Thrik

Yeah as Thurnip said, incredible how far the engine is being pushed. So inspirational!

Jesus, such stunning work.  Excellent work all involved (Not just the winners!).

I actually love DM-Eternal's chunky colourful style.

I love how you've done the 3D visualisations in the scenes for this!  

Such good in-depth stuff, thanks for the excellent article leplub!

Nothing wrong with asking.  I'll be handling the MapCore swag and there isn't budget to dole out separate pieces for each team member sadly, FMPONE would have to confirm but I expect that the same goes for Valve's contribution. The swag is sold at the same baseline price I pay though, there's no profit unless you go for the donation edition — so teams could always use a bit of that prize money to get some swag.  

Just noting that MapCore has a playtesting server (not specific to this contest) that runs sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays. See the thread here:

Yeah, seems wise to me to do testing with the map in a basic state so you can make big gameplay changes if needed to keep it fun. That's one of the most useful parts of having playtest events with fellow designers, they don't care if it looks all greybox.

Wow, those new prize levels.  Hot rewards for mapping, which is great fun anyway! It's making me want to dust off Hammer and create a CS:GO successor to my much-loved classic from the early 2000s.

You can do it @blackdog!

My bum is tingling in anticipation of the beautiful maps we are sure to see!

If you'd like a ready-to-go file for the door, you can download that here.

Here are my more detailed thoughts on these maps:
 
Nova Exchange: I assumed as soon as I saw the name that this might be an attempt to play around with what the Air Exchange chapter could have been, which was cut during Half-Life 2's development and was meant to come straight after Nova Prospekt. In terms of gameplay, it's a lengthy and well-paced level but I found myself feeling like it wasn't guiding me very clearly, and in some cases I got frustrated with fiddly scenery and jump sections. It uses the Nova Prospekt setting effectively, but falls victim to feeling too similar much of the time. I also felt that there was a lack of exciting set-pieces, which combined with high difficulty ultimately made the level feel a bit long and grindy. I think that this would have been an excellent map if its length had been shorter and the extra time used to refine the moment-to-moment play.
 
Delayed: This was a nice revisit of some great parts of Episode Two, and I thought that set-pieces were used very effectively. I do feel that it stalled a little after the exciting introductory sequence, as the giant antlion encounter got a little frustrating in the end and it took me quite a long time to get past it. However, the pace soon picked up again once I eventually figured out how to get through the concrete walls, and the level quickly but excitingly drew to a close with a set-piece and car sequence. I'd say that visually this level was splendid and there was a definite wow factor to seeing the citadel up close, but in terms of gameplay there wasn't anything particularly noteworthy.
 
Blast Pit: Being one of Half-Life's most memorable sequences, I was very keen to see what this level had in store. After a visually impressive arrival at a facility that serves as the map's setting, I soon had a smile on my face when I saw the tentacles reborn as a Strider. The level is essentially about navigating the facility that surrounds the circular room the Strider is trapped in and figuring out how to dispose of it, with its overwhelming firepower just as lethal as those tentacles. Well-designed puzzles that involve locating and activating equipment break up the action, which combined with plenty of nooks to explore and excellent use of scripted enemy encounters makes this level the most enjoyable overall experience. It also excels on the visuals front, with every area exhibiting impressive craftmanship.

Thanks again to those who put stuff together, even if you didn't manage to complete it.

There's a Facebook post and Twitter tweet for this article should you feel inclined to wish to show some love, and also there might be more comments there.

I like the sound of that, especially for longer-form levels where the player's expectations can be broken by showing them something familiar and then completely mixing things up. I'd probably say that decompiling might be a step too far, especially if it's from Half-Life 1 where rights get a bit more messy. Phillip might know more about this so I'll give him the opportunity to comment on this.

Hey Armageddon,

Yes, using Black Mesa assets is fine because there's permission (from them) to do so. The same applies to any assets where permission is granted, which you should note if you use them. In short, custom assets are fine where permission exists.

Submitting them as mods unfortunately won't work, as the final collection of entries will be turned into a mod of its own which can be released for others to enjoy. Sorry!

We're taking the feedback about the length on board, if there are more in agreement please let us know so we can get it right ASAP.

Places where this challenge may be discussed and/or liked include:

• Facebook
• reddit
• RunThinkShootLive
• Twitter

The intent is in the morning at about 11am.

Sorry about that egu. A big update is coming soon which will introduce a 'responsive' theme that should ensure that all desktop features are available on mobile.

Should be fixed now jackophant, cache clean might be necessary.

There's a Facebook post, reddit post, and Twitter tweet for this article.

Why not like on Facebook or retweet on Twitter if you enjoyed?  It's also on reddit.

Be sure to check out the Facebook post and Twitter tweet for this article, and like/retweet if you see fit — always appreciated! It's also on reddit.