So, I think the collaboration idea is great, but as a separate Challenge, not tied to Portal 2 - I think that's best suited for mostly standard content, but I still like the idea of a custom MapCore cube or something similar.

    For collaboration, we could do a specific design + scripting or design + art challenge, or just open it up for two people to put forth whatever collaboration they feel like (maybe with a set theme?) - I think this could be a really fun one.

    Do people still want to roll the Portal 2 pack, or should we move on to our other options?

    I like the idea of doing it for portal 2 because I've been wanting to get into that for some time now. I'm not sure what the theme would be but perhaps a few ideas to spark some ... more ideas.

    - don't drop the gel!: remember when you were a kid and you tried to keep the balloon from hitting the ground? perhaps we can create a few maps around just this concept but with Gel. There is an entity called the "gel_bomb" I think that just puts out a single burst. You can track this single burst and name it so triggers be fired by it.

    - Co-op Bombs!: Both players have bombs attached to them that will explode if they get to close to each other! This means even the simplest of puzzles now becomes difficult! Don't get to close! OR BOOM!

    - Super Fling!: create a very small map that requires a bit of memorization to fling from the bottom to the top of the map? Could be a fun challenge!?

    - laser tag : an arena split into 2 halfs, each player must use lasers and cubes to attack their friend on the other side. Eventually the other person would be pushed out of bounds (big pit of death!) or trapped!

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