This is the Read category

A collection of text posts, including Poll Questions, Text Interviews with moddersand Phillip’s Blog. All posts are written to encourage friendly debate and discussion.

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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

April 2014 – General Chat.

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

Well Here is April, let’s hope that we don’t have too many showers!

Please use this post to talk about about anything you want to – except maps and mods, which should be done of the specific post, assuming there is one.

1st 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

March 2014 – General Chat.

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

Thank goodness February is over. I’m hoping that Spring will start to show its face soon.

Well, here we are again, ready to chat about anything that takes your fancy.

1st March 2014 29 Comments

February 2014 – General Chat

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

When I first typed this post I made a typo: “Fabruary”. But maybe it was the universe tellking me something?

Maybe this could be a FAB (short for fabulous) month.

So, tell me something interesting….

Please use this post to talk about about anything you want to – except maps and mods, which should be done of the specific post, assuming there is one.

1st February 2014 18 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

January 2014 – General Chat.

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

Welcome to 2014!

Let’s hope that it will be a bumper year for Half-Life maps and mods

Please use this post to talk about about anything you want to – except maps and mods, which should be done of the specific post, assuming there is one.

1st January 2014 27 Comments