How do you?

How do you guys come up with ideas for a map? I cant seem to think of
anything and I just wanted to know how you guys come up with your ideas
and your levels.

Thanks

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Life is like a box of chocolates u never know what you'll get you might get a.....scream.

I for one simply make random sh*t that "looks good", compile and see if
it's "worthy". If it is, I simply try to figure out what the thing I
just made could be and, once i'm decided, I add stuff to it. :biggrin:

SuperCobra said:
How do you guys come up with ideas for a map? I cant seem to think of anything and I just wanted to know how you guys come up with your ideas and your levels.

Thanks

adopts Orph tone :wink:

I search the forum using the little box at the bottom of the page...and read all the other identical threads :biggrin:

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You Got To Get Through What You've Got To Go Through To Get What You Want But You Got To Know What You Want To Get Through What You Got To Go Through

There are about dozens of threads with the exact same topic (and maybe even the same title). Perhaps this should go under the Half-Life 2 editing forum.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

The greatest inspiration for CS mapping is the spy movie/peyote combo.

I too make a room with lots of detail (I call it the main room) I then link up a few other rooms and outdoors with few details and thats it. A finished map...Takes a while though, took me 3 months just to finish de_boshi.

I get out a pen and paper and doodle until it stops looking like crap. :smile:

Until Later...

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

I generally listen to video game music -- no visual game, just the music. I listen to it, and see what kind of level scene appears in my head...

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Breaking the laws of mapping since 2003 and doing a damn fine job at it

if you wsant inspiring game music, listen to machinae supremacy, its a
mix between game music and heavy metal :biggrin: they gave me a kickass idea
with flagcarrier :biggrin:

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I need a new sig

I listen to music when I map as it helps me concentrate. The computer is in the living room and someone is usually watching TV.

When your trying to come up with a new map you need to find something
that fits your style. People enjoy making enviroments that they would
like to visit. Mapping is an art and gives you the ability to create
your own world to walk around in. People enjoy creating a varying
amount of things whether it be an Italian village, gloomy factory, a
research station on mars, etc. Think of what you enjoy and imagian a
place that you'd like to go to. Then make it. Maps can be based on a
real place or imaginary. They don't have to be filled with NPCs and
enemies. They can be quiet and peaceful. Or they can have explosions
and chaos everywhere. Most of the time it's good to have both.

I find the highest peak around.. climb it, eat as much peyote as I can handle. Then, I sit back and let the spirits of level design take me aflight, on pillows of fluffy vertices, through the twisted spiral wireframes of the global imagination, where I then pluck a blossoming, fresh, idea straight from the tree of creativity...then cradle it safely in my digitized arms, as I float back down to the cold hard world of keyboards, belt-loops, and tax forms.

I find the highest peak around.. climb it, eat as much peyote as
I can handle. Then, I sit back and let the spirits of level design take
me aflight, on pillows of fluffy vertices, through the twisted spiral
wireframes of the global imagination, where I then pluck a blossoming,
fresh, idea straight from the tree of creativity...then cradle it
safely in my digitized arms, as I float back down to the cold hard
world of keyboards, belt-loops, and tax forms.

Sounds like someone's been eating too many shrooms.

I take some cocaine and when I'm "sky high", all sorts of weird thoughts come into my mind....

just a joke, don't take it seriously :-P

Anyway, uh, I look at pictures of reality or other maps or stuff and make things after those...

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HL2 tutorials 'n' stuff: http://madedog.pri.ee
217.159.236.34:27050 - CSS Server - Clean | koffer.ee

Spartan said:
When your trying to come up with a new map you need to find something that fits your style. People enjoy making enviroments that they would like to visit. Mapping is an art and gives you the ability to create your own world to walk around in. People enjoy creating a varying amount of things whether it be an Italian village, gloomy factory, a research station on mars, etc. Think of what you enjoy and imagian a place that you'd like to go to. Then make it. Maps can be based on a real place or imaginary. They don't have to be filled with NPCs and enemies. They can be quiet and peaceful. Or they can have explosions and chaos everywhere. Most of the time it's good to have both.

i think this is indeed the essence.

once you have defined your style, the next step is to have some great architecture in mind, but then integrate it with good-gameplay-layout (which is the most difficult part). Then comes texturing. The next step is to create lighting that makes the architecture stand out and create atmosphere (which is the most frustrating part cause you have to trial and error in game. Thank god they improved this in HL2). The final step is to spice things up here and there and basicly work out all the little things that you dismissed during the previous steps.

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These words are my diaries screaming out loud

Heck I listen to music, I spose mapping is a way to create a magical place you wish existed or perhaps you wish you lived in. I remember a Zelda level which made me wan't to make levels like that. Has been a fantasy all my life to make a game or a level. Why my dream is coming true and thousands of people are able to watch my map in play soon.

Theres 2 main ways- building your idea, or stumbling across it.

First method involves choosing a direction and developing it till its done.
Other method is self explanitory :razz:

One thing which may intruige you music map creators, you can actually "decompile" music to its musical notation and feeling, and translate it into architecture. Takes a while, but it has been done (apparantly). Just one of many wierd facts I find out.

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-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-