HalloweenVilleTwo Mapping Challenge Announcement

7th October 2015

With blood rushing through your veins and your skin crawling, you crouch in a corner with the thought that if you make yourself small and still enough, it may overlook you.

This is petrifying fear, where movement is the last option, because movement draws attention to yourself.

Is it possible to escape from this alive? Only time will tell.

Theme Details

Yes, that’s right. A mapping challenge with no warning! If that doesn’t scary ya, nothing will.
Seriously though, I didn’t want to say I’ll be announcing a mapping challenge in a few days as that would probably have been too obvious.

I want modders to map a map to scare the pants off me, which is not hard, but suggest carefully crafted ideas will be rewarded more than simple jump scares.

There MUST still be combat and/or puzzle solving. Simply making a scary scene is not acceptable for this challenge.

Deadline

The deadline for submitting maps is:

Monday 26th October 10pm GMT

That’s 19 days, with 3 full weekends.

General Advice

DO NOT GET TOO AMBITIOUS. If you can’t build it in 2 weekends then think smaller.

Something is bound to delay your progress. Leave time for testing, bug fixing and polishing!

Testing

I highly recommend The Beta Testers Collective.

Of course, you can get anybody you want to test your maps, but the BTC are very good at it and provide excellent feedback.

Prizes

I will be giving away various Steam and ORIGIN games. A final decision will be made after the deadline, although there will be at least 3 $5/10 games available.

Judging Criteria

The winner will be chosen by a readers vote lasting 2 weeks after the release of the mod.

General Rules
  • Maximum two maps per mapper per entry.
  • The map must be original and not have been released publicly before.
  • The map must run in system with only Ep2 installed
  • By entering the competition you grant PlanetPhillip.Com and RunThinkShootLive.Com the right to release the map as part of the HalloweenVilleTwo Mod.
  • Maps must not appear on ANY other website before the release and for one month after the release of the mod.
  • No assets from retail games other than HL2, HL2: Ep1 or HL2: Ep2 are allowed.
  • Other assets are allowed with written permission from their original authors, which MUST be included in the entry.
  • Phillip’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into about it.
  • The map MUST have a proper name.
  • The map MUST have a proper filename: MapName_hvt.bsp
  • All entries must be sent to: [email protected] no later than the deadline.
Bonus Map

There is no bonus map for this challenge.

Final Thoughts

Get the basic concept working before polishing the visuals. Being almost totally dark is not the only way to make things scary.

If everybody submits on time, I will release the mod on Saturday 31st October.

13 Comments

  1. Ohhh yes…

    Phillip good sir, I’m afraid that I will refuse to present any form of mercy within this contest.

  2. You know what’s bizarre? Right before I sat down and opened this page, I was thinking about spooky Half-Life 2 levels and how the Fast Zombie face is probably one of the most grotesque looking textures in the game. Then I open up RTSL and, hello Fast Zombie face. XD

  3. Zekiran

    Heeeee!

    Since I’m not a modder, just a player, I say:

    TRY AND SCARE ME, folks!

  4. Mr.Walrus

    EXCELLENT! Can’t wait for this one. Unfortunately I’ve got exams for three courses between now and then so I doubt I can make a submission, at least not a sizable one, but I’ll try my best. Good luck all, looking forward to it!

    1. Unfortunately I’m in a similar boat. I’d like to make something, but I have my coursework due a little while before the deadline. I’ll see how it goes. Interested to see the other entries, at least.

  5. Love the theme! As it happens I am currently replaying the “They Hunger” trilogy.

  6. Watching Uranus

    I’m too scared to start mapping.

  7. Nev

    I’m currently working on my entry. The map is very compartmentalized, and I have the main rooms mostly completed. Now I have to create the parts that connect the two rooms, polish and add visuals, and the map will be done.

    I wanted to add something like the physical cable puzzle from EP2, but I couldn’t figure out how to implement the sockets (I decompiled the right map, but the IO was a bit confusing to me), so the map will be somewhat simpler than I initially planned.

    I’m pretty happy with what I have right now. Just have to string it all together.

  8. Hello has anyone got any recommendation for Testers? Seeing as Beta Testers collective has been put on hold recently I was wondering whether anyone knows anyone who can test my level for the competition.

    1. Some testers from the BTC are still active. Check their website for more details.

      1. Ah alright thanks Phillip. I have already used Shaun Friend but I’ll check if some of the others are able to test it 😀

Leave a Response

Comment Formatting Guide

Well formatted comments are much easier to read. Please copy and paste the HTML Tags to use in your comment

  • HEADER: <div class="fix"></div><div class="sbe3">TEXT HERE</div>
  • BOLD: <strong>TEXT HERE</strong>
  • ITALIC: <em>TEXT HERE</em>
  • SPOILER: <span class="spoiler">TEXT HERE</span>