Hello and welcome to the first (of many or maybe last) 50-Hour Mapping Challenge – MinimalismVille.

Below are the details.

PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY.

As always, if you have any questions, you can either post a comment or if you require a private reply, send Phillip an email: [email protected]

Detail is wonderful. When it is appropriate. Empty space, sometimes called “negative space”, is as important as the content. Change the space between notes of a song and you change the whole feel.

As a level designer, it’s important to be able to know how much or how little to use of something.

We believe that this challenge will allow you to make careful and interesting use of the games assets. It will focus your attention on what is truly important when creating interactive levels.

Therefore, we would like you to create a map that uses the concept of “minimalism”. This could mean a limited number of enemies (maybe even one), weapons, one piece of ammo, one room, one area, a limited number of brushes, textures or models. Dev textures are allowed. Visuals are NOT the focus of this challenge, although great looking maps always give the right impression.

What is it that is essential for your map? Remove anything that isn’t necessary.

One word of warning: Simply creating an area with infinitely respawning enemies is NOT what we are looking for. That is not minimalism.

The winning map will be the one that is fun to play and presents its idea in a creative way.

GOOD LUCK!

The deadline for submitting maps is:

Sunday 14th May 2017 at 11:59pm Central European Summer Time

Check you timezone!

DO NOT GET TOO AMBITIOUS. Something is bound to delay your progress. Leave time for testing, bug fixing and polishing!

50-hours doesn’t give you much time but it’s always good to test if you can, especially early in the dev phase.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II will be given to the winner.

I am pleased to announce that for this challenge I will be joined by DolmotheDouglas for judging duties.

We will select the winner as the best map that uses the theme in a creative and fun to play way.

Chat about your idea and progress. The judges may visit but DO NOT use it as a way to ask questions about the theme – use this post or Phillip’s email: [email protected]

• Maximum one map 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 RTSL-50-HourMC: MinimalismVille 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_50hmc-c1.bsp
• All entries must be sent to: [email protected] no later than the deadline.
• If you do not receive a confirmation email without 24 hours of sending an entry, contact Phillip IMMEDIATELY.

If you have ANY questions, please don’t hesitate to ask, either here in the comments or by email if you prefer a private answer.