Why are you mapping?

(BXpress) #1

hiho folks,
this is another thread of our “useless-threads” edition;)
this time i want to know, “Why are YOU mapping?”
means, when did you start, at what game, and simply why :wink:
ok, first its my turn:

well i started when RtCW came out in Germany.
i saw how some guy was mapping with the GTK on TV, he explained how to install it and how to start! ( the shows name is Giga Games www.giga.de )
When i saw it i just thought “wow, finally i can create my own worlds, al the stuff i have ever dreamed of!” …so i got Internet and downloaded the GTK.
so my long journey begun… i was just learning with RtCW and finally released maps for JK2 (8 maps).
then i turned to UT2003, made 2 stupid maps …then i got back to JK2, then ET and now i make maps for Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory!
so, this is my Story :wink:
all in one: 2 Years of mapping!

(Drakir) #2

Why i am mapping:
I made my first map with DCK (Doom Construction Kit by Ben Morrison that later made Worldcraft)

This map was for Doom, i mostly made maps so that i could see if my friends could manage to get through them.

Then Duke3D came and i was really hooked to that awsome game, we could play that game at local house-lans for hours and having a blast. WHen we got tired of the maps that where there we took a break for an half.hour and during that time i made a new battlearena. Keeping the game up for another hour.

Then Quake came and with the bot support that came later it was great and i made a few smaller bot-arena maps that i used to play local games at, since i only had a 486@100mhz with a pisspoor graphics card at that time i had to play with a screen size of abuot 8x6cm, i had to be really close to the screen to see anything at all. Then came Team Fortress an i was so hooked i did nothing else than play.

Then Half-Life, and TFC…and then QuakeIII and further more RTCW and now ET.

Well it has been a long time and i still love every moment of mapping. I mainly map for my own pleasure of being able to run around in an environment that i have created. That really pleases me.

(MadMaximus) #3

yeah, i made a map for fun with dck, it’s still out there on the net somewhere… and that was it… made a ctf map for q3, but never finished it because i made so many errors it was laughable… not shure why i started to make a map for et… just to see if i can do it i guess… just to have more enjoyable maps for a real good game is the real purpose.

at least i hope…
:smiley:

EDIT: oh… and detail… DETAIL… do more detailed maps make it more playable? probably not… but i have seen a few community maps that are basicly rooms that are boxes and an entrance to connect them… it was probably this that made me want to make a map… will someone be impressed or even notice that where i made metal meet metal have little tiny boltheads? probably not… but some people will notice… like i noticed them in the sd maps, and its the little things like window/door trim and rocks and mounds of snow/dirt that really make a decent map stand out…

least… i think so anyways…

(ChumChum) #4

I’m in it for the chicks

(redfella) #5

heh Chum your crazy. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I basically do it for myself. When I first started my first map for RTCW I really wanted to make the coolest map ever for the community and get well-known yadda yadda… But, that was a gay idea because everyone knows that when you shoot for something like that you just end up making pisspoor crap that no one cares about.

So after awhile I was able to figure out that with that attitude I wasn’t going to get anywhere. So I started mapping just for myself basically. Now this process wasn’t anything that I really planned or said “ok now I am going to map for me”… It was a gradual transformation of one train of thought to the next that developed over several months.

Anyways, my point being that I love to map now. No longer do I have to worry about everything being perfect… I can pick something and just roll with it. And if someone doesn’t like something about it afterward, it’s no big deal to me now. I like it this way. :slight_smile:

Oh, and I’d love to do it “full-time” too… :wink:

(Moonkey) #6

I got started on dck too. Then after playing wolf for a while I saw my brother messing around with radiant, so I gave it a go. Learnt the basics of it, but gave it up after a while. Then I heard a clanmate of mine was mapping, so I started up again and learnt more about it. Just did it cause it seemed like fun… didn’t really expect anyone to play my maps but when I gave out my first complete map to some friends they liked it, so I kept going and eventually made Frostbite which ended up pretty popular :banana:

(sock) #7

I map for money, I’m just a brushwork whore! :wink:

Sock
:moo:

(rgoer) #8

I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s jealous of your gig, Sock ;^)

By the way, how are things going with the new SD project? Is there anything you can share about what you’re doing? Any tips you can give the masses about what to do before you even think about the prospect of mapping for a D3-engine game?

(sock) #9

I would love to talk about D3 engine stuff but its not possible atm. Once the game has been released by ID then it will a different case. The same goes for all current SD projects. Its like being in the Secret Service, except we dont have a batcave installed yet … :wink:

Sock
:moo:

(Shallow) #10

Worst thing about games industry jobs, you can never properly tell people what cool stuff you’re doing :moo:

(Ifurita) #11

Just wanted to learn something new

(blushing_bride) #12

“The work of art provides a perfect example of that universal characteristic of human existence - the never ending process of building a world” (Hans Georg Gadamer ‘Art and Imitation in the Relevance of the Beautiful and other essays’)

(Azazel) #13

Well, I’m very new to this sort of mapping. I feel the same as most people do about mapping…to see and play in something I’ve created. A big thing for myself as well, to see other peoples face as they play what I’ve created.
I started my mapping with Doom2. To this day, I still make Doom2 maps for the good Old fashion LANs. I played around with Quake2 mapping and a little with RA3, but found I had no time to actually create maps.

So, with a brain full of ideas, and a hunger to challenge myself…here I am!

(Erik-Ftn) #14

hehe…Had time to kill, checked fileplanet for any demo to play, found ET test. Thought it was really cool since I never played MP before, its such a lift from HL or CS SP and I will prob never ever again shoot zombies or aliens for any more then 1-2 hours before I lose interest. Played ET test a lot, got ET and played even more, got bored with original 6 maps and started looking for custom maps, browsed custom map sites and read some tuts… got into scripting and entities because I like functionality and used to program.

Basically I want my own custom FP editing tool -> I can make any first person real time application I want for any purpose.

Also I map and game where I used to watch TV or movies and is prob. not going back -> if there could be more thematic/ narrative or obstacle oriented maps even though it’s MP, I think it would be cool.

Also, I remember doing some mapping for Doom, but never seriously. And actually I would count writing my own textbased adventure on C64 as my first mapping. :slight_smile:

(HerrK) #15

I made my first map 1992 with the “Wolfenstein 3D Editor”…hehe! :smiley:
If you give me more time for learning mapping with the radiant,
my first map come out in 2-3 years :smiley: :bump:

(NdK) :wink:

(Big Bang Hank) #16

God only knows its a compulsion ive had for a while, but why i bother i dont know. I get what i think is a good idea, get half way through it and then think… thats crap and bin it…lmao

(G0-Gerbil) #17

Doom started it for me - deepsea all the way :slight_smile:
Then RTCW and now ET, a logical progression on those two.

I do it because I like it, simple as that. I usually set myself a mapping challenge then set out to try to achieve it.

But I think anyone who doesn’t secretly want their map to take the custom mapping scene by storm is lying to themselves :wink:

Getting paid for mapping? Ack - if that’s all you do I can’t imagine it pays very well, given the games industry as a whole pays craply.
I do find the experience is useful for creating my own games though, and it keeps me fresh for other ideas.

(hhhmmmmm) #18

Mapping is like smoking, you know your lookin forward to it after work ,like that after T cigarette :slight_smile:
I started out mapping my old work’s for sof2 for a bet ( mates said i wouldnt be able to do it, ) then moved on to RTCW, now to E.T also played with various editors for other engines, but i love radiant!!! except That CoD radiant , thats a nasty piece of work!! .

PS: anyone else noticed how you could be stood in work and suddenly you’ll notice a nice looking airvent, structure or window frames etc and then all you wanna do is go home and make it, or i’m i high :stuck_out_tongue:

(Moonkey) #19

Yeah, or in my case, the entire shop that I work in.
Just struck me one day that it had the perfect layout for the flag area in my next map :clap:

(sock) #20

I dont know anyone who has entered the games industry because of money. A couple of people I know (including myself) worked in IT as contractors. Most people do this job because they love computer games, certainly not the cash.

At this point this thread could so easily mutate into “You know you are mapping too much when you …”

Sock
:moo: