#1 2017-03-05 15:46:17

mickmaus
Member

Block, Another rando's first map

Hiya, firsttime poster and quake map maker. I'd say this took me about seven hours to make, including reworking broken stuff and fixing leaks (egads).

This is a very short map, just trying to learn the basics of layout / triggers and have a couple different fights. There's two extremely obvious secrets.

Was going for a base->hidden city kind of theme, though you can tell I got lazy with the textures in the end.

Download block.bsp

http://i.imgur.com/OWHXa1e.png width=600
http://i.imgur.com/TWVNbzt.png width=600

#2 2017-03-05 17:05:45

Icantthinkofanickname
Moderator

Re: Block, Another rando's first map

Hi mickmaus!

This is pretty nice for a first map -- especially a seven-hour map (essentially a speedmap)! It's no masterpiece, but quite a few experienced mappers would struggle to make something this coherent in so little time. Well done!

Some feedback, in case you're interested:


The good

It's a fully functional map! All triggers seem to work properly, it's sealed, layout and progression make sense, and it's decently balanced. Given that your aim was to learn all the basics of mapping, I'd say this is a resounding success.

The style is pretty original, too. And it's not just a bunch of square rooms and boxy brushes -- there are some nice curved/angled shapes and broken bits.


The somewhat less good

Skill settings have not been implemented, as far as I can tell.

The secrets are a little unrewarding, as you have pointed out. But hey -- there are secrets, and that's good!


The less-than-pretty

Well, to be brutally honest, it's not the best-looking map I've seen (though it's certainly not the worst, either!).

Texture choice comes across as a bit random and chaotic, and some textures could be better aligned (e.g. base textures featuring lights and tech panels tend to look better when the brushwork follows the shape suggested by the texture, and plenty of textures look better when they're not cut off mid-pattern. But I've seen far worse texturing; again, for a first map and for a speedmap, this is really decent.

(To a lesser extent, the same could be said for the brushwork, but here I don't want to be too critical -- especially seeing that your brushwork is more than just a bunch of boxes, and the map is properly sealed.)

The lighting is also not bad, but could be better. Contrast and shadows are good, but this has a little too much of both. I don't know which light tool you are using, but tyrutils-ericw has a load of features to play around with so as to avoid the kind of pitch black swaths one sees in this map. But that does require practice.

-------------------------

In short: really nice debut. Please keep mapping! Given that this is where you're starting from, I can't wait to see what you end up making once you're more experienced.

Also, you might want to consider posting this over at func_msgboard, in the Screenshots & Betas thread. There are lots of experienced mappers over there who can give some very sensible and valuable feedback.

#3 2017-03-05 22:34:18

mickmaus
Member

Re: Block, Another rando's first map

Thanks for the kind words! Glad you think my issues are where I also think my issues are :)

Just realized also my contrast and brightness settings in spasm are way off, that is I'm working at close to max brightness. Explains partly why my maps are so dark.

#4 2018-01-21 11:24:23

Spirit
Administrator

Re: Block, Another rando's first map

Hey, if you want to have this added to https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/ please see https://www.quaddicted.com/help/how_to_ … ase_a_file

Otherwise this is just considered a test release. ;)

It looks very nice!

#5 2018-06-05 19:59:44

Rhoq
Member

Re: Block, Another rando's first map

Nice! Just played through. Got several nice transitions packed into such a short map. Keep at it!

#6 2018-06-06 01:30:31

JMP
Member

Re: Block, Another rando's first map

For a tiny first-time map, this is quite good. The transition from the base to the hidden city felt natural. After playing through it a couple times and getting used to the layout, I was able to do a speedrun in 36 seconds, but playing it in a more leisurely manner and going for full kills was fun too.

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