Hey mates, I figured it would be practical having a blog for the Level Design team, seeing as how every other design area is represented here already. With moving all the maps to the Orange Box sdk, every single prop must be compiled, something I have complete sympathy for our more model-minded like KM, Saiz and Tecks. It also makes me incredibly glad to be model-compiling retarded, because that is a huge job, not only doing the actual compiling, but that prop organization as well.
The maps we have completely converted and heavily tested so far are Facility and Complex, but that's not to say the other maps won't be converted soon. It all depends on how fast the props are organized and recompiled and ho quickly the dev team can respond to QA regarding our bugs. We are gong through each map and the testers are vetting them thoroughly to ensure the quality of what we make. There are alot on the menu, such as classic maps, that don't require many, if any props, however each map will require equal testing to ensure optimum buglessness. I made that awesome word up.
I'm not sure what to say as far as tips for mapping, there are a thousand more loquacious resources for mapping knowledge, such as interlopers.net, half-wit2.com and halflifestorm.com. Personally, I'm still working on Temple (while maintaining complex, caves and complex classic), and it's one of the hardest levels I've had to do in my entire life. Just the many cultural backgrounds I could draw from are overwhelming enough, not to mention the abundance of floral and geographical references. For most of the design, I've stuck to a Mayan aesthetic, with alot of details boosted off of real life Mayan temples in Central America, and I just hope to capture and properly represent the architectural beauty of the civilization. Honestly, I can't wait to be done with the immensity of this crazy thing and move on to the next bit.
There's not much I can give you seeing as how our department isn't as dynamic as Art or Programming, but we're chugging along on our little bits of responsibility. Because of the influx of activity due to props needing to be recompiled and maps needing a thorough bug testing, I can't make any promises on what the first release with our Orange Box code base will hold. Sure there maybe easy conversions such as the classic maps which had one or two props, if at all, bu tthe majority of our work is making sure the modern versions of the map work and look as best they can.
I can tell you however, that we're working with some of the most talented people I've met in my entire life, and I wouldn't want to be doing anything other than working on this remake of a game we all hold near and dear. Sharp and Spork have been kicking ass on their projects, and though we've shown you Runway and how awesome it looks, I can't wait for Silo to get to the point where we can present it to the public as well. These guys are incredibly promising, and I think they're a strong representation of the quality and commitment our team wants to continue to exude.
If you have any questions, mapping or otherwise, I'll do my best to try and answer them
