Hello July. Why is it raining? Where is the sun?
Here we are. Over halfway through 2018. Where has the decade gone?!
I AM GOING TO FINISH WOLFENSTEIN: THE NEW ORDER THIS MONTH! yes, I know I have said that for the last 12 months but I really mean it this time.
On a serious note, I would like to apologise for the lack of updates recently. the site has essentially become the Mapping Challenges and that is not right. I promise to begin to add new maps and mods very, very soon.
How was your Steam Sale? Did you spend too much money? I did a stream, where I spent just over $25, with $15 of that donated. It was fun. Watch it here:
On that note, I don’t think I will be stream my playing very much any more. I’ll stick to mapping and other types of streams. I’m not funny, good, or insightful enough to warrant other people watching me. No, this is just a subtle hope that people will contradict me.
Hoping to re-start the Level Design Academy stream soon, so look out for those. As well as talking about my game collection.
There are things happening in the background that we hope to announce regarding the RTSL Mod template, but just to assure you that work is continuing.
That’s it, I think.
Sorry for the late publication of this post.
What are your plans for July and what have you been doing, thinking, creating, reading, watching lately?
You know, come to think of it. I feel like the headcrab rockets have something against me. Whenever I’m playing a Ville, there will be at least one time I will die from those rockets come crashing down on me. ToxicVille, CoastVille, DefendVilleTwo……
They hate us all!
Can you send some of that rain my way? It’s absolutely scorching here in the UK at the moment.
I’m currently enjoying the sporting bonanza on TV, particularly the World Cup. So many unpredictable results, not least Englands performance. Not only have they far exceeded expectations but the conduct of the players and coaches has been refreshingly calm and grounded compared to what we’re usually subjected too.
Unfortunately over the last few months I’ve lost almost all enthusiasm for mapping. Maybe that will change with the next Black Mesa challenge?
For the past month-and-a-half, my focus has been on Overload. They released their level editor and it’s a lot of fun to use. I’ve done a couple single player maps already for it.
Overload is a six-degrees-of-freedom shooter (6dof) made by much of the same team that worked on Descent in the mid-90s. Rather than a typical FPS where you walk or run, in Overload, you control a nimble little ship that flies through zero-gravity, labyrinthine mines, shooting robots with a barrage of unique weapons. Overload is to Descent as Doom 2016 was to the original Doom – it’s fast, with a strong emphasis on movement and slick controls.
It is interesting to note that the Overload approach to level editing is deliberately similar to how Descent’s levels were built. This is because the main level designer made custom single player campaigns for the community back in the mid-90s, like I did. Who would have thought that 20 years later, he’d be making the spiritual successor? 😀
So….I just realized I’m pursuing game design and have yet to design anything of a game. I guess Source is a good start, maybe one day I’ll have enough spare time to sit down and make one. I will, but not now. I positively think being a reviewer might have given me examples of what to and not to do.
By the way, to get myself into Game Design in my dream college, writing an analysis of a game is one of the requirements. I have finished writing it and surprise, surprise I chose Half-Life 2.
Half-Life 2 has always been important to me, it just opened me to western gaming world when I was like 5 years old. I miss the old days of watching people play it countless times on 2000’s era YouTube. It introduced me to a lot of things, Garry’s Mod, Team Fortress 2, Dead Space, Borderlands etc. I chose it because I feel like….I owe it a debt. A great debt. I really wonder if I did not discover the game where would I be right now.