GravityGunVille

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

5th July 2015

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GravityGunVille was a mapping competition that required entrants to make maps that featured the Gravity Gun and one other weapon.

This mod contains 9 entries and most entries decided to focus more on puzzles than combat.

Let’s get straight to the point…

And The Winner Is…

In Mind by Radu “IceMan” Tanasie

He wins $100, so congratulations to him and thanks for creating such an interesting map.

The other entrants

Of course, I would like to thank all the entrants for taking the time and effort to create something we can play. The gaming community appreciates your work.

Even though you didn’t win, I hope it doesn’t dampen your enthusiasm for mapping in general and my mapping competitions.

Basic Details
  • Title: GravityGunVille
  • File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-mc-gravitygunville.7z
  • Size : 230MB
  • Author: Samuli Jääskeläinen AKA Hemuuuli, Fordon Greeman AKA 0Gravity, neozyem, Radu Tanasie AKA IceMan, Ross Walker, Trevor Mulharin, Bartlomiej Guzek, MegaSean45, Dylan Packard
  • Date Released: 09 October 2011

Download Options

Download to your HDD [230.0MB]

Installation Instructions
  • Copy the gravitygunville folder into your SourceMods folder.
  • Restart or start Steam.
  • GravityGunVille should now be listed in your Library tab.

If you require more help, please visit the Help page.

The Judges

My thanks go to all the judges, all of whom are professional level designers with established developers, some of whom must remain anonymous.

I can mention Magnar Jenssen and Anders Jansson.

Important Notes

If you get “A.I. Disabled” on In Mind, try entering “buildcubemaps” into the Source console. Apparently, it didn’t appear for the mapper’s beta testers, but did appear for me, my play testers and the judges.

For Research Facility, you need to change the level manually, as the mapper could;’t get the automatic level change to work. Type map RS2_pp_gravitygunville.bsp

ReadMe Files

All the readme files I recieved have been renamed and placed into the ReadMes folder.

Special Thanks

Thanks to Liam from Feral Entertainment for creating the BIK video format.

Thanks to Paul AKA Spartan301 for creating the actual video intro. He can be contacted vis Steam or the Steam Forums using his nickname for similar work. I can highly recommend him.

Videos

The playthrough below is provided by Custom Gamer as part of The Ville Retrospective event. See more of his playthroughs on this site: VP: Custom Gamer

WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.

Black Mesa Enrichment Center by Samuli “Hemuuuli” Jääskeläinen
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Boxes by Fordon “0gravity” Greeman
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Cubes by neozyem
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
In Mind by Radu “IceMan” Tanasie
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Lower the Bridge by Ross Walker
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
No Escape by Trevor Mulharin
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Research Facility by Bartlomiej Guzek
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Underworld by MegaSean45
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Zeropoint by Dylan Packard
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!
12 recommendations, average score: 3.33 (out of 5), standard deviation: 1.06 (what's that?)
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 2 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 2 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 2 Hours, 15 Mins
Shortest: 1 Hours, 30 Mins by Strontvlieg
Longest: 3 Hours by DaZ
Total Time Played: 4 Hours, 30 Mins
Categories (?)
Half-Life 2: Ep2 HL2-EP2 Mods Play
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Phillip says MaybeMaybe?Think TwicePlay It Now!Maybe?Play It LaterThink TwicePlay It LaterPlay It Now!Think TwicePlay It LaterMaybe?

42 Comments

  1. PlanetPhillip
    Phillip says Maybe

    Sorry, this is very cheeky of me, but this is a place-holder review.

    Reply
  2. AI

    Are you going to post any of the other entries??

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      Those are all the entries.

      Reply
  3. PlanetPhillip

    I have removed the judges” comments because there seems to have been a misunderstanding between me and one of the judges. His notes were simply drafts that he thought would be worked into more suitable feedback.

    I posted them “as is” and this may have given readers the wrong impression.

    I apologize for any hurt feelings, it wasn’t my or the judge’s intention.

    Reply
    1. sirocco

      Feedback is the most important thing as far as I’m concerned.
      Good or bad, it’s what keeps me trying to improve.

      Reply
    2. Mega Sean 45

      You didn’t hurt mah feelings Phil. I know you’re a nice guy and don’t mean any harm. It was just a little shocking that the judges didn’t like mah map that much even though I worked so hard on it. It was mah first one and I would expect for it not to be a Top 10 favorite, but at least not the worse. It just proves that I am not a mapper, I’m a machinima maker. That’s how it always was and always will be. I mostly got a little shocked on the not like music from other games part. Spy’s maps have music from other games and you liked his mods.

      Reply
  4. sirocco

    So now we wait for the reviews to come in.
    That’s what I am more interested in.
    What people thought of my map.
    Oh and I will play through all the maps when time allows and post my feedback as well.
    Thanks Phillip for running the comp.
    Thanks to the judges for the time spent to play and do all those other judgy things.
    Cheers

    Reply
  5. Lizard

    My change_level is working ;o

    Reply
  6. Hec

    Cool plenety of entrys i’ll play them!!

    Reply
  7. kyo

    I really do not understand what to do in No Escape. Hole in the wall that keeps dropping you back into the same room. Locked door with nothing behind it. Any ideas?

    Reply
    1. Frohman11

      Its just a endless chain without an end.

      Reply
      1. kyo

        Seems rather pointless doesn’t it?

        Reply
  8. Mega Sean 45

    Here are mah ratings for the maps. Some stuff below can be spoiler alerts. If you have trouble with Underworld, I have some tips for you in here. But you should play it first to see if you can handle it.

    Black Mesa Center: Pretty funny, fun, some puzzles are tough. Like the companion sphere puzzle, I didn’t know why the sphere was on that thing. When I heard the ticking I thought it was the sphere clicking on those little things but I found out it was a timer. So we did get a carrot all along! But we got fired. =( Well look on the bright side, we don’t have to be victums of the incident now! =D

    Boxes: Ehhhh. That was so-so. All we’re doing is stacking cubes to get to the exit, not really much fun. Sorry bud, but I did like the background sound and buildings. Not the worse map in the contest I’ll give ya that! 😉

    Cube: This was pretty fun! Using all those cubes and taking down the enemies were fun! I got stuck in a few parts trying to figure out how to get to another side or something. The Strider battle was pretty badass!

    In Mind: Pretty much of a combination of Final Project Diary and Research and Development. That was pretty fun, but I wouldn’t call it a winner though, sorry. But congrats anyway on winning! =)

    Lower the Bridge: Great map! Looking for all those keys were a bit tricky, and trying to get from place to place was a bit tricky too. I <3ed the ending the best! No I don't mean like I didn't like the map and I'm happy it ended, I just liked the Rebels coming out of the Dropship. That was pretty knew! I also thought of stuff like that. I also thought of Manhacks coming out of a Headcrab Rocket! XD

    No Escape: ……. No comment on this.

    Research Facility: Another testing entry huh? This one was kinda tough though. Using the crates weren’t easy. This one was really a puzzle challenge!

    Underworld: Yep! I made this map! Pretty impressive huh? Nice first map, eh? Not a winner, but great for advertising mah machinimas on youtube! It was pretty fun too! If you played it and are having trouble, follow these tips: Make sure you take out the first Poison Zombie, just in case it hits the Barnacle and the game crashes. Punt with the Gravity Gun on the vents throughout the level to break them.

    Flip the Antlions over and then punt an object on them. The Sniper at the Antlion Guard arena can be used to take out the Antlions around the room. Use the explosive barrel spawner at the Guard arena for the Guards, the APC that comes in at the end, and use them on the Soldiers in the next room. Manhacks are scattered around the level, they can REALLY come in handy! The Turret guns at the Chopper battle are a bit bugged, but just keep moving the turret gun around until the bullets are seen damaging the Chopper, and be sure to duck everytime it shoots.

    I’m sure you know what to do for the Turret one after that, there are Turrets behind a force field, you can’t survive unless you use the blast door to protect yourself as you go across the room. The last big battle is a tough one! Because of this, I think you should start this map on easy. To win the last battle, you have to keep getting explosive barrels from the barrel spawners and throw them at the Guards, and don’t forget the charging stations! You will be fighting Combine Guards, two Combine Elites, and 5-6 Hunters. There are Manhacks and Scanners there too for distraction, but the Manhacks can still come in handy!

    Then just run to the Dropship at the end to win the game! I didn’t know this map would be that tough, you guys need more stratiegy! 😉 Jk lol! Don’t forget, there is a secret room in the level that contains a surprise for you! I ain’t gonna tell you what it is and how to get it, but if you do find it it’ll make the map waay easier! Enjoy!

    Zero-Point: Yet another testing entry! Oh and finally the Super Gravity Gun! I knew that thing would be in here somewhere! This entry was very instresting! Nice job brah!

    Excluding Underworld, I would pick Black Mesa Center as the winner! What can I say! I’m a man with a great sense of humor! I usually judge stuff by their humor! Maybe we can have a FunnyVille one day. XD

    Great job everybody else who entered! Son of a bitch, this was a very instresting expierance! I hope to see more comments on this page soon! Maybe even more subscribers on youtube! Thanks a bunch Phil for this badass contest! And thanks for all who played this!

    Reply
  9. EmoLevelDesigner
    Maybe?

    Now I will review map after map. I decided to choose order in which I will play randomly via random.org site.

    Cubes

    That’s how it was named. And that’s how it was designed – cubism. Some primitive constructions textured with combine textures. We take the cubes and throw them where we should. Where we should? Some cubes are for enemies, others are for things that accept them and open the way to advance.

    In the end of the first map I loaded a saved game – and the game started to play two musics simultaneously. That’s not good.

    Even more, Cubes is protracted! Instead of putting all efforts into small, but beautiful level, the author made a pile of primitive maps!

    I don’t think that it deserves more than 2 points out of 5.

    In Mind

    The beginning reminds of the Final Project Diary mod that I really liked. But exciting events ended soon and a hard puzzle started. Well, I felt that it was hard, because I spent a while before I noticed that [spoiler]it’s possible to take big cubes with the gravity gun.[/spoiler]

    Then we basically go through the test chambers like in Portal series, but with the Gravity Gun instead of the Portal Gun. We put cubes so that they help us reach the exit.

    I was disappointed with this one, because expected something like Final Project Diary, but it’s a good map, and I didn’t notice any flaws, so I give it 5 out of 5.

    No Escape

    Only one room, nothing else. There is an impassable door with nothing behind it. There is a ventilation which leads back to that room. That’s all.

    Maybe I didn’t understand something, but looks like it’s Rogat from GravityGunVille, or When the Army Came to the Office. 1/5.

    Black Mesa Enrichment Center

    Portal parody. Good design, funny dialogues.

    The puzzles are much more interesting than in In Mind. At first I was wondering why this mod didn’t win, until I reached the last two puzzles, which are frustrating. I never took as many healthkits through the console, as in the room with the caged turret. That turret was very annoying. Putting it there was a big mistake.

    5\5

    Zero Point

    Another Enrichment Center. The design is monotonous and not beautiful, and to solve the puzzles, you just need to put a box or an orb somewhere.

    Later there will be a train ride, outdoor places. They all are bland, rectangular and primitive. And there are glitchy water and ladders.

    Awful. Not worth playing. 1\5.

    Boxes

    Interesting location, but tedious puzzle. In fact, I found it so tedious that I couldn’t be bothered to complete it. [spoiler]Stocking cubes and climbing them, flying on the cube [/spoiler]were hard and required many tries. Even more, you’ll have to repeat the stocking and climbing for some times. There are switches which look like decorations. I only accidentally noticed that they are switches.

    Maybe I missed something, but my impression is: interesting idea, but playing this is not fun. 3/5.

    Lower the bridge

    After loading the map I quickly noticed two flaws: firstly, we are underwater and don’t see anything during the mission briefing, secondly, the FPS is low sometimes. The design is not bad, but far from masterpiece, and it’s bland sometimes. There are puzzles, search for the keys.

    As a whole, it’s a big level with interesting places and layout. I don’t think that it really fits into the contest, because it is centered not on the gravity gun, but on hard puzzles which require orienteering and attentiveness. The size and playtime are impressive, but I would prefer it to be smaller but more beautiful and polished. 3/5

    Research Facility

    Interesting and original style, really a pretender to win. But it’s not possible to complete it without using noclip.

    This is a very promising mod, it’s too bad that it is not finished. The design is beautiful, but there wasn’t any gameplay for me after I completed the first chamber, I couldn’t figure out what to do and had to use noclip. 3/5.

    Underworld

    This one counts on many different gameplay situations, which you have to complete using the Gravity Gun. Good idea, but it is spoiled by unprofessional design and incompleteness. In the end it becomes bad: we have to fight back a crowd of enemies. 2/5.

    Average score: 2,8/5

    Mod that I enjoyed the most: Black Mesa Enrichment Center

    Reply
  10. Lizard

    I want to say something.
    I was not able to finish my map because I miss a deadline 🙁 I was forced to compile the map fast (2hours) and later I had no time to repair broken chambers 🙁

    But other maps are great 🙂 I really like the glass in cubes on “Boxes” map.

    Reply
  11. Hemuuuli

    Black Mesa Enrichment Center
    My map, looking foward to see more comments. My aim was to create unique puzzles with gravity gun, not only stacking blocks on blocks (eventough it is often compulsary when dealing with gravity gun :D).

    Boxes
    Looked nice. I would have hoped for custom textures instead of dev ones though. The gameplay was pretty annoying and map wasn’t that fun overall. The boxes should have had some better clipping, now the edges of the boxes were elevated so it made jumping and running on the boxes harder.

    Cubes
    The abstract style was easy to look and gameplay was straightfoward. Some battles were quite tough on hard but I still were able to manage thru them, more heathchargers required. For better pacing, a puzzle or two between battles would have been nice. Overall nice map.

    In mind
    The beginning was great and made me laugh. The idea and atmosphere was good but there was no real gameplay. Just stacking boxes. Also the ending let me down, I hoped for something to match the awesomeness of the beginning.

    Lower the bridge
    NO MORE KEYS PLEASE. They drove me maad. 😀 The keys were neat idea but the mapping overall was pretty sloppy and ugly. Also the map was waaay to hard, I had to use god mode once (I play on hard). Also what is with all the pulse rifles, PulseRifleVille would have been better place for this map, the gravity gun wasn’t very useful in this one.

    No escape
    I run in circles for a while, then noclip and wonder WTF?! The perfect trolling map.

    Research facilty
    The visual were nice but I had no idea what to do in second, third or fourth puzzle. I think they are just bugged. Rest of the map was also a little bit boring. Mapping was ok but there wasn’t any clever usage of gravity gun.

    Underworld
    You must be a fan of Leon (I am not): TOO MANY ENEMIES, especially if you play on hard. There was also handful of bugs. I used godmode and noclip to get to the ending it was all the same. More enemies after enemies…

    Zero Point
    I apprieciate the vision of this one. It has a story, voice acting, custom music and awesome reactor explosing moment. But unfortunatly the author doesn’t have all the skill to reach this great vision of his. The soundlevels are unbalanced (I know, it is hard to make them match in source), the enemies in final battle didn’t work and puzzles were kinda meh and visual were even more gray and dull. Also I would have loved to see more action with super gravity gun, it is fun toy to play around. It was good and solid entry even with it flaws.

    Summary
    Overall I was a little bit dissapointed because I hoped to see new clever usage of gravity gun (not just piling stuff), especially some maps with super g-gun. But atleast there were loads of entries with very diffrent approaches to the theme.

    Reply
    1. Mega Sean 45

      You should use mah tips on mah comment above. That’ll make the game a bit easier! 😉

      Reply
  12. Ade

    My first review is in the BetaTestersCollective format, which I sent to PP: dmgameservers.net/fastdl/ggunville feedback.zip
    So it’s not from just a player’s pov and it’s intention is to better the maps/mods and the modders alike; maybe I did focus on the minuses more than the pluses because being a competition means less time and less creativity etc, but in the end of each review I hope I compensated for that. I really hope that someday each of you post a final release here on planetphillip.com and here’s for more mods to come!
    What can I say, after playing the top most personal favorites mod in here, namely Research and Development: http://www.planetphillip.com/browse/personal-favourites/?t=5 which is very hard to top, I was expecting more scripting, more things to happen for me or to me, more fireworks (you’ll understand once you play it or at least watch it on youtube). So all other ggun mods pale in comparison, for ME. But I will come back with a normal review (haven’t done that in a long time, shame on me) from just a player’s pov.

    Reply
  13. Bolx
    Think Twice

    This was not much fun for me as the majority were not a style I enjoy playing, a collective AI would not be fair to the obvious hard work of the respective entrants so I can only go as far as TT!

    For me the problem was that some are almost like Portal 1 which I only got when Valve were giving it away for free. After playing Portal I knew quite quickly I didn’t enjoy it and as some of the entries reminded me of Portal, unfortunately they were not fun for me.

    That said I have to say Well Done to all the entrants, as I don’t have the knowledge to do what they have done.

    Lower the Bridge was nearest to the style I like to play and I had some fun with it and I liked the humour in Black Mesa Enrichment Center.

    Reply
  14. Whatever You Want

    I’m stuck on the first map (yes, I am terrible at GG based puzzles) after the barnacle part where there is a closed door and some black and white hole. I’ve tried everything and looking everywhere but I can’t figure out what to do, help would be much appreciated!

    Reply
    1. Whatever You Want

      Whoops, after I thought I had looked everywhere I noticed that there was something I had missed in the first section of this chamber. For anyone else that may be stuck there check that room at the beginning!

      Reply

  15. Pingback: Boxes (GravityGunVille) « zwieracz

  16. PlanetPhillip

    This explains a LOT:

    At NO point did I consider shooting those buttons!

    Reply
    1. Ade

      haax!
      I don’t think that’s a walkthrough, he wouldn’t give so many cubes if we could use just 1, imo so.. maybe it’s an easteregg in plain sight (so the mapper intended this?)

      Reply
    2. Whatever You Want

      Wow, after the amount of time I spent on that one I feel very annoyed that it could have been done a lot quicker and easier. I wondered why I had the peashooter, but would have never guessed to shoot those buttons. Like Ade said, it may have been an Easter Egg but the amount of cubes could have been used to completely throw the player off course.

      Reply
    3. Hemuuuli

      Oooh. I tried throwing stuff on the buttons but I ended up piling the boxes and climbing on them to reach the key. You really can value the playtesting in these kind of situations. But after seeing that the map makes 100x more sense.

      Reply
    4. Kyo

      Well, for what it’s worth, I didn’t figure that out either. Kind of clever. But I don’t think the average Half-Life player is trained to shoot at buttons, if you even identified them as buttons to begin with.

      Reply
  17. Zekiran
    Play It Now!

    *it just figures, I’d written this ALL out and my net access died. Sigh.*

    I have to say that I did enjoy most of these pretty well. I like both puzzles AND combat with the grabbity gun, and most of the maps in this contest did pretty well on both.

    BMEC
    I liked this entry, it was fun and reasonably challenging without being impossible. Well designed, fairly well rounded and clever. I did have to cheat a couple times, so I think maybe some extra playtesting might have helped this entry out a bit.

    The tilting floor puzzle, I could not finish without noclipping and god mode. I’m still unsure of how to get the cubes out from under the other side, without dying. Then, the stacked boxes on the rotating room… no idea how that was to be finished, given that there was a force field around the boxes.

    Anyway, I did enjoy that one, it was cute

    Boxes
    I didn’t finish this, got too frustrated and simply noclipped up to the key. Like most others, it never- ever- occurred to me to use a gun in a gravity-gun map. While I do love the look of the entry, it’s very pretty and clean, the entire concept was missed.

    Cubes
    This entry is my favorite for many reasons. The look and mood that is established right from the start is wonderful. Though I did get confused about what to do in at least one section, the combat and challenge level was *perfect*.

    I wound up throwing grenades at the lights on pillars before the Strider battle – not knowing that the wall behind me would just open up. I thought I had to trigger something with them, but… ah well!

    The heart-pounding sounds of a Hunter here and there got me rolling. I love throwing stuff (see Underworld) and the added challenge of “not falling off the edge” made it even more fun.

    All in all I would personally have awarded either this entry or Underworld the first prize.

    In Mind
    Honestly, I didn’t find this entry to be all that good. It was sloppy and repetitive, and at times very bland. While the individual areas were well-crafted, I didn’t really see much beyond the basics of stacking and walking. I’d never imagine that this entry would win, honestly. It did very little for me. I liked the rain. That was about it…

    Lower the Bridge
    If only there had been some organization to the keys. I gave up around 2/3 of the way through – never did find the Stainless or Rusted keys at all. I noclipped around, looking for ways to get where I needed to be by the end.

    That said, this map was *beautifully made*. If it had more coherent *direction*, as in a flow of player information to guide you around – or some way of making it clearer where to *return* once you’ve gotten one of the keys (I got so lost in the air vents, I don’t like it when I think I have to map out things on a post-it note to get through a level)- this might have been my favorite. Perhaps if there was more variety to the requirements to pass gates: instead of just keys.

    With two cannons I expected to be able to USE them, were you supposed to, ever? I never actually got the bridge down, at least *while I could see it*, because apparently in noclipping around, I triggered the final sequence. I missed the good part, I guess. 🙁

    Still, *beautiful* mapping.

    No Escape
    Except for hitting the Escape key and loading the next map. I think in the future, attempts for unfinished maps – if this was one, and it certainly seems to be – should be made very clear that they’re not done yet and can’t be really expected to match up with the other entries.

    Research Facility
    This one… well, I cheated through IT too. I got to the 3rd chamber (the third picture) and couldn’t see what I was meant to do. I tried placing boxes on the red squares on the floor, nothing happened. Tried throwing the boxes at the glass wall, nothing. So… From there, I simply clipped to image 6 and went down to the bottom of the map, where I *also* found nothing more to do. I have no idea how this could be completed, and while the maps themselves were pretty enough, and I loved the new textures and their tron-like appearance… This didn’t do much for me.

    Underworld
    I love this entry. I think it and Cubes were very much my favorites, and run neck and neck as to what I’d have awarded the winning prize. I LOVE throwing things with the grabbity gun, and all the uses of it in this entry were lots of fun.

    I remembered you could punt gas barrels without setting them off, littered the area near the end with them.

    My one problem really in that intense fight was that every time I was hit, the screen flashes white and I was too blind to see. But thankfully, the “run like hell back to the other room” worked pretty well. That sadly is also a failing – of the AI, when it’s told not to move past a certain point. I think that whole fight might have benefited from the enemies *following you* into the safe chamber. Not all at once, obviously. 🙂

    But again, the maps were quite good – though there were some odd texture sizing problems in some of those early office-like sections. There was enough variety to the maps that I really enjoyed seeing what would happen next.

    All in all, this and Cubes = favorites.

    Zeropoint
    Another of the puzzlers, that was not very well organized and I didn’t finish without noclipping. Unfortunately I think that while the idea of having a fresh voiceover was good – the voice was SO QUIET that I couldn’t hear whether it had instructions, and there was no way to re-play it to find out. I got to the spot with a room of round balls, across a gap – no way out, didn’t figure out what to do, and noclipped until I found something else. Still not sure how the rooms were connected, honestly.

    Also, such samey looking maps were a bit dull.

    At any rate – I would say that this is a challenging set of maps, some much better than others, and most of them well worth playing through. If you don’t like key-finding or box stacking, obviously, some will be dull. But for combat Cubes and Underworld get my vote for “play it again”.

    Reply
    1. sirocco

      Just a few points I’d like to reveal regarding Lower the Drawbridge.
      You can fire the cannons. 🙂
      [spoiler] Load them with rocks and light the fuse with the torch off the wall. If the torch doesn’t light it straight away, just shoot the fuse. They will refire about 5 times.
      [/spoiler]
      The Rusty key is [spoiler]by the skeleton on the bunk bed.[/spoiler]
      The Stainless key is [spoiler]behind one of the Striped Floor Covers.[/spoiler]
      Thanks for the *beautiful* description of my map.
      I visited a lot of castles in Germany, Ireland and Scotland, and incorporated the architecture I saw there while building the Tower and the Castle.
      I really tried hard within the time limit to make it as *realistic* as possible.
      ie Sloped crenelations, ferns growing on windowsills, spiral stair cases.
      I probably should have uploaded this map as a stand alone because feedback is one of the most important things with my mapping. Having it compared to others is ok but detracts from the amount of feedback I receive.
      Maybe at a later date, with a bit more polish, tho I have reached the maximum limit Valve puts on enddata.
      Thanks for the feedback Zekiran.

      Reply
  18. vancanucksfan
    Maybe?

    I thought BMEC was the best and In Mind was a close second, but only because of the AI Disabled bug. I also had the AI Disabled problem with Zero Point at the moment I got the supercharged GG. Cubes was good as well, but it would have been nice if the mechanics of the elevators were demonstrated to the user at some point. I only figured it after a lot of dying! Lower the Bridge was too long and I found it frustrating because I had no ammo and nothing to throw at the guards. I gave up on No Escape as it seemed pointless. I noticed that the door opens sideways when you kill the headcrab, but you can’t exit through it so I guess that was a bug. Overall some good entries and some that needed more work.

    Reply
  19. Whatever You Want
    Play It Later

    This started off poorly, but actually turned out to be pretty good.

    Took me a while to finish this, and I had to skip one of the maps because I got too much lag, but still it was enjoyable. I’m not a big Gravity Gun fan myself though.

    Black Mesa Enrichment Center

    One of the better ones of the competition, definitely, but the last puzzle was just frustrating and it ruined the whole map for me. The humor was very good and actually made me laugh on more than one occasion, such as the introduction to the carrot joke (although it was annoying when it got dragged throughout the whole mod) which was without doubt the best part of the map. This is the HL2 and Black Mesa version of Portal and the puzzles were enjoyable, although frustrating at times.

    Boxes

    I would have never guessed that those signs were buttons, not sure whether this was intended by the author or not. Honestly I found it boring and once I realised what I was meant to do (box stacking) I just noclipped up. Box textures were very nice however and deserves credit.

    Cubes

    Possibly my favourite one out of the bunch, either this or In Mind. You fight zombies with cubes and then eventually have to fight hunters, then headcrabs, then Combine (if I remember correctly) and then the big Strider battle at the end. Not very good looking, but it adds to the zombie type atmosphere me thinks. It had a nice puzzle and action blend too. The Strider battle was brilliant, and by far the stand out part of this mod.

    In Mind

    Like I said above, it was one of my two favourites and I can see why it won. It reminded me of the AoM map “Nightmare” which was done in a similar style. I felt it got a bit boring and repetitive after a while however. An all out puzzle map, and I hope the author extends it a bit.

    Lower the Bridge

    I couldn’t play this one as it was too laggy for me. Looked pretty good from what I had played but I will just ignore this one.

    No Escape

    Lets ignore this one too

    Research Facility

    Honestly, I noclipped through the majority of this. I was actually not in the right mind to play this when I actually started it and so I will have to go back and play it normally after I have gotten more important things out of the way. Looked pretty good and the textures alone were enough for me to enjoy the map.

    Underworld

    Like Lower the Bridge, I got a lot of lag on this one, but I managed to get to the sniper battle until I gave up. Quite fun, and might have been my favourite had I of not had the lag. For a first map this was certainly very good.

    Zero-Point

    I think its safe to say that this was the disappointment of the mod, not because it wasn’t enjoyable, far from it in fact, but because of the amount of glitches, mapping errors, voice volume and blandness. The mapped obviously overlooked many errors which could break the game, usually making things a lot easier for the player, and as well as that the map was full of leaks. The textures were disappointing too, but I can understand why the author chose them. The gameplay was the best in the mod for me, and the voice acting was well done too. Should have been the best of this mod really.

    Overall I enjoyed this, although I didn’t actually include Lower the Bridge or No escape towards the final recommendation.


    BMEC:     Play it Later
    Boxes: Think Twice
    Cubes: Play it Later
    In Mind: Play it Later
    Lower the Bridge: N/A
    No Escape: Avoid It
    Research Facility: Maybe
    Underworld: Play it Later
    Zero-Point: Play it Later

    Reply
  20. Hec
    Think Twice

    Is a hard review, beacuse im going to rate it as a whole instead of the mini reviews of many players in each entry, so I want just to be clear on that issue.

    Putting a neutral “maybe” it would be like I am delegating to other guys my opinion on this competition, so this time i’m going to take a really esceptical position on the whole 9 entrys which were too much conssidering it was a quite challenging comp.

    Just to be short all the entries were clearless for me, if not most of them started with a really unclear objective of what tha hell I supposed to do, maybe i’m a stupid gamer but I mean most of the enrties were between moderate-stupidly hard skills!!. and that’s just soo annoying.

    Sorry but this map comp. wwins the prize to be one of the hardest, hectic and annoying here in PP.

    Good points well, I agree “in mind” entry wins this comp, were farmost the best and the more logical and clear between all of those hectic mazes.

    I don’t blamme the Grav Gun, is a nice tool-weapon but is really limitative when u close the variety of weapons just to that and the mere basics.

    Reply
  21. dougjp
    Play It Later

    Thanks to everyone who participated, it was fun playing through your work.

    I found this competition was a let down in average quality compared to previous competitions. Not to take away from the best maps, however.

    In my opinion, there was a clear winner, “Lower The Bridge”. Despite there being too many keys and therefore losing track of where I was in terms of what problems I was solving by finding them, there were so many good points in the map. And lots of playing time too. Not far off that map was “Cubes”, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Of course Cubes didn’t have the beautiful graphics and design detail that Lower The Bridge did.

    Fighting hard for last place were “Research Facility”, “Boxes” and “No Escape”.

    In between, I thought “Underworld” was going to be in the running but then it got rather stupid with the overkill swarming action, and therefore took itself out of the running. My notes show “Zero Point” and ” In Mind” got comments of “not bad” and “so so” respectively. “BM Enrichment” was interesting but then I arrived at a door that wouldn’t open. The solution in that area was not at all intuitive which is a sure deal breaker, or there was a problem with a trigger not working, so I had to quit.

    Reply
    1. sirocco

      @ Dougjp

      Thanks for the endorsement.
      I’m glad you enjoyed my map and thought it was well designed and fun to play.

      Cheers

      Reply

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  23. Phil

    Help Wanted !

    Research Facility — Chamber 3 — I have three cubes (one from previous chamber) but nothing I do with with them has an effect
    I presume the glass door at the top of the stairs is meant to open?
    I have put all 3 cubes on the raised orange floor tile, put a cube each on all thee orange tiles, climbed out using the cubes —- “used” every panel that may be a hidden switch, and fired cubes at them.
    Does the “exclamation” mark do anything ??

    Help please———–

    Phil

    Reply

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  25. Mega Sean 45
    Play It Now!

    I already commented on here, but I wanted to give it a rating because I finally have an account on here and I wanted to give this mod a rating.

    Reply
  26. DaZ
    Think Twice

    This is my review after playing this release as part of The Ville Retrospective.

    Black Mesa Enrichment Center by Samuli Jääskeläinen AKA Hemuuuli
    It is okay

    Fairly well polished and thought out puzzle rooms.

    The final room drove me a little mad due to the difficulty I had avoiding the rotating sentry gun.

    Boxes by Fordon Greeman AKA 0gravity
    It is bad

    Nice enough visuals but I got massive, massive mental fatigue just looking at all the boxes everywhere and assuming that I had to place or stack every single one of them.

    Ugh.

    Cubes by neozyem
    It is good

    Nice minimalist visuals with striking colour choices.

    Some interesting platforming and puzzling with some nice combat scenarios thrown in also. Some mis-steps with the visual language and some puzzles feel out of order with their difficulty and knowledge requirements.

    My personal favourite of this competition.

    In Mind by Radu Tanasie AKA IceMan
    It is okay

    Nice visuals once again. Also (again) very minimalist and abstract.

    One of the prettier maps but the actual “puzzles” left a lot to be desired.

    Lower the Bridge by Ross Walker
    It is bad

    THIS GUY REALLY LOVES KEYS.

    It’s funny for a while, then it gets old. THEN it gets utterly ridiculous.

    And yet it still keeps on going. This guy invented new colours so there could be more keys in this map.

    No Escape by Trevor Mulharin
    It is dire!

    A single room that I never worked out how to escape from.

    The door spins from it’s center which I assume is a bug.

    Research Facility by Bartlomiej Guzek
    It is bad

    Nice textures but inconsistent visual language and downright bizarre level design leads to frustration very quickly.

    Underworld by MegaSean45
    It is dire!

    The author felt that everything in this level needed a center print text otherwise the player would sit there like a lemon.

    There is a lot of variety in the different fights and situations and it feels like the author was learning hammer and all the Half-Life 2 entities while building this, which might explain why everything is so insane. You can’t kill the chopper with the provided turrets because they don’t work, the mapper knew this and even puts (yep) center print text to tell you this while playing. Avoid.

    Zeropoint by Dylan Packard
    It is okay

    I found this one to be playable but not really enjoyable aside from in a few instances. The puzzles are so absolutely simple you can breeze through 90% of them without paying attention to anything the narrator is saying and just going by instinct alone. After you “escape” the facility the level takes a major dive in quality and leaves you frustrated and bored.

    Overall

    I find it really interesting how nearly every single map entered into this event decided to be a minimalist, p0rtalesque abstract nightmare.

    There was no stipulation about this in the competition rules and yet here we are 🙂

    For the most part I would not recommend this particular ville to anybody as just about every map managed to force me either to set god mode, noclip and in a few instances just move on entirely. The only ray of hope that I can see is “Cubes” by neozyem.

    A fairly enjoyable level over all but still full of annoyances and inconsistent design.

    Halloweenville is next up! woooOO00oOoO0oOoOo0ooo00OOo

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    3 Hours
    Reply
  27. Neon Minerva
    Play It Later

    Here we go again!

    Black Mesa Enrichment
    It is good

    This is quite a clever puzzle map. I like the visuals, and the puzzles are well designed. Parts of it get a bit tedious, but overall I think it’s worth a playthrough. Also, the dialogue is pretty funny and the voice acting isn’t bad either.

    Boxes
    It is bad

    It’s certainly interesting. However, there’s nothing that tells the player that they can shoot the panels, so I was just running around trying to figure out anything for a long time. Even then, once you figure out that you can use the panels the puzzle is really easy. This is an interesting concept but it was executed poorly.

    Cubes
    It is good

    This is really clever and unique. I love the abstract environment, and the combat with the gravity gun is really fun. At one point I couldn’t progress for a long time due to poor design, but that’s the only time I had a problem with it. The strider fight is really cool, and the last fight is too. The visuals in the very last area are fantastic. I enjoyed this a lot.

    In Mind
    It is great!

    I thought about giving this a wow rating because of how much I loved it. However, when recommending it to other people, they would probably be underwhelmed if I did that. However, I recommend you play it, the atmosphere and visuals are great, the sound design is great and there’s a lot of effort put into it. I probably got more from it than others will as I love the surreal atmosphere, but it’s worth playing nonetheless.

    Lower the Bridge
    It is great!

    I’m very impressed this was done in time. It’s pretty large and complicated. There are a lot (and I mean a LOT) of keys in this map. They’re usually relatively easy and fun to find. The combat is pretty good, with some nice areas to fight through. The visuals are fantastic, from the playing field to the things you see in the distance. I enjoyed this map a lot, highly recommended.

    No Escape
    It is dire!

    It’s a room. With a headcrab in it. And some props. It’s not textured. NEXT!

    Research Facility
    It is bad

    It’s too bad this map is so bugged, it looks really interesting. It’s uncompletable, and I don’t really want to cheat my way through it.

    Underworld
    It is dire!

    This has some interesting ideas. However, the execution is bad. The visuals are blocky and oddly lit and it’s irritating having to run back and forth getting things to launch at combine. Apparently there’s more past the helicopter but I just couldn’t do it, the guns are ridiculously bugged (supposedly it’s possible but I don’t have the patience).

    Zero Point
    It is dire!

    It’s blocky and doesn’t look very good. The dialogue is too quiet, leaving me to guess what I had to do. There are multiple ways the map can break into an unwinnable situation. There are no autosaves, so I gave up when the map became unwinnable.

    Overall

    There are some pretty nice maps in here that are certainly worth playing. A lot of these want to be Portal, there could’ve been a lot more done with the theme. Well, next up is HalloweenVille!

    Reply
  28. Strontvlieg
    Cubes
    It is good

    Considering the limited time the entrants had to deal with, Cubes is a surprisingly large fabrication. It offers mostly simple yet amusing gameplay; sending zombies flying into the dark depths of these maps with well-thrown cubes made me LOL on multiple occasions. The environment is abstract, simple but still atmospheric. All in all an enjoyable mod and for me personally the number 1 of this Ville.

    Black Mesa Enrichment
    It is good

    A Portal-esque creation. Good gameplay with entertaining puzzles although the last puzzle was quite tough, but not impossible. Visuals were also good and the voice acting was clear enough for me to actually understand it. Takes the 2nd place in this Ville.

    In Mind
    It is good

    Another abstract environment and a well-crafted one. The puzzles in this mod were rather easy and therefore I completed this entry quickly. Short but good.

    Underworld
    It is okay

    Despite odd architecture, bad lighting and broken guns, I actually kinda liked this entry. You face VERY large amounts of enemies with only the gravity gun, but most of the time there’s plenty of stuff around to deal with them. The screen was literally filled with manhacks, explosions and hunters on some occasions. I guess this isn’t appealing for everyone. The on-screen text was sometimes impossible to read due to the ongoing mayhem. Underworld is ugly, terribly unbalanced but yet fun … !

    Boxes
    It is okay

    The environment and atmosphere in Boxes was very nice but gameplay wasn’t great. You have basically one puzzle to solve but it gets (very) tedious after a while. I did manage to complete this entry without me knowing about the breakable glass sections of the cubes and the shootable buttons.

    Lower the Bridge
    It is okay

    Once again a surprisingly large production considering the short timespan the entrants had to deal with. Lower the Bridge offers sometimes very nice environments, but also on some occasions questionable gameplay and a truckload of keys. Good thing the keys were mostly easy to find, but it gets old after a while.

    Zero Point
    It is bad

    The voice acting was very quiet on multiple occasions but I found my way throughout Zero Point despite this. The environments are bland as was the gameplay. At the end, my gravity gun was appearantly bugged because it wasn’t working while I was being shot by metrocops. I did manage to complete this entry legit.

    Research Facility
    It is bad

    This entry was visually fascinating with a clean, futuristic look but I had to throw in the towel after fruitlessly attempting to pass the second room. Some cubes could be picked up with the gravity gun while others could not. One cube made me go airborne? I wonder what was up with that?

    No Escape
    It is dire!

    Squash the headcrab and drop throw the gap to find out you’re basically stuck in an endless cycle. Good concept for a Black Mirror episode but not for gameplay.

    Installed:
    Manually
    Difficulty Played At:
    Medium
    Playtime:
    1 Hour, 30 Minutes
    Reply
  29. Daken50
    Maybe?

    Never was a fan of the GG. Can’t see anything once you pick up something.

    Reply

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