Hey. So if you used to follow the HL1 mod scene you might recall "Project Quantum Leap" that took levels from 20 different authors to make a crazy unpredictable single player experience -- it's where Adam Foster's Someplace Else was originally released, among other awesome levels. I signed on for PQL2, "Issues," which added a plot about going through dimensions to find a missing scientist. For PQL3, "Reissues," we added a hub level component and some really cool HL1 set pieces, but Spirit of Half-Life bugs really marred our release... Anyway, my point is, this has been a really great community thing and I have experience in participating in it, which is why I'm reviving the concept for a possible PQL4 as a mod for Half-Life 2: Episode 2.
The mod: every designer makes a short HL2 level. We combine all these levels into a crazy brilliant haphazard mod. (We also have an HL1 fork going that has some really amazing talent on-board, so if you're in the mood you should PM me for that too.)
Have an old portfolio piece map that you never finished? A "style test" that you've neglected for the past year? Well dust it off, make it playable and RELEASE IT WITH US.
This is really good in case you want to do something short and single player but don't have the time for a "full" single player release: by combining all our short levels, we emerge with something substantial and interesting.
If you're looking for a job, this will look great because make no mistake:
We will release SOMETHING and people will PLAY IT. That is the only promise I will make to you but it is the most important promise a mod can make. I am currently projecting an August / September release date, though hopefully it'll be earlier. I will be ecstatic if we have 4-5 contributors total, though ideally we'll have 12-16.
>>> If you're interested, PM me and I'll send you a link / password to the Chatbear board we're using to coordinate. We will share ideas and playtest each others maps, offering feedback and critiques. It's a beautiful process.
Specs for maps:
- No beginner level designers, sorry. There's basic quality control in-place; your maps have to look technically competent. (Anyone remembers the awful THERBCO maps in PQL1? Well, call this the Therbco Rule.)
- HL2: Episode 2 single player.
- Aim for 5-10 minutes of play. Nothing super epic; keep it doable for yourself. Polish those 10 minutes. No, seriously, KEEP IT SHORT. For your sanity and the player's.
- It can be as experimental or conventional as you want.
- Only 1 BSP per author.
- No weapon / health carry-over from map to map. Every map starts with no weapons and no suit. All env_global variables are reset. Spawn them at the map start if you want the player to have them.
- Custom text / strings / in-game text allowed and encouraged, will be integrated properly for final release
- Custom textures, models and sounds allowed if they're packaged properly to be easily integrated into the mod.
- Custom per-map weapons are NOT possible.
- Custom per-map NPC model replacements ARE possible. Overriding the "model" keyvalue on the NPC will usually do the trick.
- No custom code. We are using the HL2 Ep2 code base.
General concept / plan for the intro map:
You wake up in a hospital bed with all these people looking at you. "Wait, come over here! Her eyes are open!" You can only turn about 2-3 degrees in any direction; you're firmly bed-ridden and you can barely move.
"Say something, honey! Please!" But of course you can't. "She probably can't even hear us."
"But it makes you wonder -- I mean, I know she's looking at us, but what does she see?"
Everyone walks out of the room. Then a tool tip -- "E: Get up." You get up and leave the room. In the empty hospital corridor, there's 16 doors. They're all marked "Exit." When you enter one, you go to a randomly selected level. In this sense, it's a kind of pseudo-hub.
Every time you return from a level, you wake up in the bed in the empty hospital room, get up, and return to the corridor. Now that previous door is blocked off with bricks and the exit sign is off. So you choose another... And so on and so on...
Then you return from the last level.
Everyone is looking at you in the bed and it's a repeat of the intro -- except when whoever ends with, "... but what does she see?" it goes through a super-fast slideshow montage of all the levels you just played, in the order you played them -- and then you flat-line and die. Fade to black. End.
