Campaignjunkie

So is CJ about his sexual orientation it seems. I assure you, there's no confusion. :wink:

At this point I'm not even sure if you guys are faking the incomprehension so let me explain it more clearly - it's a level about level design. The player (1) places NPCs, props, and health items around the map, (2) "compiles" it, (3) gets a "playtester" / NPC to "play" the level with the defined item placement. The objective is to get the playtester to the level exit with their "Fun" meter full, based on how adept the item placement was. My formulation of "fun" = good pacing = rapid changes between high stress and low stress. High stress entails the playtester fighting a difficult monster for a long time, having low health, fighting in a dark area... Low stress is not fighting anything, having lots of health, hanging out in lighted areas, etc. I'm still prototyping all these mechanisms. Then the player releases their map and checks out the comments on Mapcore. If it's really good, there'll be a Rock Paper Shotgun post about it. It's "meta."

Umm... that's an in-game shot, guys. (re: in-game floorplan modification, I was thinking of lots of rotating walls / parts, but that feels too preset and too un-Hammer to me. I think I'll just keep the design gameplay to placing items / enemies / props.)

Doing technical R&D for another level idea I have. The main gameplay loop would consist of two parts: Design and Playtesting. In design, you're moving around props and modifying the floorplan somehow. Then you have a "player" playtest it - in reality an NPC following a certain scripted logic - and the goal is to get them to finish your level and think it was "fun." It'd be one of those Chu Chu Rocket / "guide and program the robot to the goal" / Lemmings kind of games. META SINGLEPLAYER MOD GO Unfortunately the whole effect will be ruined if they play the game windowed. Oh well. I still need to hammer (get it? HAMMER?!) out the details but I think the premise is sound. Inspired by the fantastic 2:56 minute indie game "Rara Racer" which you should play right now if you haven't already. EDIT: the perfect title for this mod has suddenly come to me in a brilliant flash of light - "Being Adam Foster."

No offense to you (you do great work, you're awesome, etc.) but yeah, this is a terrible idea. (a) People have been getting free custom maps from hobbyists for years so there's no guilt about downloading a map off FPS Banana and not even knowing the designer's name much less paying him/her, (b) As you already said, people are going to circumvent a Paypal download gate anyway. I think the only model that even remotely works is the Sven Co-Op model, where donors get extra bonus features. ... So I guess all you have to do is make an awesome mod that everyone will want to play, and then draft a set of premium features that are enticing enough but don't alienate the non-paying players (after all, the donors have to feel better than somebody, right?) - piece of cake.

I think it's semi-repetitive on purpose up to the amazing climax, or at the very least repetitiveness suits its purpose (thematically, concerning agency and choice)... But then it doesn't offer a better alternative and continues along the same lines into something disappointing. Laaaazy. Fort Frolic and the first time you meet teleporting splicers were also nicely done.

Gay marriage is kind of a hot issue here in California / the states right now... timeliness, people! Internal Repression Service (IRS), Right Frontal Cortex, James’ Brain. POSITION: Object Relocation Specialist, ASSIGNMENT: Anomalous Memory Logistics, CLEARANCE: Level 3, ADMINISTRATIVE SPONSOR: Classified, DISASTER RESPONSE PRIORITY: Discretionary. (Are all the translations on the signs correct? I only speak French / bits of Chinese) (The seal is actually based on the real IRS seal... their motto being "Service + Enforcement = Compliance," really too good to be true in my case.)

I like the materials, but the level construction (even without the rocks) is really busy. I don't know what to look at. Simplify the composition. You're still building it as if you were using regular old HL2 concrete textures.

... Except Sharpen is occasionally useful. (and since this is getting so incredibly off-topic, I'll go ahead and post a screenshot) "Welcome aboard the Internal Repression Service. Technically you're not much more than a filing clerk, but your official title is "object relocation specialist' - now you'll need to start right away; whenever therapy or stress threatens to bring back a painful traumatic memory, it's your job to repress it. Hide it somewhere else and don't let the hormones get it. Right now James is in 'couples counseling' with his husband, so needless to say we're on high alert. Just make sure you don't break one open accidentally - or else you'll never work in this brain again. "

Two projects going at the moment. I'm trying to do weird experimental "art mod" stuff because that's the only thing that'll keep me interested enough to finish something for a change: 1) "More Matter," you're trapped on a slowly sinking submarine not so secretly suffering from schizophrenia, possessed by the vengeful ghost of Emily Dickinson. (that bland, greenish sickly corridor with water) 2) "Polaris," stargazing on the cheapest / lamest date ever - you still can't believe you're dating this guy. (the forest clearing with the stars and the red lantern lit guy)... Part of a series of "fivetwelve" maps where I limit myself to a playable area of 512 x 512 and try to do something interesting and polished with it.

Work small and work alone. That way, when (I've) made a 80% complete prototype before realizing it's not very fun nor interesting, (I've) only disappointed myself.

Half-life: Source was bullshit, they're fixing it! that's a feeble excuse. No one needs an excuse to mod. You're not in it for the "glory" or the (non-existent) pay-check. You do it because you want to do it and you enjoy doing it. That's it. For the love of the game, art for art's sake, design for design's sake, etc. That said, I think we should all follow the Adam Foster model: Periodic, self-contained, highly polished releases until Valve offers you a job.

It's great, but I think they totally underestimate the need for new maps. Sure, it's still fresh to play the same maps a few times, but it's already starting to get a little stale even if it's all randomized.

Sometimes it looks really cool and then sometimes it looks like a Photoshop filter mess. Still, cool beans.

Still plugging away at my abstract Wild West single player thing. This is the Pit level where you have to rescue your love from being hanged in an abandoned quarry. Trying desperately to finish it in time to enter it into the IGF Student Compo. EDIT: err, attachments don't work anymore?... hold on, imageshacking it...

I don't know if I care for the new arena game mode very much, but I DO KNOW that I finally have a snowball's chance in hell to finish a TF2 map! Woohoo. I really love these textures / props. (Um yeah, there are several dozen things wrong in the shot - env lighting angle, etc.)

Use logic_case.

For the message, I'd use env_message instead of game_text. That way, you can change the message via text file (or localise to other languages) instead of re-compiling your map with -onlyents.

Well of course that's where my own interests are!... but I actually wasn't planning on participating - I just want to see cooler and better work coming out of the community so I can steal other peoples' ideas and claim them as my own be inspired and love my fellow man. ... Or conversely, how about we have a contest to see who can make the awesomest, most derivative, dilapidated military-cargo crate factory. Bonus points for only using brown / blue / gray. (strangely that's starting to sound appealing...)

Speaking honestly... I would probably only play a handful of the entries and judge the rest by screenshots. So let's just embrace what we are and do some sort of visual oriented competition. My own little idea: make something that doesn't look like it came from the engine it uses. On GoW, don't make some muddied blue-grey-brown mansion. On Source, don't make a wrecked city lit in fluorescent yellow and teal. On FarCry, don't make a jungle island... etc. For that (optional) extra paradoxical kick (and to level the playing field) - stock assets only. Bonus points if it looks like an actual map and not just some diorama you threw together.

-rt-, I'm not sure what that's supposed to be, but it looks awesome.

Cool stuff -rt-, but increase the luxel density on the lit wall! You can definitely afford the (small) performance hit. Here's something I'm working on - a kind of Western themed single player thing, but I'm too lazy to make textures, so I'm trying out a gradient-NPR approach. The goal is to rescue your loved one from the scaffold, the scaffold being impossibly tall and inspired by something I saw in this awesome art film called "The Fall."

If you have WON HL1, put it in \sierra\half-life\ If you have Steam HL1, the installer should find the proper path for you already, but you can manually specify \steamapps\your_e-mail\half-life\

A year or two in the making (we actually finished months ago, but we were waiting on a possible code update to Spirit of Half-Life...) from your very favorite veteran designers in the ancient HL1 community. Yeah, we still exist, surprisingly! There's some FANTASTIC design in here; Echo Transit, Scepter of Ra, and Starlabs especially stand out in my mind - Echo Transit for the bestest HL1 crane setpiece ever, Scepter of Ra for the sheer scope of the custom content and craftsmanship, and Starlabs for the cohesiveness of it all... In addition to all the other chapters that are great in their own right. Website: http://reissues.home.att.net/ Download for WON HL1: http://www.hylobatidae.org/minerva/file ... Issues.exe Download for Steam HL1: http://www.hylobatidae.org/minerva/file ... mSetup.exe

Damn, Reno. Those be some phat beats. Thanks for the link.