I have a bad case of Duke Nukem Forever Syndrome.
I've been fiddling around with the Portal 2 map maker for a while now and throughout I feel as if I've been repeating the same silly mistake over and over again. The mistake as I see it is that I just can't stop meddling and fussing. Is this a bad thing? Sometimes I can bring myself to let a map be but oftentimes I feel like I can keep making it better.
Then a relatively small or simple map becomes a gigantic labyrinth that dances around the item limit for the map editor. Do any of you have advice on how to break oneself from this seemingly bad habit? Is it a bad habit?
If you keep adding to this and make a huge puzzle, its good. If you just make a giant, straightforward, maze like room, I would say it isn't good. If its the first, I would say there is nothing wrong except the entity limit, which I'm pretty sure there is a program for somewhere. I'll look at your maps.
If it was the latter, I would suggest setting a goal and a certain amount of elements to use. Maybe even take a break for a few months, play some other maps. Forcing yourself to make a map usually ends with a boring, rushed map. Take time to get ideas and remind yourself to not overdo it.
Just my opinion though. Others could have different thoughts.
It's never a bad thing to critically look at your puzzle and try to improve it.
HOWEVER: YOU build the map, YOU know how to solve it. Something that looks easy to you might not be so easy for others.
How I design my puzzles:
1) Start with choosing the test elements
2) What style is best with them?
3) Design a puzzle concept: what are the players supposed to be doing? How are you going to get them to do that?
4) Build
5) Test the map: can it be solved?
6) Try to break the map, ask others to do so too.
7) Can you fix the things that break the map? Try so!
Once the theme you choose is fitting your puzzle, the puzzle is working and there are as few exploits as possible RELEASE IT!
I was taught in multiple subjects at school that finishing a project should be a process.
1. Planning
2. Developing
3. Releasing and Managing
If you don't set yourself a goal or a time to finish it, good chances is you never will.
- Get someone to test it and watch them test it, however never give them any hints and watch silently.
- If the player doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary you don't need to fix it.
- Sloppy work is discouraged however particular work is generally worse as it wastes time. This is very relevant in real workplaces.
P.S. HAPPY NEW YEAR! Cheers TWP *drinks tequila*
This.
I created something like 30 maps while stuck with this problem - none of them were ever really good enough to release, yet I lost interest in the maps long before I was satisfied. However, I then entered in one of the contests here, which FORCED me to release SOMETHING at the end. In my opinion, this can be one of the most important things toward a release.
[spoiler]WOM Test 1
Laser Cube Quest
Mho' Power - Community Spotlight!
Four Corners[/spoiler]
Don't quite agree with this. If you're a perfectionist, you need to edit your map until you have the feeling you are "done", because your own self-respect is a very important part of the project. Also I think that small details can subconsciously add up to the feeling of a map being good.
I mean Chicken, if you suddenly stopped to cover the visible light sources in your maps with glow sprites, nobody of the casual players would ever notice. Still, you'd never do it.
A map pack coming soon. - click for more information
I'm sort of hinting towards small mistakes like misaligned textures or semi-unrealistic areas.
The joke thread I made ages ago pointed towards things other normal players wouldn't even care about.
- Models floating off the walls when you can only see it from one specific angle at a specific spot
- The death pit when you fall you can see nodraw/model bottoms.
etc.
Depending on how your want your map to look, you might even put sprites on the light sources. Sometimes its important for the ambience of the map to put in little details like this.
I suffer from the same problem. Being a perfectionist, I put a ridiculous amount of time in each map a made. The first one was the worst. It is still the biggest map I've made with the most puzzles. I guess I wanted to go balls out with my first release, but it took me well over 100 hrs. To this point it was not fun anymore, just felt like unfinished business. But now that its finally out, I can say I feel a huge relief and a lot of satisfaction.
I would suggest that you set yourself some limits from the start, and then keep working within these limits until you are satisfied ! A contest is a good way to have limitations. And never publish something that do not pleases you.
If you wanna try my big map and see what i'm talking about :
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/7656 ... files/?p=2
I agree with the above comment to start with a limitation, a contest or challenge. The 6 items one is a good one. Can you make a good puzzle or just an interesting map with just 6 items? There's the 3x3x3 map challenge too. Or the no items challenge. These design constraints force you to be creative and they're an interesting challenge to take on.
I also have issues with comitting myself to bigger maps as well. The way I go about those is generally to map out everything in my head, and try it out, but I find myself losing interest if I know that it'll work and there's nothing more to try out. I have a huge map that I had to split up in two that's been waiting in the wings for at least a month. The only reason I sometimes urge myself to try and work on it/complete it is because it's holding back another map that goes further on one of the puzzles. But this isn't because I'm having fun making it.
So I generally try to stick to one puzzle, or one room, as they already take quite some time (and I just use PTI), and it's the easiest way everything is closer to perfection. Minimalism is good. It is shiny. Take the essence of your map, trim the fat. Does that puzzle really need the other puzzle? You can just split things up from bigger maps. Make a series. Looking at the workshop, people love series.
As a general memo, this is a fun one to try. You'd be surprised how fun, but difficult, it is. I'd recommend giving it a shot to anyone.
