Mangy's Frontier Essay

MangyCarface

MangyCarface

Mapper
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Feb 26, 2008
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A bunch of people chipped in resources as I was writing this and I think you guys may find it interesting/useful so I figured I'd edit it to be sharable with the community. Here's the link: Mangy's Thesis

Disclaimers:
This thesis is the property of the Penn State Schreyer Honors College library.
The map pl_frontier is the property of Valve.
 
Randdalf

Randdalf

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Feb 14, 2008
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Holy crap nice! Unfortunately it just comes up with a black screen for me if I try to "stream it" in-browser.
 
cyked

cyked

L3: Member
Dec 18, 2009
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Short version?

Edit:
also what?

Player Death Heatmaps
Finally, the Source server logs provide data concerning every player death that occurs on
a map. This data may be plugged through a third-party tool to generate a „heatmap‟ of deaths over
a top-down overview of the map itself. Darker areas correspond to regions of high battle
intensity, with lighter regions seeing less action. Such heatmaps shed light on intensity changes in
a 2D format, allowing for less-precise but easily formulated conclusions about the map‟s
gameplay
Click to expand...

YOU GOT HEATMAPS?
 
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Prestige

Prestige

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Mar 23, 2010
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damn. analyzing to the max. looking at the difficulty curves was fun and finally seeing it get all well and balanced. do you do this with all your maps?
 
MangyCarface

MangyCarface

Mapper
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Feb 26, 2008
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I've graduated btw, that's what the thesis was for :p
Prestige said:
damn. analyzing to the max. looking at the difficulty curves was fun and finally seeing it get all well and balanced. do you do this with all your maps?
Click to expand...

I'm not as in to it as before, one thing you NEED is an excellent server operator and so my one friend was enormous help in gathering this data.

I didn't consciously know that I was creating 'difficulty curves' when I was making the map, I was just analyzing the data in the same way to guide the map towards my own concept of 'fun'. Then when I went into the literature I was able to put a name on it.

As the takeaways state, the big thing is determining your metrics, controlling for them, and then making changes informed on your results. Nothing spectacular but I think taking it to this level of empiricism can really help mappers, especially beginners.
 
MangyCarface

MangyCarface

Mapper
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Feb 26, 2008
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Fr0Z3n said:
... and I live in philly. GODDAMIT MANGY!
Click to expand...

LOL well we'll chill somehow

This is extremely well written.

Have you thought about graduate school?
Click to expand...

Thanks! But no, I'm going right into the work force... I can write alright but academia really ain't for me, no offense meant.
 
purequaternion

purequaternion

L3: Member
May 19, 2009
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Thanks! But no, I'm going right into the work force... I can write alright but academia really ain't for me, no offense meant.[/QUOTE]

None taken...I think most of us are crazy, to be honest.
 
Tom Hoen

Tom Hoen

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May 2, 2009
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Now this inspires and motivates me to think my thesis theme. Luckily I don't have to write it yet but I'll graduate in 2 years. I think I'm going to write something about level designing.

Now onwards to read this thesis.
 
grazr

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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Why are your acknowledgements censored? Also, Chapter 7 made me hungry.

EDIT: On page 13 you say Goldrush has 6 capture points, but it actually has 7. D:
 
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DaBeatzProject

DaBeatzProject

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Sep 12, 2008
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Really interesting article, never really thought about approaching level designing like that. Inspiring stuff!
 
Ida

Ida

deer
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Jan 6, 2008
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Did something happen to the PDF? I can't see anything, just a black square. :(

Edit: Nope, apparently this PDF reader plugin for Firefox just sucks.
 
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