How do you keep it up?

I like to map. I enjoy it, think of it as a hobby. I usually do a
little every day. Yet I have never, ever released anything. The reason/
I never finish them. I just lose interest, get a new idea and run with
it. So I ask you all, how do you manage to keep working on a map? How
do you keep your interest in it? The closest I ever got to a release
was spaceraid, which stopped, for all intents and purposes, due to
optimization problems (read: I didn't know about nodraw at the time!)
and plain lack of interest. I can never bring myself to finish off what
I've started, and I wish I could. So how do you do it?

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www.filefence.com. Free vmf hosting!

I do'nt :biggrin:

My answer: I dont. Im in the same situation as you bud. Or
at least, I used to be. With Half Life 1 mapping, I'd start many
maps, but hardly release any. Now with Half-Life 2 out, I havent
dwelled too much in that area, and feel left behind in the dust.
So I've lost just about all motivation to continue.

School also has me quite busy too so that could well be another reason.

I make cool screenshots, then start something else :biggrin: Didn't USED to
have that problem so much with HL1 where I released a lot of maps, but
I do now. I'm a sucker for making something pretty without thinking of
where I'm taking the map, so I get one or two lovely rooms but little
more. Hopefully I'll break this trend sooner rather than later.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Viagra.

But seriously, I dont. I just dont have time to map with uni and all. Christmas break is coming, I'll probably get back into it and work on my huge project that wont be done for a while...

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

I don't really have that problem; before I start on anything I have a long think about what I want to do. I don't start on new levels 'spur of the moment' thinking it'd be cool, or whatever. Sure, some levels don't come to fruition, but about 75% of everything I start gets finished. So far I've released 11 levels for HL2 (though some of those are quick variations for a mod - 6 unique levels in total).

I used to have this problem a lot with HL mapping, delving into the
details and loosing myself in the layout. Now, with HL2 mapping, I was
inspired by the way Valve created their maps, first doing an ugly and
rough version for playtesting and item & monster placement, then
creating content once it worked well. I believe it's only a necessary
method now that game content takes so much longer to create.

So, now that I take this approach, my levels have much more chance of
completion. I'm good at detailing and after a rough version has been
playtested and proven to be fun, the real fun part for me starts... :smile:

I'd say, it's pinpointing the problems in your workflow and eliminating
them. Reading about how other mappers do their thing can be helpfull
then.

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

We need the oppisit of a fluffer here.. someone that can take your almost finished map and then well finish it.

i don't seem to have that problem, i've finished 100% of the maps i started. I think it's because i have an urge to know that people can play them, hear their reactions. I start with a concept of style/theme, and after one room i think out gameflow, and then make the other rooms.

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These words are my diaries screaming out loud

We need the oppisit of a fluffer here.. someone that can take your almost finished map and then well finish it.

Opposite? Of a fluffer? What the heck are you smoking?

I finish +- 1\20 maps :razz:

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I would love to change the world, But they would'nt give me the source code.

I often work on a project only to abandon it in favor of another and
later cancel it too before returning to the original one and so on.

all of the input/output shenanigans put me off mapping for sp (me being a dullard where they're concerned), and my tolerance for playing hl2dm has slipped to almost zero. so for a while, most of my energies went into modeling, but now i'm swinging back towards mapping again. the dumbed down entities, the lovely models, and the wide range of useful textures in dod:s, are perfect for me to have fun with.

whether i'll finish any maps is another question though, so we'll just need to wait and see how it goes.

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i eat paint

Ive only really finished about a couple maps.

I havent mapped in like a month. Im waiting for that damn computer ... :smile:

and if anyones wondering, im ordering soon, im looking around for the best prices on my items.

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

Ill leave a project for a long time, then come back to it and keep hacking away at it till its done.

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Posting And You

Sometimes if I get stuck on a project, I just restart with the same idea. The "do-over" tends to be better than the last one. :smile:

Unfortunately this is the reason why I have not released a map for CS:S yet :-/

I've never finished a map for anything, because I just lose interest in one particular idea and move on to another. The only way I'm likely to finish a map would be to take all my unfinished maps and stick them together in one gigantic multi-themed map.

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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.

I work to completion in most of the maps I start. When I get an idea, I sketch out the general layout of the map. Then I start working in a frenzy, sometimes non-stop for the entire day. I tend to build one area and texture it, then compile to make sure I have the right ambiance and the feel that I envisioned. Checking the scale is another important thing at this early stage.

Then I proceed and work on one area at a time, compiling frequently. I keep up the frenzied pace until the map is almost complete, then I put the map to playtesting. I have to work fast, otherwise I lose interest. Most of the time, I try to finish 90% of the map in less than one month.

A good map takes me many months to complete. The Justice map took me more than three months to finish, and it took another four months to tweak the gameplay.

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

I think the secret is to start it when it interests you & if it
shows promise. finish it even if you really cant be bothered to.

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My Pit

So, just forcing yourself to finish something...

I guess it's a piece of self-discipline you have to master. Can't say that that's unimportant indeed.

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

I force myself, thats how I keep going.

Instead of waiting until the good ideas get to you, you try to force
them forward by sitting with hammer, or with a pen and paper, and try
to figure something out. Dont leave the computer/desk before you have
made something, it doesnt need to be much, just something.

Forcing yourself to work like 10-30 minutes a day, not more, is a good way I think.

You might have lots of great ideas that you didnt have time to make during those 30 minutes, but you can continue the next day.

Working this way makes the progress much more smooth and you always
feel that you make progress, which is a very important thing.

One other thing that I have realized is that I in the past didnt alow my projects to take the time they needed to get finished.

I kinda felt that nobody would care about my project if it lasted more
than two months or so, however I now think this statement is wrong.

First of all, thats not true, Dm_valley took about 6 months to complete
and I got lots of great feedback and comments from lots of people
during that period. I even was asked to join two different MODs because
of it.

Secondly I make my maps because I think its fun, not because I want to get famous or anything like that.

Besides, in the long run, does it really matter if the map takes four months or half a year to complete?

yey.I make my maps for fun,but when I get a really confusing
error,it completely hults my progress until I can get it sorted out.I
also don't have an internet connection in my bedroom so I have to go
downstairs to find out about problems.

Yes, many of my old projects was tossed in the wastebucket because of
theese strange errors that occoured a bit too often than I would have
liked during those rearly days.

However after some time working with leveldesign, you learn what you
can do, and what you can't and how to work around theese problems.

It's just a matter of experience, knowledge and creativity.

Yeah, true. After 5 years, I hardly ever encounter a problem that takes more than a day to solve.

Having an internet connection helps a lot there, though, otherwise it
would've costed me much more time to learn what I know now.

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

I guess it's a piece of self-discipline you have to master

Perhaps it's got something to do with maturity. Just plain pushing on with sheer determination is a skill I had to master through the years of medical school. Otherwise, I would've flunked out of medicine a long time ago.

Yes, sometimes I didn't feel like mapping during a project, but I knew I had to push myself to do it. It can get a bit masochistic sometimes.

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

Music really helps the process of just sitting in front of 4 black squares.

Gets your mojo working, as they say.

Interesting. I never start mapping until I have virtually the entire map layout in my head (or on paper).

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

Interesting. I never start mapping until I have virtually the entire map layout in my head (or on paper).

That level of thinking ahead and thoroughness is why you are a doctor and I'm a borderline vagrant. :biggrin:

Or it just shows how sick I am--in the department of obsessive-compulsiveness.

Most of you don't know that all the objects on my desk are lined up,
with edges either parallel or perpendicular to each other (well, an
occasional 45 degrees is okay, but it has to be exactly 45 degrees).

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

Do you slap a t-square and to it to check?

Also, satch ... why only be obsesive about one plane? Do you check with a leveler too to make sure it's exactly at 0? from the ground? :smile:

Being a little obsesive compulsive isn't a bad thing as long as you're not too anal about it. Lashing out at someone for moving something on your desk, for example, would be a bit extreme. But being annoying by awkward and ugly angles is pretty normal ... now feeling an uncontrolable need to do something about it is something else entirely.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

You're no where near as bad as my roommate last year. He's a
great guy and my best friend, but he's seriously OCD. When he was
out we would do something small like take one of his books on his
bookshelf and turn it around. He'd walk in and we'd say hi, and
he'd say hi, and then within five seconds he'd be like... "hey who
touched my books?"

His perception was uncanny.

I never yell at other people when they accidentally (or jokingly) move
my things. I just return them to their original position.
And my OCD is not serious enough to hinder me in my daily work. I
believe it keeps me from misplacing anything. I hardly ever lose
things as a result.

And my perception is even more shocking. If my wife cleaned the
apartment and moved my printer by a fraction of an inch, I would be
able to sense it immediately when I get back from work. If
someone had opened my drawer, I would know too (because when the drawer
shuts, the objects in the drawer would have shifted).

The only way to foil my detection is to have someone who is equally OCD--someone who is just as sick or sicker than myself.

Such person would be scary.

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