your story

so tell us, how did you get into mapping and how did you find out about this site?

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i like drinking coke with my pizza

There we go. Finally a legitimate topic. :biggrin:

A few years back (8th grade?), I was playing a lot of HL:DM. As it was inevitable, I eventually started playing a bunch of custom maps. After seeing one it particular, a rats map in a locker room (as I recall) I wanted to make my own.

I spent the next week or so downloading Hammer 3.X, whichever version was right after Worldcraft. I remember because everyone on TWHL referred alluded to it as Worldcraft. I tried it out and was immediately stumped; I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Flash forward another week or so, and I had downloaded a setup tutorial from TWHL. It took me another few days of blithering to figure out how to make a map compile (I didn't use any tutorials, what a n00b!). When I finally did, I was incredibly proud of my empty box, covered on the inside with tiled 8-balls, with the player stuck in the ground, but able to look around.

By this time I had figured out that I had no idea what I was doing, so I went back to TWHL to get a tutorial on actually mapping. I also downloaded a few dozen prefabs, which were of a much higher quality than anything I ever made for HL.

Unfortunately, the tutorial only covered the bare necessities. It also advocated carve, which I used liberally. After one failed mapping attempt of which I was incredibly proud, I wanted to start another project, but the computer I was using (pre-this computer) crashed, big time, and I lost all my work, so I just forgot about it for a while.

Then when I got this computer, I tried out UnrealEd for UT2K4, but didn't like it at all, and couldn't find many helpful tutorials for beginner mappers. Instead, I remembered Hammer and downloaded it again. I found it boring mapping for HL1 with so little talent and knowledge, so I decided to wait until HL2 came out, because I had seen screenshots of Hammer along with teaser pics for it.

I wanted to try out the Source SDK immediately after I finished HL2, but the ubiquitous gameinfo.txt halted my progress for a while until I found the VERC Chatbear forums. There I met Wisemx, The Wolf, Nudel, Frodo, and countless others, who had much more experience than me, but were always willing to help, although at times they were more rude than other times, but I did ask a lot of noobish questions.

Eventually, when I was turned towards the func_tracktrain entity, I just started experimenting with entities, and from that moment, I've never had to ask another noobish question.

And that, my son, is how I became a man. :razz:

[Edit]
Holy crap I wrote a lot, I wish I mapped that much! :rolleyes:

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

Discovered CS beta 7 while a frosh in college, got way into the game,
had too much time on my hands, and that was that. If I had gotten
laid that year, I wouldn't be here.

Found this site in 2000, a friend was looking at it at school, got into mapping after that on Worldcraft.

Never did complete anything.

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SourDough2.0 - With Strawberry Jam

I found Worldcraft on the HL CD in 1999. I did a bunch of SP maps back then. Because I had no Internet connection, I had to beg friends to download a few tutorials for me but that was about it.

The moment I got my first 56k modem things went smoothly. I became a big fan of TFC (playing with l33t pings of 200+) and eventually released my first map for the game. I still hadn't found the Snarkpit then.

The first time I joined a mapping forum was when I started mapping for Red Faction and didn't have a clue wtf was going on. I stuck with RF for a while, doing 2 or 3 maps.

Then HL2 came out, more specifically HL2DM. I realized the Snarkpit was the king of the HLDM mapping scene and figured it would be a nice place to hang around as a HL2DM mapper as well, which was a terrible mistake.

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Why snark works.

It was around the time i discovered i could play Duke Nukem 3D against my brother in multiplayer. I found the Build documentation in one of the folders and figured i could make a map for us to play DM in, using the Build editor. Made 2 maps which we spent countless hours in, with me knowing some secret areas ofcourse :wink:

Then i had a long hiatus in mapping, untill i started hanging around on the Paroxysm forums. Their work and maps inspired me, and i started asking and googling for how to make HL maps. Started with the "box room" tutorial and then a rock tutorial right after that, as i needed it for the map idea i had. Anyway, after 2 completed maps i became part of the dev team and actually helped out CrackerJack compile his Paroxysm map. Through him i discovered the Snarkpit et voila.

I found WorldCraft on the HL cd, and since I was already trying to build games at that time, I got hooked. Finally a 3D editor. :smile:

Funny enough, I got into it after trying to build games, but creating levels for about 6 or 7 years (and finishing very few...) taught me a lot. I'm now back into game programming, with much more success. It turns out I like almost every area of game-development (except for sound and bugfixing :wink: ).

I found the Snarkpit through the VERC forums, or through some surfing on the net for tutorials, I don't remember. I always saw it as an elite site back then, when I got more active here the site was already on it's decline I guess.

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

I started out with DooM and Duke3D way back in the mid 90's, then got into Half-Life. I stumbled upon this site while searching for... um, jpeg files. Then Steam came along. Until that point I never thought it would take literally all day to install a game (yay for dail-up). So now I've basically stopped mapping, not that anything I ever made was good enough to release anyway... Bleh.

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Better to be in denial than to be human.

Bill Gates understands binary: his company is number one, and his customers are all zeros.

Read about Worldcraft in a computer magazine probably over 10 years ago, and it described how to setup WC and how to make a simple room. Back then I really wanted to make maps for Quake 2, but I never understood how to set it all up properly. Then probably 6-8 years ago a friend managed to make a CS level, and he helped me making some simple stuff in WC. Then I wanted to learn more, so I started looking for tutorials and that's how I found Snarkpit.

The only really serious map I've made was with a friend as a final highschool project. It was a map of parts of our school and it turned out really good. Not suitable for anything but showing off though, hence we never released it to the public. That is one of the proudest creations I've ever made, both mapping and otherwise.

I've stopped mapping completely and I'm pretty sure I never will map again. I'm still hanging around Snarkpit because it is a nice site and it has some nice people.

And omg Captain P you have 1337 snarkmarks! That is so l333t I just had to take a screenshot and post it before it disappears forever and ever:

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Woah I never knew he was from teh netherlands :O

Started on Duke Nukem map maker, found this site trying to look for concmaps for tfc, and found myself more aligned to making them myself :razz: .

I read about people making their own levels in Quake 1 in PC Gamer a very long time ago and was immediately intrigued. It sounded so awesome to be able to craft my own little world and design something fun. The only problem was I was still in grade school so I didn't have my own computer, and there was no way I would be able to play Q1 with my parents looking over my shoulder (yeah I was in 6th grade so sue me). So I waited.

The first real fps I got was Jedi Knight 1, which was fun, but not exactly the best game for somebody whose only previous experience with fps was shareware doom and wolf3d. The levels were confusing as hell to me and I played it with a joystick... Anyways, I tried to make maps for JK but the editing program I downloaded didn't have any documentation and made zero sense to me so I gave up.

Then in 98 I got my own computer and conveniently Half-Life was released a few months later. I was well aware of HL's map editor coming with the game and that it was probably going to be a pretty popular game. After I got stuck in a part of Blast Pit I decided to open Worldcraft, started making my own killbox quality levels, and wisely decided that I sucked. So I switched over to making prefabs (first one released Feb 99) and posting over at PrefabLand (I don't remember the old address). There I met Orpheus, who encouraged me to go back to mapping, which resulted in Torque. Soon PFL was in a freefall cause there was no administrator, and Orph suggested I come to the Snarkpit. I took him up on that offer while I was working on Cataclysm and posted a beta thread up on one of the older versions of this site, which quickly turned into a massive flamewar that was the biggest thread the Snarkpit had seen at the time. And the rest, they say, is history!

and Captain P, the site has declined only because there's nothing worth mapping for at this time, and it sure seems like across the industry mapping and modding has been in a very sharp decline the past few years (HL2's 5-year mods that won't even touch CS, Doom3 and Quake4's communities? haha)

every body should map for half life 1 again and make high quality maps. bring back the olden days.

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i like drinking coke with my pizza

@OtZman: Haha, thanks man. I noticed it as well but decided to keep my mouth shut about it... :wink:

@parakeet: Where did you think I was from then? :smile:

@Yak_Fighter: I didn't mention why the Snarkpit was declining. :wink: But yeah, I think current games are too complex for single people to mod, which slowly takes the fun and reward out of it.

@white: Perhaps we should just move on to new days? :wink:

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

My brother and his friends played CS when I was in 5th grade (:sailor:) and I eventually got into it myself. When Dust 2 came out, I was inspired by the website advertisement on the walls to make my own map for the sake of advertising my website. This also entailed learning Photoshop, which has proven a valuable life skill. From day one, Snarkpit was the place I came to for tutorials and displaying my work. I became serious about my involvement here when I took part in a thread for one of DocRock's releases, criticising him for the map's poor looks when I felt everyone else was patting him on the back. Orpheus, if you can believe it, defended him. And that's how I got into my first argument here. The rest is history.

I was fiddling around in hammer, trying to find something to do in my spare time, went looking for mapping resources, and was directed here, to the snarkpit

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Signature? What signature!?

( I appolagize, my google toolbar spell checker doesn't seem to be working at the moment.)

I actrully found my Half-life, Opposing Force, Counter-Strike and Blueshift (Game of the year edition) Cd's. I was riding my bike to by some bread for lunch and I saw something reflecting in the sunlight. Next to a pile of rubbish was this opened, soilded package that contained perfectly good game cd's and instruction manuels inside. It was ment to be. My destiniy.

Anyways I got turned off the game because of its graphics ( I discovered its true beaty later down the track) but one day while very board I actrully read the manual. On the back page was this "Worldcraft 2.1" Program. I was attracted to the picture because it reminded me of halo 1 ( I just became a halo fan ). After a seacond attempt at mapping I finally understood how to use the tools. Than I learnt how to compile, add monsters...... .

I became a member of snarkpit while reading some of the tuts. I did learn alot from the tuts and thought why not Joine this little community. I have now been mapping for Half-life 1 for about 2 years and went from wanting to be Vetenarian Doctor to working on games.

Imagine if my Mum forced my brother to by the bread instead of me. I am so grateful for that day.

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Aaron's Stuff

I started playing cs 1.5 in the fifth grade because a friend of mine had it, so I bought it and blue shift and got addicted to fps mainly valves. I had wanted to map for a while after I got to know Nickelplate and realized he knew how so I got him to show me the ropes and here I am. I think I was a member of the Pit for like 2 years before I actually even downloaded Hammer :biggrin:

I first downloaded Worldcraft in 1997 I think, when Quake 1 was still the big game to play. I pissed around with it quite a bit, made some rubbish single-player maps etc. Had my first "How can there be a leak?!" experience back there.

Then Quake 2 came out, I got Quark off a cover CD, and screwed around some more. Half-Life came out, I thought it was a million times better than Q2 so I decided to try and do an episode for it. Then it only took me about 8 years to finish one that was worth releasing. So every time I see that "Operation Nova released" text on here it's a good feeling (finally).

And hey, Yak Fighter, it's cool to meet you on here. I totally remember seeing your prefabs on the old planethalflife prefab lab section! You've been at this even longer than me!

Well hello! Nice to meet somebody who has been mapping for a while and is as slow at it as me :biggrin: Good old prefablab, that was so long ago, hopefully I've improved since then! :razz: