I suppose this should have been part of the Releases of the Year 2014 but it’s too late now, so I might as well use it as a poll question.
Looking at each year’s mapping challenging it’s possible that this year was one of the strongest in terms of average quality.
Just in case you have forgotten them, I have added the excerpts below.
At the bottom is the voting area – go vote!
An underground base, a school, a prison, a station, a house and a testing facility.
All with a dark secret…..
Will you survive?
Let’s see…
Automated enemies never get tired, never get scared and never doubt themselves.
You face three different scenarios where your only adversaries are automated enemies.
They require a different approach to live enemies; patience and thoughtfulness. Running and Gunning most likely won’t work.
Good Luck, you’re gonna need it.
That blue laser and the special sound the sniper rifle makes is enough to make me cringe.
I know that I have to tread very carefully and one false move may mean my instant death.
In this mod, you test your skill in 3 very different maps.
Two weapons and two types of enemies. That’s it!
What interesting combinations could be created?
By limiting those two aspects of a map, it was hoped that mappers would look for unusual combinations of weapons and enemies and also force the player to think creatively.
For this competition, entrants had to create an area from which the player must escape.
This “Escape” is most probably accomplished through the solving of some puzzle and/or combat.
The area can be a room, a series of rooms or even outside. The concept is that the player must find a way to move outside of the area.
I was hoping for some clever puzzles, hopefully environmental in nature and not some obscure and impossible to solve button pressing sequence.
This mod contains 3 official entries, one extra entry and a bonus map made over a longer time period.
Eight maps, all set in Ravenholm, with one simple objective: Escape.
Look out for traps, hiding places, and anything else that can save your neck.
Each map offers something different and fresh, so make sure you take your time and enjoy the screams!
AssassinateVille contains 5 maps where you must eliminate one particular person.
Each map is set in very different environments and situations.
All require you to escape after the assassination, with some easier than others.
Oh, RavenholmVille. It’s not even close. What amazes me about RavenholmVille is not only the number of entries, but just how lengthy they were for only having ~15 days of construction time. Then, of course, DaZ’s bonus map was great.
I’ve always preferred “Location-Ville” or “Enemy-Ville” competitions because there’s usually a shared consensus on what exactly that means. We all know what Ravenholm looks like, so we share a common starting point. It’s about what you do from there that matters.
Also, you forgot HorrorVille.
GOD DAMN IT! I’ve been using the Dev site because it’s sooo much better than the live one but the DB it uses is older.
Kind of difficult to say, each competition had good and bad maps. I personally didn’t enjoy Ravenholmville all that much but I think that’s more because it was like a 3 hour wad of Ravenholm which I stupidly did in one go. Individually the maps were great I think I just spoiled the experience for myself.
I voted for Combinationville because I just found Cannon Beach the most fun to play. Though if we were to judge it by actual entries then I would go for Terminus from Assassinateville I’m a huge fan of less linear game-play.
RavenholmVille is my winner. Some great entries which I still have good memories of. Moreover, there was many entries and each of them had something good to see/play.
AssassinateVille has some good stuff here and there, the overall theme was cool, the stealth parts of course, but it was too much desequilibrated in quality.
The others were average. Horrorville was a major disappointment compared to HalloweenVille in 2013, but I won’t say again what I said on the thread of the mod.
Sniperville 2 was an even more great disappointment IMHO. Sniperville was the first Ville and one of the best overall, and the sequel sadly didn’t live up the hype.
Still, overall, for all these Ville, I can only praise the modders, the one who continue to believe in Source modding and in Half Life in general.
My choice is RavenholmeVille, closely followed by DiamondDogsVille.
Hmm, I don’t remember much of these competitions, I’ll have to replay them. Good thing I free tomorrow because it looks like a VilleMarathon tonight.
I’ll see you on the other side.
Also, I am super exited for the new Site, it looks so professional and cool. Maybe Valve will see that there are people who are still in love with Half Life 2 and (almost) plays it everyday?
RavenholmVille was ok, but killing just zombies doesn’t really turn me on that much since they’re easy to fight. I prefer fighting Combines. I loved some of the mapping though and the gameplay, but it wasn’t my favorite. My favorite would have to be DiamondDogsVille. Alot of the maps was really fun, especially that gnome timer level! Just feeling the adrenaline and rush! Plus the bonus map took place in City 17 and I love City 17 maps the best!
Three of four maps in CombinationVille was also very fun, but that was the last ville I played because the villes started getting uninteresting after that. Now AssassinateVille was kinda meh. Assassinating mostly just Combine Elites wasn’t that fun because I don’t see them as high ranking Combine members, I just think they’re heavy infantry, but too each their own. Only one map really interested me in that contest.
I think the villes will start getting more interesting again in the future. Phil gave alot of time in this next ville so I expect awesome maps! 😀
I’m glad to see that I wasn’t the only one to like Horrorville after all, even if it was mostly just for The Host (and Milter). It is really my favorite map from any challenge this year I think. I just loved it’s minimal design and that it approached the theme from a different angle.
That closet will be forever burned into my memory as the most horrifying minute of doing nothing I ever had.
CombinationVille was also pretty interesting, especially the bonus map.
And of all the others I don’t remember much anymore. RavenholmVille I didn’t found to be very interesting strangely, even if it had some good maps.
I agree that closet in the Host was terrifying, in fact I personally failed at closing my eyes during 60 seconds, I was so scared that the dev would put some horrific sounds during that time for example.
Still, it was only a small spark of quality in what was overwise an ocean of disappointment.
(And yet a paradox because I said numerous times that Horrorville was a failure in horror compared to Halloweenville, but this tiny little scene was really much scary than everything in both mod’s. In fact it was suddenly too much scary to handle).
I think in this poll I will definitely go for “RavenhlomVille” because I like competitions more oriented into places, than gameplay restrictions. Though I recognize some competitions as AsessinateVille or HorrorVille were very entertaining to play and had many good entries in them.
For 2015, I just would expect more thrilling comps. but I only hope they’re more oriented into developing places inside HL2 Universe than any other stuff. I would eagerly play some “UrbanVille”, or “City # Ville”, even “PrisonVille”, or “Citadel Ville” you know, I just love to play entries in those fantastic scenarios you can only find in HL2.
Yeah, I’d look into developing some of the more iconic areas in Half-Life 2 into comps. TrainVille, CanalVille, BridgeVille, CoastVille, PrisonVille, HospitalVille, etc.
I would also really like to see potential sequels when it comes to enemy villes, like HunterVille 2, or new ones like AntlionVille.
I really enjoyed Ravenholmville. It was the contest I was most looking forward to and it really delivered. I think I’ll play it again 🙂