The stunning work of Magnar Jennssen is legendary in the HL2 custom map community. His Mission Improbable Parts 1 and 2 showed what an individual mapper can achieve with enough experience and inspiration.
In the linked article over at World Of Level Design he talks us through his mapping process in relation to his Whoopservatory map (a favourite of mine just purely for the wonderful silhouette of the observatory with the crows against the nights sky... sigh...)
Hope this is helpful...
Here's the link.
4 comments:
great article from magnar jenssen. his maps are impressive. even though he states in the planetphillip-interview, that it takes him to long to produce a map, i feel that it's a pretty fast development cycle he has. his maps, are among the very few single player maps, that i enjoy replaying.
an interesting read. he makes some great points, i especially like one of the last sentences, talking about tired-eyes syndrome - "A player will most likely only see the scenario once, whereas you've seen it 100+ times.."
Yes it's very true that he has a great eye for the HL2 universe. He knows what looks and feels right and keeps to that very well. It really helps to sell his work. I also like the fact that he's not afraid to throw in some new game mechanics into his maps. Often I see mods that simply re-use the mechanics seen in the official HL2 game and episodes. A good example is the "find the wheel/handle thing, attach it to the door and then raise the door" seen in episode 1 or the find the cog puzzle in episode 2. I've seen these puzzles about 5 times replicated in other mods.
Yepp, I agree, even though I can of like the HL2 puzzles. Hehe. When I see a certain item I kind of know what to look for, and if done smart, there is an addition to the already known puzzle. But if its exactly the same, its kind of "meh".
I am looking forward to see how mission improbable - part 3, plays. And also looking at the mod as a whole piece. Gameplay-wise I love it. I can feel that it's a bit too random during times. Especially part 2; gas station roof and the head crab cannister flight. Hehe.
It's all very interesting, so gameplay-wise I am not worried for the last part and the whole mod, but story and how you progress is kind of too weird.
But I might be wrong.. :)
Hi Aazell, interesting blog you have going on here, I really like the analytical approach of yours. Is there any way we could meet up in Skype (iqewarts) and have a little text-based chat? I'd like to talk about an idea with you. Please respond to me directly via Skype or e-mail (kjellbunjes@gmail.com)
Best wishes,
Kjell
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