Daz is a mapper, and a pretty darn good one by the looks of it. In this video he takes us through several iterations of a map he didnt finish explaining the lineage of each section, why he trashed some of it, things he's not happy with etc...
Its a really interesting watch if you have an hour to spare.
Recommended watching!!
5 comments:
I really liked this video. I hope there will be more single player analysis videos from him. It's extra nice when the level designer himself brings up his work, because he has so much more to the story. With all the iterations of the map and his thought process.
I just now stumbled upon your blog after listening to Phillip's interview with you. Great one btw. I love reading level design theory and analysis. Tutorials doesn't interest me that much, unless it's something unique.
I have a lot of catching up to do, reading through your previous posts and I look forward reading your new upcoming stuff.
Hi David
Thanks for your comments, glad you're enjoying the blog.
Darren has posted several more videos on his YouTube channel that specifically look at Level Design. It's impressive the amount of content he's generated over the past few weeks alone.
I recommend you subscribe to this blog as I can update infrequently at times and it may be better to get an e-mail alert rather than checking back here regularly.
Do you map? Care to share some of your dev work?
Alrighty. Bookmarked and subscribed, check! Hihi!
I am following Darren on YouTube, watching his videos at the moment. Looks like he just started and the videos are getting better and better for each new.
Do you know any other interesting hl2 dev-blogs, single player related? It could be anything really as long as it's level design and single player. :)
I do a lot of level design. Sadly I never get around to release the stuff. But since a couple of months back I am determined to finish my single player mod called Spherical Nightmares. I started working on it in 2008, so it has been on and off since then.. Will be my first release for Half-Life 2 and Source engine.
I have a portfolio here: http://davidlundvall.se/
Spherical Nightmares can also be found on Moddb.com, but I haven't updated in a really long time, so there is nothing awesome to see there. I will get back updating with news and stuff when Spherical Nightmares is in playtesting.
For general game theory you can't beat some of the articles over at Gamsutra.com in my opinion.
I think you have to look beyond the engine and even the FPS medium and focus on what is fun to play first before anything else.
HL2 offers so many different mechanics to play with which is the reason I choose to map with it. I can't think of any other game in the last ten years that allows as much flexibility with physics, puzzles and action.
Looking at your site, I'm astonished that you've never released anything. The quality finish of the maps shows you've definately got the talent.. why do you think you've never released a map?
Yepp, Gamasutra.com is a great resource for interesting articles.
I agree about the Source engine and Half-Life 2. There is very little limit gameplay-wise. It makes it interesting and there is always the possibilty to create fresh new stuff aswell as doing something regular and true to the Hafl-Life univers for the die-hard fans. That's why I always came back doing material for Half-Life 2. It's a game I enjoy playing and that makes it fun to create levels/mods.
I would love to have the answer why I haven't released anything, yet.. Hmmmmmm. *walks away thinking*
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