ThinkingWithPortals Mapping Contest - January 2008
Aperture Laboratories/Test Chamber Design Theme

The Rules

1.) All posts except contest entires, screenshots of contest maps, or questions about rules will be trashed. Please keep chat out of this thread!
2.) Map must be new for this content, nothing old or already posted.
3.) Contest ends February 3rd at Midnight (EST). Update! Contest now ends February 10th at Midnight (EST)!
4.) Winner will get their map posted on the front page, custom title priviledges for life, and a $50 gift card to NewEgg.com!
5.) Upload your map at anytime and post a download link (only in this thread, other places will not count) when ever it is finished. You don't have to wait for the last day to upload/release your map.
6.) Winners will be picked via a 7 day Poll.
7.) Enter as many times as you like.

Update! It has been brought to my attention that NewEgg.com does not ship internationally. In the instance where someone outside of the US wins the contest, the prize will instead be a $50 gift card to TigerDirect.com.

The Requirements

1.) Maps will be judged on visual appeal, attention to detail, and overall aesthetics. The map must follow general Aperture Laboratories design, lighting, and texture useage. Hazard signs, elevator at beginning and end, and everything else that makes us love Aperture. Look at the example SDK map or play through Portal for ideas and inspiration!
2.) (Optional) Useage of GLaDOS voices.
3.) (Optional) BTS area.
4.) (Optional) GLaDOS battle, or another type of "boss fight".
5.) When you submit your map, name the zip/rar file "contest0108_<your name>_<map name>".
6.) Maps must have a correct Bonus Map Script files in place. Maps without this will be disqualified. Read this thread if you're not sure how to set it up.

If you have questions about the Rules and Requirements, please post! The rules for this month's contest are intentionally left vague, so feel free to go crazy. Make us feel like we're back at Aperture.

If we get some more donations, the prize might go up!

Good luck!

I know its only a very remote possibility that I might will (probably not ) but NewEgg.com doesn't ship to Australia (or anywhere outside of America).



Is it important that there be an elevator at the beginning and end? I want to start and finish my map differently, but still have the portal look in between.

Oh really they don't? I did not know that. In the case someone outside of the US wins the contest, I'll get the gift card for Amazon or Tiger Direct or another similar site.

EDIT Updated first post.

As for the elevator, it's not a requirement, but it is sort of "standard practice" for a Test Chamber. If you think you can pull off a good Aperture map without one, go for it.

Is there a limit to how long the map can be, and/or if it can contain multiple .bsp maps?

For example, I'm thinking about doing three very simple test chambers, each teaching a "new" map element in its simplest form, followed by a final, longer test chamber, that will test these elements in more difficult scenarios.

Go for it.

custom models and textures?

If they are of the same style as the original of course.

oh and what's a BTS?

Custom models and textures are of course always welcome.

BTS means "behind the scenes", as in the areas in the game where you went into the walls into the maintaince areas, or the entire second half of the game after Chamber 19.

Let's get some screenshots in the hizzy! Show us your work.

This map follows a reasonably standard portal map progression with (hopefully) a much harder than standard difficulty for all those "difficulty-whores" out there.

This particular screen represents near-final geometry of my personal favorite puzzle with very early (read: unfinished) lighting: Click to view.

I'll never be done in time, my map is taking years to do =/

Will there be a feb contest?

Yes, but as Hober said, the theme varies. And even if your map could still apply, your current work would be not allowed for that contest, according to what I've seen in related topics before. Apparently this contest is more geared to whomever can devote the most time to a map in a month, or something. This doesnt fit my style at all, so I just watch (I wont submit half-done maps, and since I have a life outside of Portal, the fact I need 2 months to do what some can do in a month is somehow construed as giving me an "unfair advantage" since I need more time).

If you really want to enter, take the hint. . .if you are running out of time, you are probably making the map too long, or trying to make it "too perfect". Cut back somehow; simply get it working and post it asis. If the contest timeframe is a month, then immersive, multi-puzzle quality maps arent their primary focus. At least that way you are in the race, and not sitting on the sidelines.

http://forums.thinkingwithportals.com/d ... ile_id=153
My map finished and ready to be judged.

I couldn`t get the stats at the end working in the elevator so i just made it disconnect sorry if it`s against the rules but the elvator was taking to much time and i will have had no time to do map.

It only takes about 2 - 3 weeks to make a good enough portal map. If complaing because you don`t have any time then don`t do it stop complaining when you could be making the map.

limagic, please re-upload your map to our download database, so that users can rate it and leave feedback.

As for everybody else, i'm sorry this message has gotten muddled, so I'll say it again. Entering a map contest is only one of the ways to garner recognition. The idea is to stimulate creativity by providing a starting point (the theme) and motivation (the deadline). Some people, myself included, work loads better when there's a fixed date that something has to be done by, rather than "whenever I finish it."

But enough about me. The contests are what they are, but TWP is so much more. If you take three months to polish your map so that you could redirect military-grade lasers, it will be appreciated. The contest provides one method of development, but you are by all means free to choose your own path.



Please, don't. There's plenty of half-assed and half-baked custom material out there. That is not the objective of the contests. We would rather the contests lie fallow and have a steady stream of high-quality non-entering maps than have to choose between pieces of crap to award the contest prize to.

As a final thought, there's a reason msleeper hasn't entered any of the contests run here: he's been working on his own map for many months, and is waiting for it to be a finished product to release it.

We can implement new ideas, as long as they fit within the portal universe and fit in asthetically, correct?

Too much chat going on in this topic, please see the OP. Thanks.



Yup, go for it!