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Prey 1996 Level Design Contest - Win $250
The video game archive website TalonBrave has announced a level design contest for: Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Quake, Quake 2 and Unreal.

The theme for this contest is Prey 1996; Prey as it was developed under Tom Hall’s leadership, which was a science-fiction first-person shooter.

More info here: http://talonbrave.info/?p=1801

Discuss.
 
Glad there's some money in something at least Quake-adjacent, however the theme is too unfocused for my liking, and the judging being so vague really doesn't help things.
Is it visuals, faithfulness to Prey, gameplay? If so how does each game play into these things? Is a Half-Life 2 level at a higher visual or gameplay (lol) standard than a Quake 2 level for instance?

Too many questions for me personally to throw in my hat, but good luck to all who participate. A good CR8/IDbase level would knock this out of the park I feel. 
Interesting Thing 
Looks unfocused, meaning in my eyes that as long as one part of the map resembles one of those screenshots it is fine, as from what i see that build of Prey had not even gameplay. So to summarize, no theme, just a base map of any kind, and probably metal o runic would be fine from looking to some of the shots.

Thanks for telling, Otp.

By the way, given that there is money involved, do you guys think there would be any issues related to licenses on the assets we have for Quake? both iD's and those done by the community or that come from other videogames. 
 
Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Quake, Quake 2 and Unreal

Including 2004's Half-Life 2 amongst a bunch of games from the 90s sounds like a bloody nightmare. Would make more sense if it just involved the 90s games, you know, the ones with similar tech to Prey 1996.

I mean FFS, seen that latest trailer for Black Mesa: Xen? 
Also 
No mention on whether the map is allowed to be based on a mod, or whether it has to be a pure "vanilla" map for whichever of the wildly different first-person-shooter games you're making it for. 
Clarification 
Hi guys!

Thanks for all your comments and feedback, I have updated the original post on the website.

A map can incorporate one, multiple or all scenes seen in these screenshots; maps that incorporate more are more likely to win providing they effectively stitch them together.

The winner will be judged based on how creatively they incorporate the scenes visible in any of these screenshots into their map and how effectively they’ve filled in the gaps. As many of these maps were still a work-in-progress at the point these screenshots were taken, you’re allowed to take creative liberties wherever you like providing the basic design isn’t lost.

Maps that aim for extra authenticity will of course get extra ticks, however they also need to account for the fact that many of these levels were again, a work in progress.

As an example, your map may feature a room that heavily uses the Quake texture set but the geometry and textures are used in a way that convey the original design visible in the screenshot you’ve selected for that segment.

I hope this clears things up but otherwise let me know! 
 
By the way, given that there is money involved, do you guys think there would be any issues related to licenses on the assets we have for Quake? both iD's and those done by the community or that come from other videogames.

Don't think so - your map is still available for free, and the $250 award is given by the organiser out of their own volition. 
 
The winner will be judged based on how creatively they incorporate the scenes visible in any of these screenshots into their map

Maps that aim for extra authenticity will of course get extra ticks

So you're getting points on how creatively you are interpreting the screenshots, and you are also getting points for how authentically you are sticking to the screenshots......

https://youtu.be/NqD2ZEE0Uic 
Eh? 
An oxymoronic/contradictory sentence.
Rewards for authenticity,and rewards for creativity.

Authenticity = 1/creativity 
 
Except that it doesn't. You can recreate those screens faithfully and be creative in how the stuff interacts with the player (tons of those things could move, contain secrets, etc.) what can't be seen in those screens, and so on.

You can also interpret that seemingly contradictory statement as "you can go either route, both will be rewarded; which one yields better result is to be seen". 
 
Apologies for the confusion, I'll try and clear that up.

So long as your map incorporates the basic design of any of the screenshots that were provided, you're set; the rest is up to how you interpret it and how creative you are at filling in the gaps.

To explain the point on authenticity.

If you did go an extra mile (custom texture set for example), you're likely to get extra marks for that fact - but it would mean nothing if the rest of your map is just an empty void or doesn't seek to take at least some creative liberties.

One point made on the original post in the same context that I must emphasize is that these levels were obviously incomplete when these screenshots were taken. This means you're not going to win for simply creating a 1:1 clone of the original. You need to go beyond that.

Say for example if I had created a 1:1 recreation of one of these scenes, I would expect to see considerably better use of lighting, textures more grounded to a consistent theme and perhaps some alterations to the geometry to better incorporate some feature/function of the game I'm building it for.

Following that I would then expect to create a level AROUND that which incorporates it in a way that makes sense.

If that's not clear enough, let me know. 
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