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A Flattering Initiative
Posted by Riven on Wed May 19th at 7:22am 2010

So, I recently participated in this interview for a professional Gaming Clan known as "Area51 Gaming". A buddy of mine from way back works with them, and decided to take my interview (as I constantly barrage him for mapping feedback). He used it to make a post on their site. But seeing how I took time to answer them, I thought maybe they'd come in handy to someone else here on the site. If you'd like to catch it as it's originally posted, you can find it on their site here: http://area51gaming.com/news/315/

Below, I've copied it and formatted it for the Pit. Enjoy! smiley

For those people out their in the gaming community that don't know you could you please introduce yourself ?

My name is Eric Lancon and I go by "Riven" most everywhere online. I started playing around with the old Half-Life "GoldSrc" engine in 2003 and have been playing Half-Life and related mods since '99. I started studies in architecture and will be graduating next spring. When playing Half-Life, I frequented many mapping community sites and eventually became a regular with the Snarkpit. I was only 14 then, and I fell in love being able to design imagined worlds. I was amused by all the different things I could think of to create. I was only somewhat acquainted with Worldcraft, the level design program for half-life by the time Half-Life 2 was released and quickly latched on to the latest version, Hammer. After that I never looked back.

Now what exactly is the Snarkpit and what made you get involved with it and do you have a specific role or position in that community ?

SnarkPit is a level design, or "mapping" website community. You can find it at: www.snarkpit.net . It was started by a UK fellow named Leperous back in 2001 and contains a number of user created tutorials and game content as well as personal editing portfolios showcasing user's work we host for free. We also have a reviewing system and the occasional mapping competition.
I started visiting the Snarkpit in 2004 as a novice and mostly lurched in the background never bothering to make a post or even an account. Eventually I joined in 2005 and began posting when I uploaded my first map and began receiving feedback. I stuck around to learn from more experienced folks and sooner or later started to help others myself too; doing so, I met a lot of people through the Pit and befriended the site admins. By 2008 most of the initial members had left, and the Pit needed an update. There was a new site redesign planned and they need people to help give feedback. My admin friend asked me to help and without any questions I "signed up" and I've been helping to run the Pit since. I'm not the only admin for the site now; in-fact we have a resident web designer who constantly helps update and fix the site whenever we need it and Gwil the only other admin pops in from time to time and pays the bill. I continue to help answer editing questions for people and post front page news. I finally contributed my first formal tutorial to the site not too long ago and continue to help host competitions for any interested.

What made you start designing levels/maps and do you have a special process you like to use when going about designing a level/map?

I suppose you could say I got involved with level design after playing Age of Empires I. I learned to use the built-in level editor and made small simple levels, and with time, got better and went so far as to write short stories for ridiculously long and challenging campaigns I'd let my friend play. He never finished any of them because they were impossible, but I tried to make an enthralling experience by using a lot of scripted sequences and even including my voice for some of the characters. Half-Life was just a natural progression from that; I first got my hands on it via my friend who had a burned CD copy of it his dad got from a work buddy. It wasn't until later I found out about the level design aspect when I started playing Counter-Strike and wondered how they modded Half-Life to do all this different crazy stuff. CS was the gateway drug you could say.
My process? Well, I love to plan. It's hard for me to come up with ideas and I always feel comforted when I can look at drawings of past failed ideas. It always starts on paper for me. I'll draw plans and diagrams and even some perspective shots of some areas before ever starting Hammer. I always use a strait-edge and multiple pencil thicknesses to help get my ideas across clearly; it was important for me to get feedback of ideas before bothering to spend time mapping on them. I usually sought feedback from my face-to-face friends who were regular gamers too and I always made lists from their comments. I'm somewhat OCD in this regard as I feel very personal about my work and constantly look for confidence before starting a project. I play a lot of word games to an extent when I start a project, much like how Valve may use a "game dictionary," I'll use a sequence of adjectives to describe scenes and atmosphere. Gameplay is extremely important and I start with a basic idea of that first, but normally I'll work on gameplay and setting/plot simultaneously. As you can tell single-player mapping is my preferred genera and I love story-telling. Everyone likes a good story!
Nowadays, I still do plan considerably on paper first, but seek less for initial feedback until I have something to show in-game. I'm much more comfortable with the Half-Life 2 Source engine now and know my limitations, but paper planning is still key, which is also a rule in the world of architecture. Eventually my maps will get to a playable state and then I'll begin playtesting as soon as possible. I'll record playthroughs and make lists of changes; rinse, repeat until I'm happy with the end product.

Do you have any special things you like to do or use to help get creative ideas for levels/maps ?

Well normally, when looking for a gameplay idea, I'll play through a couple of custom maps or commercial games and take mental or physical notes. Basically I look for ways to change a pre-existing idea or modify some space I've seen elsewhere. When looking for setting or visual imagery, I'll either have my own picture collection, or I'll make one by scouring the internet and keeping an organized folder where I filter certain elements out belonging to different categories, such as: material_combinations, layout, scenes, details, etc...
Once I have a good base setting and sequence of events to work with, detailed ideas usually come in the form of brainstorming, casual conversations with friends, or even sometimes, the scribbled-on shard of paper I found in the trash during a movie.

Are their any particular programs you use when designing a level/map ?

Today I use Valve's Source SDK for mapping along with Photoshop CS4 for custom textures, Sony SoundForge 8.0 for custom sounds and AutoDesk Softimage 7.5 for custom models. All of which, I've purchased mostly for mapping. I dabble sometimes with Google Sketchup to see if I can prototype a part of a level out quickly, and other times (only twice) have I bothered to actually use AutoCAD and Adobe Illustrator to layout a level.

How many levels/maps have you designed to date and how long does each one usually take ?

To date I've worked on over ten different projects, four of which you may find online somewhere. Two are HL2DM levels. One a bugged Portal level, three are hl2 sp maps, and others are competition entries. These are all personal projects except for the community-based HL2DM Compilation Map project in which only parts of it are of my own work, but I did assemble and optimize it.
Most of my maps or projects were done within three months time or less normally, depending on the amount of custom content.

Do you have any special "trademark" or feel you like to incorporate into your designs that users can notice while playing your maps/levels ?

Not necessarily. I always give my levels a quality control pass to make sure there at a certain standard in my head, but I don't proactively apply a symbol or easter-egg if that's what you're looking for. I would like for people to expect a certain level of quality when they play my maps. It should run well, play well, and look good. Maybe I should start including something, it never occurred to me, really.

Do you have any particular game you enjoy designing for or is it just kinda whatever you are in the mood for ?

Well, I've already made it evident I prefer to work with single-player levels and tell a good story somehow. However, multiplayer maps such as HL2DM make for a lot less hassle sometimes and are quicker to make in some regards and easier to playtest. I've dabbled with L4D and plan on making a map for that one day, but also with a couple of other multiplayer mods too. As a sci-fi nerd, I love the story Half-Life has to offer, and designing content or off-shoot story-lines for it make for a fantastic setting in which to map about.
I've seen what the CryEngine can do, and the Unreal 3 engine can make some stuff look extremely fantastic, and I've played a little with the Doom 3 engine, but when it comes down to it, nothing beats the Half-Life community, and I think that's partly what keeps me interested. Being able to share my work across multiple sites and receive a varied amount of feedback makes for a rich experience in understanding an engine. I don't think you can get that in such a great quantity with any other engine. It makes for a unique opportunity for beginner mappers and easier to get started and probably why I got drawn into it so easily.

Are you currently working on any design projects that you can let us in on (maybe a few screen shots) ?

Well, currently I may make mention of an active project for a single-player competition which I don't think I'll be finishing in-time anyway. The competition requires gameplay with the Hunter enemy from Half-Life 2, Episode 2. I wanted to do something different by incorporating tight spaces for combat with a number of them and give the player only a rocket-launcher to fend off with. So the player will need to keep his distance when firing so as not to damage himself. After much brainstorming, I decided to place such an idea on a highrise. In which the player would find themselves at the bottom having to work their way up to the top finale. This idea was inspired by the rooftop finale in L4D, but I'd like to make my own variant of it in HL2; again, just one way I "borrow" ideas and make them my own. If you find anything original in all that, then you must be looking too deep in to it.

Any Shoutouts or anything you would like to give ?

I'd like to thank all the good folks over at the SnarkPit, who've helped me over the years, and also the Half-Life community at-large. I'd like to thank Skitch for coordinating all this, and look forward to reading the other interviews.

/Interview

If you guys want a discussion about this, just PM me and I'll make a post about it so we can all talk.


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1/17/20
Posted by FatStrings on Sun Jan 17th at 5:15pm 2010

hmmm,

I had wrecked my truck driving drunkenly several weeks ago. I didn't realize till I got a call the other day that I had done a hit and run on a parked car. Luckily no one was hurt, but I have realized I need to make some major changes in my life.

I will finally be getting off of my ass and moving on in my life, I will be attending a different University in the fall and starting a new major.

I've gotten my wake up call, only thing remains to see if I answer it.

In other news, scrambled eggs/onions in bacon grease is awesome.

Hugs and eggses,
FuckedStrings

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Mapping for Portal?
Posted by Niborius on Wed Jan 6th at 3:43pm 2010

So I just bought the PC version of Portal (my brother had the 360 version before).
Anyways, I was thinking that it might be cool to make a small map for portal sometime.
Well, so I turned on the Hammer Editor tool and I just made a very small map to see if it works.
Well, it worked and very well too. It was pretty fun to map for Portal, so who knows, I might just release a Portal map sometime!

I'm sure no-one expected me to do that smiley

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