Campaignjunkie

Well normally I would agree (like with Max Payne), but with BG&E I was really wanting more. The whole world just really felt huge and vast - it just seemed kind of abrupt for me to leave it so soon. I guess it just felt like I was playing an RPG at times, which are usually much more than 10 hours.

Just beat Beyond Good and Evil. Kind of a let-down after all the hype KFS built up for it! Playtime is shockingly short; it took me 10 hours to do everything possible with lots of fooling around in between. But still, it's put together pretty well I guess.

Looking to get BiA in the near future, been hearing lots of good things.

I agree with the "small mod" kind of thing, keeping the team to a couple of people at most. I kind of went through a phase of mod-joining too, but now I'm pulling back a lot - it's doesn't seem like what it used to be, I guess. These days I just cower in the corner, working on my own little personal projects that will never be released.

I agree with Ferret a bit. I find the lighting to be a bit unfocused for my tastes - too many fixtures everywhere, pumping light throughout the entire scene. The lighting doesn't really provide any direction it seems, it's just there to make the level and players visible. Irregardless, I still like it, all of the red brick contrasts well with the green jungle outside and the sky.

Half-Life 2. No custom assets used. It's supposed to somewhat resemble a castle or something. Going to have to raise light levels too so that people with non-crazy monitor gammas can see it properly.

Thanks for the comments -

Yes, performance is rather bad outside, especially if you have reflecting/refracting water enabled. At the time I started, I really had no idea how much Source could do, performance-wise.

The map kind of "spiraled out of control" in terms of size, which is a phenomenon I'm sure many of us are accustomed to. Feature-creep = evil. But at least now I've learned some great, valuable lessons.

WITLESS PRATTLE:

I'm not too satisfied nor disappointed with how my competition entry turned out. The result is an incredibly bitter yet somewhat creamy chocolate nougat. In other words, I highly doubt I'm going to win, but at least I had fun.

The map kind of borrows-, that is to say "steals", heavily from Half-Life 2. I imagine many members here frown upon it. But I found it to be a fairly unique challenge - trying to figure out how Valve did certain things, certain effects, built certain areas, etc., it was a great learning experience. Plus, I have a new found respect for neon blue-green lights.

After all, imitation is the highest form of flattery, eh?

DOWNLOAD:

http://www.snarkpit.com/maps.php?download=1376

SCREENS:

Cool skybox with the buildings, and I like the architecture/style.

But the lighting is really hurting the map. Really really hurting it. I really disagree with the environment color you chose, too harsh / extreme. Generally way too much of the map is in shadow, and it's important for multiplayer levels to usually be a lot brighter. You seem to only have this problem outdoors, so I would suggest to tweak environmental lighting a lot.

I really liked the Overwatch Plasma Rifle-thing. Pretty accurate in general, and the alternate-fire is amazing. I mean, you really get a great sense of the power involved when your enemies are momentarily floating in the air, defying the laws of gravity (while in flames) before exploding.

Thanks for all the comments. I'll work on better texture-choice and lighting. Yeah, the lack of cathedral-like textures and such aren't really helping when I want to make a cathedral-like map! Stupid me, I guess.

It's intended to be a really small map de_ map, more suited towards 5v5 or something. I find when I set my goals obscenely low, I can reach them better.

Playing around with the Source SDK. Nothing real fancy, still trying to learn things. Originally going to be a run-down church / cathedral type affair, but I don't even know anymore. Water is the new crate, baby!!

Terrorists have already tried to blow the place up, but they still need to finish the job with one last bomb. Lack of cube-map generation is really hurting the interior, with weird reflections and way too much shininess. Still testing out the light-glows, I think it's a bit too much though.

Need to add more shiz and doodahs inside. Still thinking about how to make cathedral-y windows as well, seeing as the current windows aren't working out too well. Oh, and I fixed the roofs already, they look a lot better now, similar to de_cbble now.

Feedback me into the ground!

well i just beat it: this is spoilers so just hilite if you wanna read.

but definately overall the game was superb, 10/10 easily. everythin was perfect gameplay wise!

Well, they don't tell you much outrightly, you kind of need to analyze it yourself and interpret it (unfortunately for some). In the beginning, G-man mentions something about Gordon being at the right place at the right time making all the difference. Well, turns out that day is the specific day when they test the teleports and they take Gordon along. Naturally, Gordon's presence screws everything up for some reason and he's teleported into Breen's office. Combine goes crazy, sends drones out, etc. Then they hunt you down, you and Alyx teleport away in Nova Prospekt, triggers city-wide Resistance movement against Combine, leading to Gordon infiltrating the Citadel and blowing everything up. All because Gordon "magically" appeared that day in the train.

Everything so far seems to be for the purpose of furthering G-man's and the benefactor's aims. Whatever those are. I agree about it feeling a bit rushed. I'm sure people much smarter than me will pick apart the game and pull out some story elements anyways.

On another note, what's the significance of the title of Chapter 2: "Red Letter Day"? Is it a reference to some movie or something? Or am I thinking too hard or not enough?

Err, yeah, I used black func_illusionary for my cel-shading outlines. It actually worked better than I expected. Total bitch to VIS though, with brush entities everywhere in a giant open area! I got the idea from bb_mars, which is the only HL map (that I've seen) to use cel-shading. It was released around the end of BuzzyBots' life, around version 3.4 I think. Even then, it was used very sparingly. I think I'm the only mapper crazy / stupid enough to try something like that for a whole map.

Anyways, this map looks great! Really liking the colors you have going. Glad you got rid of that metal-thingmajig in those earlier shots. All the different kinds of blues and those yellow jump-pads! Wow! Keep it up!

Thief 1 (Bonehoard, Return to Cathedral, Escape)

Thief 3 (Cradle)

Err, thanks for the compliment.

You didn't really have to bump the thread, but since it's up there anyway, here's an update on the map:

Salvaging the RMF and making it into a small singleplayer map pack, hopefully released in early November (a week or two). Since it's singleplayer, there will probably be more pointless detail. The towers don't look "right" to me, but I have to move on to other portions if I want to finish this on time. Hurrah?

BTW, I won the "people's choice" for the Snarkpit contest, narrowly beating Ferret's much more polished entry. So, uh, yeah. There's a moral in there somewhere.

Nice stuff! Really has a warm, autumn harvest kind of feeling. I think I recognize the 3rd shot from somewhere though... Destiny?

Damn! I live 20 minutes away from Swinging Ape Studios! Would be a great location for me. Assuming, that is, if they would even accept a misfit like me. If only I didn't have all this school to "drag me down"...

I'm sorry Ferret! It's not worth winning the contest if it discourages you from entering others!

I think the texture idea is prety cool, but the overall execution is kind of wonky. All the gears look pretty flat, and don't seem to be casting shadows on other gears or reflecting off neighboring gears, etc. I think with some more work, this could be a really awe-inspiring texture though. Would be cool if it was animated.

I agree with Taylor - just put a building there, maybe with a garage door or something. City blocks don't have to be perfect blocks, and I'm sure the players wouldn't notice anyway.

I think it's fair for people wanting to see evidence of a map before deciding to freely spend their time on some textures. If I had any kind of talent, I would probably be asking for the same thing before committing to anything.

Architecture looks nice, but I don't know about your choice of lighting colors. Might want to consider using a Color Scheme Tool to harmonize the various colors going on in your map - I use it all the time myself, since I'm no good with colors. Here's the scheme I used to check your colors. Anyways, it matches everything for you quite nicely and generally serves as a reliable guide for colors, most of the time. Good luck!

Reminds me a lot of the Q3 geocomp maps. Which is a very good thing. Might want to consider using plain textures to emphasize the brushwork. Really want to see how it compiles, though.

Ditto. I need more brown shirts in my wardrobe anyway.

Woot. Transparency aside, the badge looks pretty cool, in addition to boosting my incredible ego. Thanks!

Those look pretty good. I think the teal lab-wall textures are probably too concrete / dirty though to be used in a hi-tech laboratory, especially considering how it is used at the beginning of Half-Life.