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Help me help you (Nov 27, 2005)

I've finally reached it. The point where I can think of nothing else to rant on about here. I'm out of ideas.

So, this is where you lot come in. If there's anything you want me to rant on about (keep it to game/level design) write it in the comments of this post and I'll get right onto it. Anything at all. That should get things back up to speed.

Note: any posts asking me to make Dust 3 will result in a prompt beating.

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user comments

Luke at 12:13 on Nov 27, 2005

You could do like an article each week exploring your favourite levels for different games and explaining the things you like, don't like and any changes you would make if you had made it.

Ian Mac at 16:21 on Nov 27, 2005

What map reveiws? custom maps of course.

uNsaiN at 16:33 on Nov 27, 2005

You should make a Cobble 2!
lol j/k

AlexW at 16:45 on Nov 27, 2005

Like the other two people above have posted, I think that it would be an interesting idea for you to review custom maps. Whether it's in a single player mod, a multiplayer map, etc.

It would kind of be like CliffyB's Ownage. =)

Additionally, I lately have had trouble thinking up of a general theme for my maps. My think tank has a hole in it... Some suggested to go outside and take pictures of my surrounding neighborhood, but there's nothing interesting around here. I browsed photo galleries for ideas, but found nothing that would translate well into the game world.

Where do you find inspiration, Dave?

T@T-2-MoNk3y at 18:26 on Nov 27, 2005

seeing as you called dust2, dust3 during it's development...

when you making dust4?

DvS at 20:42 on Nov 27, 2005

Basics of drawing a first layout on paper?

Rusty Le Cyborg at 21:30 on Nov 27, 2005

DaveJ - My question is...

How hard are you going to slap T@t-2-MoNk3y?

..and.. What would it take for you to make a couple of maps for the older engines. Especially CZ. Lots of money or maybe a challenge?

Cheers for now

Ian Mac at 22:35 on Nov 27, 2005

well... you love maps from fledgeling mappers, why not challange us? simple competitions for small mapping solutions.

Addicted to Morphine at 23:26 on Nov 27, 2005

Perhaps a rant about the deluge of aim type maps which look like they took 2 minutes to build and oftentimes aren't even correctly compiled (example: http://www.cstrike-planet.com/maps/902)

When someone asked "Why is this map full-bright? Did you forget to run VIS?" the site moderator replied with "a lot of mappers are using full bright now for outdoor-style maps."

Perhaps you'd like to squash that nasty trend?

Also: I don't want to sound like I'm advertising, but since I heard about Zombie Strike: Source from your "Now Playing" list I thought I'd turn you on to another game you may or may not have heard about. www.urbandead.com
It's all in the browser, only takes like 5 minutes a day to play, and in my opinion it's a fun distraction and worth sharing.

Addicted to Morphine at 01:06 on Nov 28, 2005

Ooh, I just had another idea.

Perhaps you could write up something about using over-used textures (ie. non-custom ones) in new and exciting ways. Perhaps you could do the same for props?

I mean... it just seems very hard to make a map stand out without access to custom props and materials.

smeerkat at 05:52 on Nov 28, 2005

More articles like "The Hill," where you discuss gameplay ramifications of various things you'd find in a map: a staircase, a bridge, a tunnel, etc.

cs_italy is my favourite map, I'd like to hear your thoughts on why it works so well.

mikey at 15:55 on Nov 28, 2005

*i agree with smeerkat, articles like that are great and are often very helpful.

*If were not allowed to ask about a dust3, how would u feel abut me asking for a sourcified sienna? (plz dont hurt me!)

*"well... you love maps from fledgeling mappers,
why not challange us? simple competitions for small mapping solutions." -
sounds like a fun idea :)

Ian Mac at 17:26 on Nov 28, 2005

Addicted to morphine -
Fearian
(http://www.urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=210349)
Ian Macure
(http://www.urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=218238)
I know this isnt the place... but...

UP THE SOUTH MALTON CONFEDERACY!

Dave at 18:23 on Nov 28, 2005

One of the things I was going to do (when I was planning this blog) was exactly what a few of you have suggested: looking at existing maps and seeing how they could be improved or made playable. So yeah, I'll look into that. As anyone who has ever got me to look at their map knows, I am pretty harsh...

Do you guys find things like "The Hill" useful?

VividHazE at 19:30 on Nov 28, 2005

Hey Dave,

I remember you saying you done some work using Blender to model for the Half Life. If you could do a few articles on the workflow, tools and techniques that could be used to harness Blender would be great, as I'm a big Blender fan and would love to use it instead of other 3D apps. :)

Addicted to Morphine at 20:33 on Nov 28, 2005

I personally really enjoyed reading "The Hill" article.

mikey at 21:20 on Nov 28, 2005

me too, more articles on gameplay and balancing would be great imo

uNsaiN at 21:34 on Nov 28, 2005

What #16 and #17 said.

RP at 02:31 on Nov 29, 2005

Make a source version of Casbah!

There is group of moders who're working on a TF game (called Fortress Forever) for the source engine, and I doubt they are planning on porting Casbah.
www.fortress-forever.com


Btw, Talking about casbah - why did you make Casbah they way it is?
It's very rare for a CTF map, to be none symmetrical - tbh, I can't think on any other CTF map that is not symmetrical.
The problem is (and I guess that you know it aswell), that since both teams are theoretically equal, and both have the same goals (capture the enemy flag), hence map needs to be equal.
I haven't played Casbah in ages (no offence :P), but I remmeber that one of the team had noticeable advantage over the other team.
Like you said in many pervious articles/entrys, the key thing when making a map is the balance, so no team will have an advantage over the other team.
So i'm wondering why did you decided to make Casbah the way it is?

smeerkat at 04:36 on Nov 29, 2005

I'd like to see an article on the 'underpass' architecture that we see in dust and dust2. Lots of great skirmishes there.

Giles at 15:12 on Nov 29, 2005

I think you could:
1) Pick up a copy of Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language" and see what inspiration it provides you with. He did a similar thing as you did with 'The Hill' and reduced elements of (real world) architecture to its core, abstract forms and then built up a language of those forms. Similar to software engineering patterns, it'd be an interesting adventure to pick out level design patterns similar to 'The Hill' and analyse how they function. See also www.gamedesignpatterns.org .
2) Expand the site's focus - it says "Dave Johnston on level design, mapping and that" at the top. Perhaps you will disagree, but very often it ends up being "Dave Johnston on Counter-Strike level design, mapping and that". Obviously it's what you are most familiar with and it's all great reading, but I'd be interested in hearing you write about level design for other multiplayer games and/or for singleplayer games.

There are also, of course, always the two obvious options - writing about what's in the news and writing about what you're currently playing - both of which can be fairly fruitful.

vartaxe at 15:47 on Nov 29, 2005

take a look at this mod please
www.goldeneyesource.com
you could help them

esky at 20:26 on Nov 29, 2005

I'd love to see you make some tutorials.

Sure, there are lots and lots of tutorials already out there, but that's why you could take a slightly different approch.

One of the biggest issues many mapps have is actually finishing a map that plays well. It doesn't have to be a work of art, but practicing making playable maps in a constrained amount of time could be valuable for anyone starting out.

Make a series of week long projects. Each project will be a seven part tutorial, one per weekday. You start out from concieving an idea, planning, then building, detailing, fixing, and maybe even a day of play testing and adjusting (or perhaps that could be an aftermath/day 8). The number 1 goal of these should be to finish the map in a week.

If you did 4 such week long tutorial projects, that could be invaluble to many mappers imo.

uNsaiN at 21:35 on Nov 29, 2005

You should do an article like The Hill, only, for hostage rescue maps.

boubou at 01:30 on Nov 30, 2005

A contest for the best custom map? Winner gets the DaveJ awards? :)

boubou at 01:48 on Nov 30, 2005

A contest for the best custom map? Winner gets the DaveJ awards? :)

Kakel at 13:52 on Nov 30, 2005

I would like to read more about your thoughts on modding, focusing on the pre production part ( http://blog.johnsto.co.uk/?action=view&id=86 ).

fen boi at 21:54 on Dec 1, 2005

"Do you guys find things like "The Hill" useful?"

Definately, it's interesting to see the amount of thought that goes into gameplay balance.

Dissections of classic levels could be very interesting. Maybe explain why modern levels are still flat? I definately prefer Deathmatch/CS maps with little height variation (cs_office, dust etc) because I can identify targets quickly. But games like F.E.A.R which is based on office buildings rarely has more than two overlapping floors. I assume editing becomes tricky?

Maybe you could ellaborate about detailing maps? In a shacknews post about halflife I mentioned 'no forced detail' and that the simplistic design enhanced the realism. Your reply was interesting, maybe talk about keeping a theme fresh or how detailing eventually becomes invisible, or worse looks copy+paste. i'm rambling :(

Fabian Trevelyan at 15:14 on Dec 7, 2005

You could do a map involving a dam.

channie at 22:18 on Dec 7, 2005

Random stuff to dig :

- Analyzing a fairly high poly scene and outline the base structure to restitute it into lowpoly. (more graphical skills required, but usefull nontheless)

- Technical process for mapping related stuff (eg: corners from an old article, can't remember the exact url)

- Flow and balance like "the hill"

- Analysis of some levels from recent FPS or other games (no more CS plz :p)

denzil at 23:10 on Dec 11, 2005

Critique our work in the special area dave ;)

denzil@blackmesasource.com

Hlynkinn at 23:14 on Dec 16, 2005

I would like to see you writing some tutorials. I'm trying to start mapping something but I cant find any good tutorials :(