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I've uploaded another pair of videos! I hadn't planned to do only two a day, but the Ericw/Tronyn video took even longer than I'd anticipated. Hopefully I'll be able to work faster now that the hard stuff is out of the way. My thoughts:
Daz ---- Some seriously delicious architecture here. There's a satisfying "thickness" to your castle with all the recesses and trim, and the parallax? Forget about it. Congratulations on the rockwork, I think the octagon approach paid off big time. I wouldn't have expected such simple shapes to turn out looking like anything, but slide enough of them up against each other and apparently you have a nice cavern. Gameplay was great, of course! To be honest, when I heard you mention that you were working on repopulating the map when the player wasn't around, I thought it would feel weird. I was worried it wouldn't feel substantially better than just teleporting enemies in plain sight, but I was wrong. The monster placement felt natural the whole time, I never picked up the new ones as anything out of the ordinary. Even the knights-in-lava fit right in. I did get a bit confused by the reversed key progression, but not for long, and after all I only used gold in my own map, so I'm not one to talk. Sorry to hear about your technical difficulties, if you decide to come back to this and work on it further I'd love to play an update! http://youtu.be/pIpW2qsRz9k Ericw & Tronyn ---- For the love of all that is holy, you two are diseased. In the best possible way, mind you, but diseased nonetheless. That red armors and megahealths are just run of the mill supplies here tells you everything you need to know about this map. I'm a sucker for Painkiller scale environments, and I'm still baffled that these days we can have them in Quake (and that there are mappers willing and able to build such places). We live in a wondrous time. Had some framerate difficulties, and got lost once or twice, but the map was still a blast to rip through! I saw mention on Quaddicted that there are plans for an updated version, looking forward to it; I was surprised an unvised map ran as well as this one did even when I was recording video, but improved performance will certainly be welcome. http://youtu.be/PnbWSs5kxAo A bunch of demos since I last posted, thanks everybody!
ShoTro: I only rush to keep things lively. Hanging back behind cover, sniping enemies with the shotgun, I just think it's a lot more fun (for me and for anyone watching) to get in there and mix it up. I try not to outright race through interesting stuff, but it's easy to get carried away. Your map was really fun even if it wasn't meant to be played like that! Shambler: Yes, the inconsistent styles are the result of not making design decisions fast enough. I couldn't decide how to evoke the reference image I was using with the textures, floorspace, and skillset available to me. I wanted the whole place to feel like it was alive, made of some sort of fleshy substances, or at least have some small touches like gates made of teeth, but any of that would have been much more work than I had time for and was capable of. The last minute compromise was to just make a standard issue rock cavern, planning to have the organic stuff seem to be growing around everything. It ended up just being a big lump of weird stuff thrown together. If I may ask, what's OTT? I assume it's a map/mod/game I'm not familiar with. Scampie: Love the demo, and you really inflated my already fat head toward the end there. :) You seem like exactly the type of player I had in mind when I built this map. I just wish I'd known how to accommodate everybody else, too. enliten: Thanks! I was hoping more for an ambiguous expression that flit between anger and fear depending on how it struck players' imaginations, but having it turn out to look silly is satisfying in its own right. Goes to show the difficulty of capturing emotions with 3D art, especially low poly stuff like this. Big, glaring bug eyes could read as angry, fearful, or just goofy, and I'm not sure how you'd go after only one of those. I agree about the map missing something, I started out with just a hub and spoke design that really just had you going point to point, then added the bridge back by the high lift to offer another route and played with where to introduce the key to try encouraging a bit of mildly interesting backtracking. The original hub and spoke, "go here then go there because I said so that's why" style of progression shows blatantly through, though. I don't know that I could add anything to fix it, it's a fundamental design flaw. mfx: Sorry about the spawning. I got so far in with my giant open space layout that I ended up with only a few natural places to stick patrolling and stationed monsters. Teleporting enemies seemed like my only option, but with the eerie totem things I thought it wouldn't be so bad. Obviously it didn't work out that way. The pump station fight is awfully cramped, for example, and it's easy to have somebody spawn right next to the player. The zombie you had trouble with in the graveyard is on a timer, though, and the fact that he showed up right where he did at that moment was an unfortunate accident. I didn't take explicit steps to shove them in your face, in my defense. Orl: Thank you for the kind words, on general principle I always try to be as disturbing as I can. adib: Glad you and yours had fun with my playthrough! Knowing a woman went red in the face laughing at me for being an idiot, well, that's the story of my life. Yeah, I remember thinking that it sure would have been nice to shoot and test some things for secrets at one point after running out of ammo. I forgot all about it on later runs, since I was focused on getting the monsters to infight and then getting to the part of the map I hadn't seen yet.
The map ended a bit sooner than I thought, since I expected one more shambler or vore and maybe a nailgun just lying around. But, you know, I did't mind my expectations being wrong about how this map was put together. It was a good challenge :) What a turnout! Interesting how everyone added their own touch to the theme. Nice to see so many new people. Despite beginner style levels, they show good potential. Hope to see more from them in the future.
Several of the maps have items falling out or monsters spawning partially inside walls as well as other avoidable issues. For the new mappers: enable developer 1 in the console before loading the map, then you'll see the corresponding warning messages; for the old mappers: suckers! The included demo is recorded on protocol 666 - this is bad practice. Despite the fact that some of the maps require a protocol like this, it should maintain compatibility. Some rather clumsy first runs on skill 2: http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/mapjam6_negke.zip Abib: Compact and well-interconnected, kind of like a speedmap. Not very obvious that one has to shoot the rock spikes. Seems tight on ammo, as if using the rocks to crush certain enemies was required. Good start! Breezeep: Not much in the way of fire and brimstone, I guess, but still seems to fit in with the pack. Solid map, but hard secrets. Dunno about Knave.... Maybe try to mix some stuff up like your Doom levels. Daz: Octagonal rocks hype... :P It looks good with the lava light and the fog, but still a bit odd/ott. Layout works well, with bit of futile exploration even, fun gameplay. It somewhat shows you ran out of time in the upper parts; would have liked the castle to be beefed out a little, protruding stuff at the top etc. A couple of clipping and portal errors, though no wonder with so much "terrain". I think this is my favorite map from the pack; similar to what I had in mind for the jam... except mine would have had better gameplay! EricW/Tronyn: Unvised, didn't play. Exhelzar: Again, sort of a speedmappish-style level. Quite boxy and with a bit of 'wasted space', but no worries for a first map! A possible next design step, apart from refining the architecture and adding details, could be interconnecting the whole level to make it feel like a functional fortress, windows/balconies/walkways at higher levels to make more use of the space. For next time. ionous: Feels a bit like a brighter version of your Jam3Dlc map - tall corridors, central atrium and such. Good, just a shame you didn't manage to get the final area done in time amatecha: Promising first effort, although it's over so quickly, I didn't even realize I stepped into the exit already. Looks a bit like a test map with three different areas joined together. Need to add some visblockers between the larger areas next time, because doors don't block visibility. necros: Cool experiment. I kind of expected super-realistic rockwork since it was modelled in a 3D app. The chunkiness isn't bad, though. Along with the very nice industrial buildings, the whole scene reminds me of the Borderlands games. Doom textures work well here. I enjoyed the laid-back gameplay, but of course it still feels like something is missing. The interiors are way too dark, however! Rick: Nice little ruins thing. The purple fog bothers me a little, I think a more red and less blue would have fit better. I didn't find the nailgun and subsequently ran out of ammo, so I had to run past the shambler and suddenly there was the exit. Oh well. ShoTro: Ah, it looks like an oldschool beginner map, albeit better in style. A mishmash of areas and ideas, and some serious techical issues. Reminded me of old Doom maps at times. Some of the areas look quite promising; try to maintain a consistent style/theme throughout the whole map next time, and get tech support before release. ItEndsWithTens: Cool little map with a hilarious touch. Something one doesn't see often in Quake levels; that face.... I love how the eyes move as you progress through the map. The organic style of the building and bridges is cool. Shame the map exceeds the clipnodes limit; it feels like this could have been avoided with some clever clipping. Are you from the Mapcore crowd? WarrenM: Looks good, too bad it's unfinished. It has a classic feel to it, pretty much like the old speedmap packs that had small deathmatch levels. This map also has a similar vibe as my SM131, although combat is less tense. Pretty much a pretty battle arena... with lava-barfing rocks. All very brief comments... that's the downside of such a big pack. OTT == "Over the top", I'm a dimwit.
Thanks, negke, and sorry about the limit breaking. I'd always prefer not to if it's unnecessary, but in this case I only realized toward the end of the project that I hadn't been running with developer turned on. If I had seen the warning I definitely would have found out what the hell clipnodes are and tried to do something about it, though since Quakespasm was our recommended target engine I may not have tried too hard. I'll be sure to watch out for this with future maps! I'm not Mapcore, no. The only community I spend any time in is RunThinkShootLive/PlanetPhillip, my only releases thus far have been HL2 stuff. That site led me to Daz and his Youtube channel, where I in turn learned about these jams (and the fact that there was still a singleplayer Quake mapping community). ...a huge thank you to all who took part in this jam. I got lost in the fire and brimstone for some time over the weekend.
Exhelzar
---- Congratulations on your first map release! Just getting something out the door is an accomplishment. I did think there could be a bit more in the way of space to dodge attacks, and some cover for enemies to use. If you were to dogleg some of those narrow hallways, maybe have them fork, and/or widen them a little, I think there'd be more opportunities for entertaining combat. You did note the map is in the alpha stages, of course, so I don't want to be too critical. I thought you did a good job with the lighting, nice color and very moody. http://youtu.be/5ymLpbHHkfY Ionous ---- Hooray for trapezoids! I wasn't kidding when I said I love them, I think the look suits Quake very well. They're ziggurat cross sections, after all. Your white and yellow color scheme is great, as beautiful as so many of the other maps are it's still a nice change of pace, and still manages to fit the lava texture you used. I also get the willies thinking of this giant mausoleum with bones, or at least skulls, packed behind all the walls. There were a couple of spots where I got hung up on some of your floor geometry, I take it that was just a deadline issue? I see in your source map that you clipped most of the stuff off. http://youtu.be/xnNjFRcxKcI Matecha ---- Hey start map roomie! This was a little short, but I liked what I saw, and was getting into it when it ended. Maybe some gameplay in the graveyard would punch the place up a little? I'm hardly in a position to be judging anyone for having too few enemies, I know, I just think a minute or two of extra gameplay would round the map out. Oh, by the way, I'd definitely get some use out of that calculator you mentioned in the dev thread, if you have a chance to share it I'd love to take a look! https://youtu.be/lruvG3D43Dc Rick ---- Sorry to say I'm another wayward soul who skipped over the nailgun, but I managed to tough it out and finish the map. I'm in love with that royal purple fog, you turned out a wonderfully memorable visual with this map. It was pretty enjoyable to play, too, but I do agree with the others that dragging the nailgun out into the open would be a big boost. https://youtu.be/ij-nv73nfTk Played over the last few days so not really proper reviews. Liked scampie's, itendswithtens', probably some others I've forgotten :-) necros' is an amazing tech demo :)
ionous's map:
all secrets apart from one. 1-shotgun 2-megahealth 3-? 4-quad damage 5-megahealth 6-red armor 7-rocket launcher i've been over the level a couple of times after wiping everyone out, and can't find it. I think that there's a missing secret in ionous map : four zombies standing in a small hidden room behind a skulls wall. There's no mechanism to open that wall (or I never found it), and had to use noclip to find this room.
Maybe is it unfinished ? Scampie: Outstanding map, liked it a lot. I guess this was the most "conventional" of the pack, but it looked and played perfectly fine for me. Chtons were a nice touch.
ShoTro: If I had to guess I'd say you are a doom mapper? It was a bit 2D and the lighting was overdone, but the gameplay was nice. Had some interesting and challenging moments in that map. Warren: Upper part of the ruins was supreme. Great flow, felt like I played it backwards somehow, as if I had found some secret passage. Very cool. The fight after the first gold key was outstanding. Lower part was kinda meh, but I guess time constraints. Demos: http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/mapjam6_sleep_5.7z Scampie
---- "Why can't you be more like Floyd Braun?" The security system's mother shouted at him again. He'd show her. He'd show them all. You've built a wonderful Industrial Pipey Place, I had fun here. The map starts in a minecart? 10/10. It ends with a fakeout exit shambler? 11/10 I also liked what secrets I found, although I know a certain someone who's going to be disappointed at the lack of goodies under your lifts. http://youtu.be/dky8PvXlS9k ShoTro ---- Your different themes didn't fit together too well, perhaps, but this was a fun Quantum Leap/Sliders type situation, jumping from place to place or time to time. I'm not a big fan of mazes, but I can't help adoring your flesh bridges for obvious reasons. The grand scale of that lava room felt nice, too, though I can imagine polish would be much easier with less space to fill. Any plans to revisit your brush monster? I like that kind of thing, maybe with more time to work on the idea you could get it working. http://youtu.be/zBiOPXzqROs Necros ---- I toyed with Warren's OBJ2MAP in the early stages of the competition, but despite a growing familiarity with Blender I never managed to produce anything like this. It's inspiring, I really want to experiment more now! This map was a little bit dark in the interiors, and the exterior's collision was a wee bit wonky here and there, but the atmosphere was engrossing, it reminded me of a techy version of the Sunspire from Unreal. http://youtu.be/Iw52xZMVonQ WarrenM ---- Like my grandfather always said, "you can't go wrong with lava puke." Strong theme here, the wooden reinforcement of stone structures feels incredible. A crumbling outpost, sinking into the lava as the centuries pass, one last defense by a desperate horde against players' intrusions. On top of all that, your fog and lighting color are immaculate. And that final room, with the knights and vores? You know just how to appeal to players like me, thanks for the good time! http://youtu.be/1WzCRl10pjY ---- And that'll do it, thanks to all the mappers for their wonderful work! I had a great time with this whole endeavor, here's hoping I have the chance to enter more jams in the future. In the same area as the Megahealth secret there's a shootable button nestled amidst the gold texture. Next to the rope.
i remember following that ledge once, but then i think i stopped for some reason and dropped down before going too far.
unlike some of the others, it was kind of obvious, if only i hadn't dropped down too soon i would have spotted that obvious flashing red square! i think i remember saying to myself that there wouldn't be another secret so close to the megahealth secret...how wrong o was! i like the fact that you number them, that way i roughly new that it was after the megahealth but before the quad damage (it helps narrow the search down). no quake level is complete without finding all the secrets (that must be that anal retentive nature i'm guilty of)! cheers again for a great map ;) tens
That video was awesome, thank you! So it's been long enough, I guess I can talk about this Also, nobody I saw took advantage of any of the speed running short cuts or slant-jumps I set up in various places. Oh well. :) Heh, one thing I discovered watching people play my map is that over 50% of the time it's not at all what I expected.
fuckin' 'ell!!
i died more than christ :0 3 out of 6 secrets. i had to shoot the shotgun to light up a corner, where i noticed a thunderbolt secret. i found the pentagram secret of course, maybe turning up the brightness would help on the next run through looking for the other secrets. the first 3rd of the map is restrained enough, but it seems to really kick into gear after that. I want to ask a mapping question. Why did you make the lava falls at the ends of the bucket ride solid?
On replaying the map I wanted to see how they'd kill me, and the answer is apparently they will push me off the bucket and I will fall into the lava below. It wasn't what I expected. Perhaps there is a reason why making them func_illusionary wouldn't work? @Warren In my second demo I use a slope jump :) I was hiding that the buckets are just traveling in a rectangular loop, so I needed them to go behind something, and a big curtain of lava for them to get filled by seemed the best solution. I also intended it would be somewhat harrowing that you have to jump off to the nearby ledge at the last moment to avoid death. I regard lava as signalling 'this will kill you' in my map, and don't expect the player to go into it except in one very rare place where I give you a tool to survive death...
A few people tried to go into the lava fall, I should have recognized that would be something people would want to do and better support that (even if it still killed you), just like those catwalks above Mega Floyd and the ones the Enforcers walk on and shoot at you from. Originally those were just meant to look neat, and you were just going to go up a lift to the blue key without going up to them at all... but the view looked so cool I quickly added a windtunnel just so I could make enforcers shoot at you while you walked on one of the catwalks! And speaking of odd choices, Sock brought this up, and ItEndsWithTens got confused at this point: To progress in the level, you need to go into the maintenance hatch below the gold key door. This is a source of confusion because you're being clearly shown a walkway that goes toward the gold key door, but there's no clear path to the ledge you drop down onto. Originally, I was going to make that gold key door simply a 'locked' door, and have it hint that you should find a way around, which would have helped quite a bit... but then the layout started going in a different direction. So I did what I could to point players at that little hatch... the light blinks, there's a sound, there's ammo on the ledge, an enforcer shoots at you from that door earlier in the map, and the shortcut button has a view of the door and ledge when you push it. I hope these things helped direct the player in this admittedly confusing part, but I think it was more the sense of exploration by players that made then jump down and actually go the right way. TLDR of all this is: I just made cool looking things and quickly connected them together as I went, and there's a lot of things I might have done better had I planned them out ahead of time. I didn't have much trouble figuring out the maintenance hatch part, but I did almost ride into the lava. It wasn't till the last second when I realized "Uh oh, I need to get off this thing real quick"
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