http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19991210/birdwell_pfv.htm

(thanks HN)

Fortunately, the game had some things in it we liked. We set up a small group of people to take every silly idea, every cool trick, everything interesting that existed in any kind of working state somewhere in the game and put them into a single prototype level. When the level started to get fun, they added more variations of the fun things. If an idea wasn�t fun, they cut it. When they needed a software feature, they simplified it until it was something that could be written in a few days. They all worked together on this one small level for a month while the rest of us basically did nothing. When they were done, we all played it. It was great. It was Die Hard meets Evil Dead. It was the vision. It was going to be our game. It was huge and scary and going to take a lot of work, but after seeing it we weren�t going to be satisfied with anything less. All that we needed to do was to create about 100 more levels that were just as fun. No problem. 

"RemakeQuake's Development Method" 

 

http://atlasobscura.com/places/root-bridges-cherrapungee 

http://qrf.mine.nu/stuff/amoeba2.png

http://amoeba.sajberspejs.com/

wish i had a root bridge like those :/ 

http://lumajs.googlepages.com/ocean-temperature.jpg

would be cool to make a map where you fight your way into an iceberg (not vondur's...) and there's lot of ice tunnels and air pockets and then you discover a tech base inside or something so it's frozen base + leaks.

someone do that. i command you. 

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=4759

(via HN) 

Holy hell...

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=65408 

Do want. 

 

concept for a Sci-fi ice world setting, where mecha robots roam free
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/7193/winterect.jpg
from http://www.pandemoniumart.net/2009/07/02/winter-setting/ 

is that seriously one guy's work? reminds of some of the cambodian ruins outside of angkor wat in the jungle.

great find willem. 

Personally, I find stuff like this a bit depressing. I mean sure it look very good and all that, but seriously, how the fuck am I supposed to compete with visuals like http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/6425/00085y.jpg/ as a fellow mapper?

I want to be a level designer, not an environment artist, but I still want my maps to look good. I just neither have a few chinese artists on my payroll, nor the extraordinary talent of a few people out there who can not only make good gameplay but also make it look stunning as well and to top that off, they can do both at a ridiculously fast development pace. 

It's a rare individual who can do that sort of thing as a one man show. We produce levels here that look that good on a regular basis, but it's generally a team effort. I do the shell layout, someone meshes it, I go over it again as a second visual pass, an artist adds ambient effects, etc. That's the normal path of progression.

Those shots I posted look amazing but that's not a level yet. It's a screen shot maker. 

Are always built by more than one person. 

Makes no sense.

Need more coffee. 

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/313130/in_praise_of_the_scifi_corridor.html

Great subject matter, but i wish the article was 10x longer and had 10x more pictures... and the pictures should be bigger... and more info about designers and stuff...

Basically i wish the blog format didn't suck so much. But I guess business is business. 

cool websit i love it 

cool websit i love it 

nom nom nom om nom 

 

http://www.drublair.com/comersus/store/tica.asp 

Nice find indeed, but I'm still having a hard time believing that all of the other images weren't reverse-engineered from a photo, it's that good. 

http://www.artificialowl.net/2009/07/abandoned-catalina-seaplane-50-years.html 

http://www.stormchaser.ca/Caves/Naica/Naica.html