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Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
Question: Vote for the best-looking map. (poll ended on Wed Nov 4th 2009 at 5:06am)
Aaron_da_killa's Entry (2 votes)
22.2%

Haymaker's Entry (2 votes)
22.2%

Tnkqwe's Entry (no votes)
0%

RedWood's Entry (5 votes)
55.6%

1
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Quote
 Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
Posted by Riven on Sun Oct 18th at 10:06pm 2009

Entries Download: spmini4_competition_entries.zip (37.6 mgb)


UPDATE: And the Winner is ...

RedWood! -Congratulations! Enjoy your new copy of Left 4 Dead! smiley

The entries are in! Now's the time to begin voting for your favorite map. Below is a list of the entrants and their entries with images. The images are hidden for those who may not wish to be spoiled before playing some of the maps. But for those who may not be able to play all of them, you may simply click the album link for each entry to lay eyes on what they look like. If you are able, I highly recommend you play the maps before viewing the images.

Aaron_da_killa's Entry: [HL2]
  • Click to view image album
Show spoiler

Tnkqwe's Entry [HL]
  • Click to view image album
Show spoiler

Haymaker's Entry [HL2]
  • Click to view image album
Show spoiler

RedWood's Entry [HL2: EP2]
  • Click to view image album
Show spoiler

Thanks to larchy for enabling the spoiler tag feature!


What's the Criteria?
  • The requirements were to build a vista scene that represented a theme of "ancient vs. futuristic" and we're voting on which map looks the best. We're not taking into account performance, or craftiness, simply how well it was pulled off. Or if you can't make up your mind, simply vote for which one is your favorite.

  • Entrants, please do not vote for yourself, but you are free to vote for other entries.

  • Voting will last a little over 2 weeks.

  • Winner will receive one free copy of L4D and $60 (USD).

    Installation instructions are included in the first .txt file.

    If anyone has any questions, feel free to post away in this thread.

    -Good Luck!



    • "Stand up straight, pick up monitor firmly with both hands, slam it against yer forehead..... If yer still standing, you took a "screenshot" -Dr Brasso



    Quote
     Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
    Posted by aaron_da_killa on Mon Oct 19th at 12:34am 2009

    Whoa, nice entries guys, none of them look low quality!

    Downloading now! smiley


    Aaron's Stuff



    Quote
     Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
    Posted by RedWood on Mon Oct 19th at 7:48am 2009

    I felt like voting now but im felling really lazy and i don't fell like typing out any responses at the moment. for now ill just say that i voted for Aaron. In the next day or 2 ill post my comments. smiley


    Reality has become a commodity.



    Quote
     Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
    Posted by tnkqwe on Mon Oct 19th at 12:12pm 2009

    RedWood's entry is the best from all.That's because he is using HL2ep2 engine and because of the great idea.


    Never think about bad things!
    TNKqwe:The New Killer qwe

    I am Engineer - Play Free Online Games

    Citizen Arms



    Quote
     Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
    Posted by Muhnay on Mon Oct 19th at 12:23pm 2009

    First off, very nice work one and all. I remember reading in the contest rules that it should be a vista where the player is trapped and can not walk about the vista, but instead can see it from the place they are... and for that reason, I am voting for Arron. I feel he pulled off the theme well. It was hard because redwoods map is just crazy pretty and also has aspects of both new and old.. but the open I am free to roam around in the vista killed it for me.. Arron's made me wish I could get the heck out of here and go look what was over yonder. Good job people.. it was very interesting to see how your mind works, and how you took to this challenge. Your all winners in my eyes.

    +1 Arron da Killa




    THEME SONG:
    http://popup.lala.com/popup/504684637834344660



    Quote
     Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
    Posted by Gwil on Mon Oct 19th at 12:50pm 2009

    For me it was a choice between tnkqwe and RedWood. I loved the feel tnkqwe had captured, the terrain reminded me of the biodome in the Op4 singleplayer campaign. It looked good considering the age of the engine, too.

    However, I think RedWood got the theme spot on. The striking ancient architecture bathed in a golden sun draws our eye first and then, wham - we see the superstructure above. It did seem to be integrated into its environment and looked just fantastic.

    My vote goes to RedWood. I will echo Muhnay though, all entries were fantastic and showed skill and vision. Congratulations to all entrants on some quality work and thanks also must go to Riven for once more working hard to bring the community together.



    Quote
     Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
    Posted by haymaker on Wed Oct 21st at 1:40pm 2009

    Very nice work you guys! The talent level here is getting pretty impressive! After going through these in 'look' mode I want to go through them again in 'play' mode too.

    I appreciate your disciplined approach here Aaron. Something I failed at miserably. It's truly a 'vista'. Love the custom content, was looking for a clue to the drink combination for a bit. I zoomed in around the view and found lots to look at ( upside-down waterfall?? must be my vid setting ).

    The "wow" factor is really here in yours, Redwood. Stellar piece of work. It's pretty much "ancient vs futuristic" incarnate. Thanks for putting the suit in so i could zoom even though I was puzzled by the player boundaries. Again Ill say Im a sucker for grandiose architecture in games and you nailed that here.

    Im bummed I dont have HL1 installed Tnkqwe. This looks as impressive as anything valve put together though. Good idea putting the npc's in there for some extra visual interaction too.




    Quote
     Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
    Posted by reaper47 on Sat Oct 24th at 7:26pm 2009

    Tough one. I'd sure love to see full blown playable maps made out of these!

    I love the little details in aaron's entry, telling a background story bigger than what you can see. Tnkqwe's entry is pretty amazing for goldsource. Hard to compare to source engine work, I have to admit. RedWood's entry probably best encompassed the theme. Some amazing architecture. Relies a lot on the romantic sunset atmosphere a lot, though, which is something I'm a little skeptic about, lately.

    My vote goes for haymaker's entry. Mostly because I really learned to appreciate entity work lately. It's really something different. Loved seeing the landscape through those little windows only to be finally able to step outside and see it all in perspective. The only thing I hoped for was to see the good old lunar lander standing around there somewhere (mostly because of the old vs futuristic theme).

    Great entries!


    Why snark works.



    Quote
     Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
    Posted by RedWood on Fri Oct 30th at 10:01pm 2009

    I should have posted earlier but between school and the flu and bla bla bla...

    Tnkqwe: thats some of the best looking Hl1 shots iv seen. Looks like u really captured a mood. My only complaint is that some of your textures in the background are obviously over tiled. I just cant vote for Gold Source though. It just a apples to oranges thing when it come to Source.

    Haymaker: I really enjoyed running around. After a while I was trying to jump back in the ship so i could take off but to no avail. lol

    Aaron: I voted for your entry. Grate work as usual. It looks like a real city witch was built and blended together over time. I have 2 complaints though. One being the lighting. I found the lighting scheme boring. It was rather gray with little contrast. It match the new winter overcast that was outside while i was playing, so depressing. The other complaint is that i couldn't tell what the ancient part was of your map. from the posters i get it that im in the future but what the ancient? Overall grate job though.

    As for my entry it was obviously a few days past due but if it bothered anyone ill let you know that because of school and work i was only able to put in less then 8 hours of work from the original dead line to the final one.
    If anyone was wondering, what your looking at in my map is the maximum amount of displacement the compile will allow you to have in your map.


    Reality has become a commodity.



    Quote
     Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
    Posted by aaron_da_killa on Sat Oct 31st at 2:47am 2009

    I still haven't played tnkqwe's entry yet because Half-Life dosen't work on my new pc but I'll comment on the others.

    Haymaker: I really felt like I was on the moon! The breathing sound was a nice touch and the spacecraft was pretty cool too. My only real comment is about the moon's surface itself. You had way more potential here! Firstly, I could get to the edges of the displacement and actually fall off and not be able to get back. I think you could have designed the moon's surface in a way so the player was still bounded within a certain area but it didn't feel that way. Also, this wasn't really a vista. What you could have done is made sort of like a massive valley with a nice view of the moon landscape which would just disappear off into the horizon. If the player decides to jump off into the valley, the drop would be too far and thus fatal and this is one of the ways you could have kept the player within a playable area without the use of clip brushes.

    Redwood: Also a great entry. The historic sort of castle thing and the alien/futuristic looking thing are what makes this entry cool. They're quite nicely crafted, nice textures and nice architecture. My only comment about this is the clip brushes, I'm defiantly not a big fan of them I think it would have been better if there was another way to keep the player bound within that area.

    This thing was a bit weird, I liked the idea of it but it feels a bit awkward, I think I would have probably modeled some pipes and done up some brush based pipes instead of using the default ones which don't look quite right imo.

    Quoting "RedWood"
    Aaron: I voted for your entry. Grate work as usual. It looks like a real city witch was built and blended together over time. I have 2 complaints though. One being the lighting. I found the lighting scheme boring. It was rather gray with little contrast. It match the new winter overcast that was outside while i was playing, so depressing. The other complaint is that i couldn't tell what the ancient part was of your map. from the posters i get it that im in the future but what the ancient? Overall grate job though.


    Thanks. My entry is probably only 1/3 done at the moment and I'm most defiantly going to go back and finish it.

    The idea was sort of that the interior would be futuristic, and the exterior would be ancient. It was supposed to look very decayed and messy and have lots of sandstone structures and signs of degradation. Behind that off in the distance was then supposed to be futuristic again.

    Another mistake I made also that I never really fixed was the interior space was too low and it was difficult to try and fit everything in the vista, something I will fix when I go back to the map.


    Aaron's Stuff



    Quote
     Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
    Posted by tnkqwe on Mon Dec 7th at 4:24am 2009

    What happened with the competition?


    Never think about bad things!
    TNKqwe:The New Killer qwe

    I am Engineer - Play Free Online Games

    Citizen Arms



    Quote
     Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
    Posted by aaron_da_killa on Mon Dec 7th at 7:07am 2009

    Quoting tnkqwe
    What happened with the competition?


    Redwood won says so in the original post. smiley


    Aaron's Stuff



    Quote
     Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
    Posted by RedWood on Mon Dec 7th at 8:02pm 2009

    I asked Riven for a gifted copy of L4D2 and called it even. Thanks Riven!!! Sweet ass game. I'll never play L4D1 again. smiley


    Reality has become a commodity.



    Quote
     Re: Voting Thread for 2009 Competition
    Posted by Riven on Tue Dec 8th at 6:54am 2009

    Yea, I'm not complaining, but that leaves still an extra copy of L4D available smiley
    Since RedWood did not want it, it's technically still Finger's copy, although I've forgotten to tell him it's still not given away yet.

    I probably shouldn't have said that though smiley



    "Stand up straight, pick up monitor firmly with both hands, slam it against yer forehead..... If yer still standing, you took a "screenshot" -Dr Brasso




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