The Community Project Thread

msleeper · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:56 pm Post subject: The Community Project Thread

ThinkingWithPortals.com Community Project

What The Project Is
This is an attempt to allow the members of ThinkingWithPortals and Portal/Source mappers alike to work together on a project to develop a large community map project. The final product will be a series of Test Chambers and a (loose) storyline tying them together.

How Do I Get Involved
If you'd like to submit a map for the Community Project, then great! This project will only get off the ground if people are willing to submit to it. All you need to do to be involved is to make a single test chamber (see below), and provide the BSP and the VMF to myself or one of the other Global Moderators here.

Keep in mind that the VMF is required for the inclusion of your map into the project. The map source are not going to be made publicly available, however myself and other staff do need the map source so that we can properly combine and/or alter maps in necessary ways to fit together in the entire project's atmosphere. If this is a problem then, sorry, there's not much we are willing to do about this.

What's In It For Me?
Well that's a terrible attitude, isn't it! We are hoping to attract the attention of the Source community as a whole to showcase what the talented Portal mappers are able to do. We'd also like to try and contact Valve for inclusion as some sort of official map pack - but we're not holding our breath for that.

Quality Standard and Design Rules

1.) The maps MUST begin in a test elevator, have a Test Number sign, and end with fizzler and another test elevator. Do not worry about the number on the Test Sign as that will be determined as the map order is setup and may change at a given point. This is the only hard-and-fast rule - not abiding by it may make your map be altered, or not included at all!
2.) Visual detail is important! Be sure that you have proper lighting, texture alignment, and other visual issues fixed before submitting. Again, we may fix small problems for you but if your map is totally unaligned you can expect it not to be included!
3.) Behind The Scenes areas are great and we MAY include a section like that, but for now don't plan on making one. Short BTS areas (such as in Chamber 16 and 17) are fine, but don't go overboard and have your entire map take place BTS.

Project Map Layout and Contributors
Forthcoming!

Bulska · Test Supervisor Joined: 16 Nov 2007 Posts: 174

My map's almost done.

Medium-Long length test chamber, large variaty of game difficulty and regular graphics. Free to be used and altered in whatever means as long as anything based off this map will be used for the Thinking With Portals Community Map Pack.

What excactly do I need to do with the map when it's all finished?

msleeper · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 7:10 pm Post subject:

Send me a PM with the BSP and/or the VMF. The BSP is only required so I don't have to compile it and playtest it to see if there are any obvious visual or gameplay glitches.

Bulska · Test Supervisor Joined: 16 Nov 2007 Posts: 174

Here's 3 screenshots.

My map's chambers change a bit as you progress, providing a new puzzle in the same room. I'm going to change some minor things and then it's all ready to be sent Very Happy

http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/5594/051ah5.png
http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/9923/054np5.png
http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/7838/058nb5.png

Remmiz · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:18 pm Post subject:

msleeper · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 2:19 pm Post subject:

Wow that is hot ass. We need more content like this.

bizob · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:02 pm Post subject:

Here's a few screenies of what I've been working on. Still have some play testing and debugging to do and I'd like to add at least one more puzzle to it. I'm pretty much focusing on the high energy pellet. First puzzle is easy but introduces the concept (I hope) that the rest of the level will use, which is basically using the portals and some timing to solve puzzles.