Quote from tile on September 27, 2013, 4:52 pm

i, personally, have never actually mapped in a stock theme for portal/portal 2. ever. crazy huh? well, here's some advice and stuff that i decided to throw together for when you feel like making your own theme for your map:

1. Avoid the cliches that have existed from the beginning of time.

grass and sunshine? lava? ice? caves/underground? water? space? desert? forrest/jungle? castle/dungeon? sky? these have all been used millions of times in video games. even portal 2 uses a lot of these at some point. (caves? old aperture! space? watch the end! castle/dungeon? test chambers! lava? the incinorator room!)

that said, if you want to make your own style- either make a cliche look awsome and new (like weighted wonderland) or make something completely new (like the lobby of portal 2: doors...only the lobby though.)

2. displace, replace, expand.

this is how i come up with somewhat more abstract style ideas. first, find something that looks cool. how about the inside of your computer? or the rennovations at the apartment complex across the street? perfect! now, displace it- lets take all those metal scaffolds and planks and place them in the middle of the alps. now let's replace- forget about the plywood here! lets make it glass instead! now, expand. i just made em' bigger. these scaffolds are now as big as a test chamber, so now for the test itself.

3. get inspired from something else.
a futuristic matte painting of "furthercity" on deviantart? sure. whatever inspires you to create, go ahead and borrow some ideas from that. despite my mod, h2f, being dead, it's warm lighting scheme was originally inspired by blue portals.

4. "forget the rules, i have a brain!"

now, don't take that TOO literally- keep your textures aligned still. but you know those people who dislike custom environmental themes, who all say things like "hey, there's a tree in the test chamber- CUT IT DOWN!" well, guess what- you don't have to listen to them! i don't remember who, but i remember sombody said that hammer is a great tool to use as a way to express your imagination, and i agree with them.

and there you go. a guide for how to make your maps look cool. i hope this helps with anybody who's making a map with a custom style!