Video games always feature various styles of gameplay. In this challenge we asked mappers to create a map that flowed through 3 phases. See the Theme Details section below for full details.
The resulting maps range from average to fantastic and the different interpretations of each phase is fascinating.
Get ready to play through 15 new maps!
Hello and welcome to Challenge 4 in the Lambda Cup, a series of five Source single player mapping challenges.
If you are new to my mapping challenges, please see the event’s homepage: THE LAMBDA CUP 2018 as well as the CALENDAR of the mapping challenges for the entire 2018.
The tagline of Half-Life is “Run. Think. Shoot. Live.”. You should know that but not everybody does. That’s where the name of this website comes from.
One of my favourite Villes was RunThinkShootLiveVille. It allowed mappers a chance to create small sections, each with a clear objective; both for the mapper and the player. Each phase was clear, precise and compelling.
For this challenge, we would like you to choose one verb from each phase and blend them into a seamless whole map:
Phase 1: Find / Escape / Ride
Phase 2: Solve / Fight / Evade
Phase 3: Drive / Descend / Chase
Phase 4: Live / Die / Fate Unknown
We are looking for natural flow between each phase. You CAN NOT change the order of the phases.
You are allowed to replace ONE of the verbs in the first 3 phases with one of your own choosing. That’s one replacement total allowed, and it’s optional – so if you like the list you can stick to those choices.
There is one new rule this time [about affecting other maps], so please, please please, read all the rules carefully.
The deadline for submission is 11pm GMT Monday 24th September 2018
31st August 2018 4 Comments
When the going gets tough, the tough get going!
You are about to fight against the meanest, smartest and cruelest bosses in Ville history.
Only the strongest will survive. Will you be one of them?
Total Downloads: 4,19111th August 2018
20 Comments
and 10 recommendations, most really enjoyed it!
Half-Life 2 has been around for longer than 13 years, but many will agree that the game has still not lost its charm. However, as Episode 1 and 2 came out, people switched their focus to the new environments and gameplay that were introduced.
NostalgiaVille seeks to balance out the scale by re-introducing the classic environments of Half-Life 2 in the modern day.
Play through 8 official entries and 1 bonus map in this special 2018 mapping challenge.
Total Downloads: 11,14915th July 2018
39 Comments
and 15 recommendations, most say "Play It Now!"
We’ve all been there – reaching the end of a game or chapter and having to face the BOSS. Usually, it’s a single all-powerful enemy. Well, almost all-powerful – inevitably after enough dancing around each other, you find its weak spot and exploit it. Hooray! Not really – it’s totally expected, uninteresting, and cliched.
For this challenge, we would like you to take the idea of a final battle and breathe new life into the scenario. Of course, that’s easier said than done.
We don’t want you to necessarily focus on a single enemy, although you can have that kind of boss if you want. But you’re also allowed to have multiple boss enemies, or one big bad boss with other minions helping. Imagine a pair of bosses working against you and maybe even each other.
Even though this challenge is called BossVille, you don’t have to make a boss fight. We really like the hectic finale in Episode 2, where you had to fend off striders and hunters while driving all over the place. We want to encourage clever twists on the classic boss fight – and we’re definitely keeping an open mind as to what’s acceptable in BossVille. All we’re looking for is a great finale, boss fight or not!
Make the encounter interesting! Perhaps the boss fight has several phases – where the boss changes its attack patterns, or its behavior, or the environment. Maybe you encounter the same enemy multiple times throughout the map, setting him up as the Big Bad and leading up to a great finale fight. Maybe we have to outwit the enemy instead of fighting them?
The core concept of a climactic finale is the key here. Use a single boss in ways we’ve never seen, or come up with your own intriguing final faceoff!
The deadline for submission was 11pm GMT Monday 23rd July 2018
1st July 2018 15 Comments
Half-Life 2 has been around for longer than 13 years, but many will agree that the game has still not lost its charm. However, as Episode 1 and 2 came out, people switched their focus to the new environments and gameplay that were introduced. NostalgiaVille seeks to balance out the scale by re-introducing the classic environments of Half-Life 2 in the modern day.
In this challenge, you are given 2 months to create a level set in the early chapters of Half-Life 2 (think City 17 up to and including the Coast, however we find that the City and Canal sections in their pre-Uprising state are the least prominent within usual challenge entries). Don’t feel pressured to work for the whole 2 months, as that would mean a high risk of burning out, but consider the possibilities for the scope and scale of your entry.
A big focus of NostalgiaVille is, well, Nostalgia. The player should be reminded of the time when they first played Half-Life 2, and levels should, to some degree, feel familiar. So feel free to include HL2 Easter eggs, references, and maybe even altered segments of the original chapters in your entries. However, with time, technology and level design practices have improved.
We would like the early Half-Life 2 environments to be used and a level of familiarity in the level design to be kept, but gameplay can be either similar to the way it was in the original game or changed to add new concepts into the old environments, thus combining the new and old in your entry. Keep in mind that even if your map follows the same ideas from the environments in Half-Life 2, it should be polished and up-to-date with modern standards in other design aspects.
The deadline for submission is 11pm UTC Sunday 24th June 2018
The top 3 entrants will win cash prizes as follows, all paid via PayPal:
27th April 2018 26 Comments
Without the Gravity Gun, Half-Life 2, its episodes, and many many mods would be very different. It was revolutionary and a LOT of fun to play with.
This challenge features the gravity gun, and adds some new functionality which was optional for mappers to use.
You play through a variety of settings and ideas.
Total Downloads: 3,30917th April 2018
42 Comments
and 10 recommendations with no significant bias
Hello and welcome to the Lambda Cup, a series of five HL2:Ep2 single player mapping challenges.
If you are new to my mapping challenges, please see the event’s homepage: THE LAMBDA CUP 2018 as well as the CALENDAR of the mapping challenges for the entire 2018.
Half-Life 2’s revolutionary weapon was undoubtedly the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator. You can call it that if you really want to.
But to us it’s the Gravity Gun. A simple concept, executed perfectly in the game – and the perfect tool to show off the physics engine. We learned the basics in Black Mesa East, experimented with its lethality in Ravenholm, and used it from then on for exciting activities such as stacking crates, tossing barrels, shoving around poor headcrabs, and eventually making Combine soldiers into personal ragdolls.
We want you to create a map that features the Gravity Gun. In addition, besides the Gravity Gun, optionally the player may obtain and carry the crowbar and only one other weapon. Note that this restriction is on Gordon’s standard weapons – so objects like hopper mines and Magnusson Devices do not count as the other weapon and may be used freely.
This time there’s a twist: our latest research has developed a new function for the Gravity Gun. By finding and attaching a rare Stasis Crystal, the now-enhanced Gravity Gun has the added ability to freeze an object in space. Don’t worry, it’s not permanent – but the object will remain in stasis indefinitely until you use the Gravity Gun to move it again.
Use of the Stasis Crystal is optional in this challenge. Mappers can give players the classic Gravity Gun or the Super Gravity Gun – and both versions may be enhanced with the Stasis Crystal. We’d love to see what you can do with the Stasis Crystal, but the regular old Gravity Gun is fun too. Wow us!
So, to sum up:
The deadline for submission is 11pm GMT Wednesday 28th March 2018
1st March 2018 16 Comments
Explore a variety of coastal areas and locations in the first challenge of the Lambda Cup 2018.
You will find 14 official entries, along with 3 bonus maps.
Total Downloads: 5,9783rd February 2018
107 Comments
and 17 recommendations, most say "Play It Now!"
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Total Downloads: 5,75813th October 2018
31 Comments and 9 recommendations, most say "Play It Now!"