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July 2014 Mapping Competition

Hi All,

Just to let you know that at 12:01am on Friday 4th July, I will be posting details of the next mapping competition.

Usual rules will be confirmed as will the actual theme.

If you have any general questions, please post them here.

27th June 2014 20 Comments

2014 Donation Drive

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

I hate asking for money from readers, but I need to.

Firstly, James and Jonathan from GetNodecraft.Net have been AMAZING. The site, as I am sure you have noticed, is SUPER fast, but not only that but they have been very generous regarding the price I pay, so in many ways they have already donated – thanks so much guys!

There are still other costs, including the files and media server in France but the advertising does bring in more or less enough to cover those costs and the readers have always donated plenty of games to use as prizes etc.

Whilst the site no longer costs me money personally, I still like to have funds in the account to pay for any unexpected costs or emergencies etc.

So, it is with all that in mind, that I ask you to donate any spare cash you can. Of course, I also know times are tough and if you can’t then that’s fine too. I hope you continue to enjoy the site.

1st June 2014 17 Comments

Forest train Version 1.1 Is Now Available

Forest Train, Version 1.1 is now available. It was already a fantastic release and I am sure this update will make it even better.

If you would like to re-review it and change your recommendation image and or the Meta Review Data, that’s fine.

Please don’t post any reviews of the mod on this post as it will be deleted in a few weeks.

The changes are in this post and the release itself.

25th May 2014 4 Comments

Animated Gif Competition

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

As a sort of gap-filler between RavenholmVille and the next mapping competition, I have decided to run a little Animated Gif competition.

There has been a resurgence in animated GIFs (the proper name is cinemagraphs) recently after some very artistic ones were created. Check out FastcoDesign and Hongkiat for more examples.

Viewers to my recent Twitch broadcast may have seen the one I created as the pre-stream image and I also created this one from an Episode Two background map.

Entrants must create an imaginative and subtle image that I will try and use in various places around the site, although I make no guarantee of that. I will try and create a page with all the entries, but again, I don’t guarantee it.

Please make your images as big as possible in terms of dimensions, as that gives me more possibilities for using them on the site.

They must be from any Half-Life game, i.e. Half-Life, Opposing Force, Blue Shift, Half-Life 2, Lost Coast, HL2: Episode One and HL2: Episode Two. No entries for other games, including Portal and Portal 2 will be considered.

Closing date for entries is 10:00 AM GMT Monday 19th May 2014 -that’s about 3 weeks.

Send you entries to me directly, [email protected] or host them somewhere and send me the link or post the link as a comment (remember, all comments with links are held in a queue – please do not try to subvert that process).

Winner will receive a $5 Steam game or something else if anybody wants to donate a prize.

As always, if you have any questions, just ask. Oh, and please tell as many people as possible, including tweeting, FB updates, Messages in bottles, carrier pigeons, smoke signals and graffiti.

28th April 2014 10 Comments

RavenholmVille Mapping Competition

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

For this competition, you must create a map that is inspired by Ravenholm.

There are no limits to the size of the maps or playtime.

You can have a starting premise or basic story but that is not required.

UPDATE: Through a very kind $50 donation by BFG9000, the RavenholmVille mapping competition prize fund has increased.

Please see the rest of this post for full details.

28th March 2014 60 Comments

The 2014 Mapping Competitions

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

I thought I would update you on the Mapping Competitions for 2014.

I won’t be running mapping competitions series for a while. Unless they are connected, there’s no real point. So for the foreseeable future, all competitions will be completely separate.

I don’t want to publish a yearly calendar of competitions and commit to something that’s too rigid. That said, I feel I need to give mappers some idea of the schedule to allow them to plan their work.

Therefore, I have decided to run between 4 and 6 mapping competitions in 2014. Most will be 11 days long, but I may try something longer at least once.

The prize will be either a $5 or $10 Steam game for each and I see this as a token prize, rather than something people enter for.

After each competition, I will do my best to create a podcast and chat with a few entrants. I will also encourage mappers to post regular updates of their work in the comments section of the competition announcement.

Mappers who do that will have the chance to join the podcast, even if their entry isn’t one of the best.

I may also try a text based Q&A with questions from PP readers.

I will be announcing the first mapping Competition for 2014 on Friday 24th January at 6:00AM GMT.

19th January 2014 7 Comments

3×10: Competition 3: MovieVille

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

For this competition, you must create a map that is inspired by a movie or movie scene.

There are no limits to map(s) size or playtime. You can set the map in any environment that you want.

Please see the rest of this post for full details.

13th December 2013 36 Comments