Since my photoshop license recently expired and even before it expired my laptop took 5-10 minutes to open it, I haven't been keeping a punchcard.
So I'll just wrangle forums table formatting instead.
Now onto the fun stuff:
Participation vs Completion:
I started 5 maps, and finished 5 maps. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
But that still means I only got 11 punches out of a possible 20.
Favourite Prompt this Season:
It has to be Exclusion Zone. The concept was so cool - include tree gameplay previously alien to TF2 maps, and make it work somehow. Here are some screenshots of my excited attempts to show it off:
Least Favourite Prompt this Season:
It has to be Exclusion Zone. The concept was so cool - but in reality the pillars were too big, and too far apart, so it felt like I was just making an ordinary map but with a huge grid size. I feel like there was so much missed potential. The pillars could have been 512 units apart and 256 wide, and octagonal to encourage corner gameplay and angled geometry. That way, building a big, open gameplay space would have been an actual interesting challenge.
I want a "exclusion zone rerun" so badly that I'm almost willing to run an unofficial microcontest to make that happen.
If you want a real answer, it's Rule of Threes. I like microcontests for their experimental nature, so it's no surprise that a prompt designed for a more traditional, more serious, higher-stakes contest wouldn't do it for me.
Favourite Map I Made This Season:
My side of koth_zythetiftid_mc19_a1. I had fun making 3/5 of my microcontest maps, but koth_zythetiftid_mc19_a1 was the only one that also turned out kinda fun to play. Well, it wasn't until we split it into two separate maps, but still. It was the first time I'd ever collabed with someone, and somehow me and zythe blindly collabing with each other led both of us to make the best maps we'd ever made. I guess we didn't wanna let each other down.
Most Memorable Map(s) Made by Others:
cp_mache, for being a map that I failed to understand for the longest time, then eventually I realised that it was actually really well-designed. Although I never played the microcontest version, only the later, better versions.
koth_ismaciodismorphus_mc14, rd_chokepointhell_mc15 and cp_ismac_mc18 for being difficult to comprehend in the most charming way possible.
arena_idolon_mc18 for looking like it was made by a madman but actually being surprisingly well-designed and easy to wrap your head around.
bo5_sarexicus_codex_mc18 for bringing multi-stage Arena into the spotlight.
sd_zythe_mc18 for having the most awesome, most enjoyable train-tracks area I've ever seen in a tf2 map. (I mean the curvy one, but the straight one with the tug-of-war train was actually fun too)
(man mc18 gave us some good maps wtf)
ctf_floof_mc13 for having a water sphere
Thoughts on the 24hr format vs the 4hr format:
In late 2020, for MC8 - Thinking Inside the Box, I made my first ever microcontest map.
The microcontest started at 2am, with one hour to plan. I resolved that I wanted to make a Gravelpit-style map.
Bad idea.
3am came, and I spent an hour trying to make this idea into a layout. By 4am, I had decided that this wasn't going to work.
I instead came up with the brilliant plan to take gravelpit, but cut out the C point. But also, because I was only given a tiny box to work in, I made the points right outside BLU spawn.
By this point, it was 5am, and the lack of sleep had begun to set in. I was entering the state where a coherent chain of thoughts is impossible, and I was making completely rectangular corridors with no height variation.
By 6am, in a state of extreme distress, I compiled the map and uploaded it to the thread as a bsp, so I didn't have to claim ownership of this disappointment by making a download page for it.
Then I went to sleep. At least, I hope I did.
The 24hr format has improved the possibility of undertaking microcontests for me immensely. Thank you for thinking it up.
It's also done something else - proved that it doesn't take months to make an enjoyable map.
It was rarer to find a fun map in the 2020 microcontests, because you can't really make one in 4 hours. But 24 seems to be plenty, and microcontest maps are now frequently fun.
I mean, after seeing people make genuinely fun maps in a mere 24 hours, what reason do I have to spend months mulling over whether my unreleased a1 needs to have a crate moved 64 units on B?
And it makes it feel way more worthwhile to participate, since you know you actually have a chance of making something playable.
So I'll just wrangle forums table formatting instead.
| Microcontest | MC11 - Rule of Threes | MC12 - Hit the Limits | MC13 - Mode Shifter | MC14 - Trains | MC15 - Robot Destruction | MC16 - Exclusion Zone | MC17 - Earth, Wind, and/or Fire | MC18 - Lockout | MC19 - Dynamic, Asymmetric KotH | MC20 - Static Spawns |
| Attempted a map? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Completed a map? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (together with zythe) | Yes |
| Speedmapper? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Never again | Never again | Never again | Never again | Never again |
| Bonus? | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Now onto the fun stuff:
Participation vs Completion:
I started 5 maps, and finished 5 maps. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
But that still means I only got 11 punches out of a possible 20.
Favourite Prompt this Season:
It has to be Exclusion Zone. The concept was so cool - include tree gameplay previously alien to TF2 maps, and make it work somehow. Here are some screenshots of my excited attempts to show it off:
Least Favourite Prompt this Season:
It has to be Exclusion Zone. The concept was so cool - but in reality the pillars were too big, and too far apart, so it felt like I was just making an ordinary map but with a huge grid size. I feel like there was so much missed potential. The pillars could have been 512 units apart and 256 wide, and octagonal to encourage corner gameplay and angled geometry. That way, building a big, open gameplay space would have been an actual interesting challenge.
I want a "exclusion zone rerun" so badly that I'm almost willing to run an unofficial microcontest to make that happen.
If you want a real answer, it's Rule of Threes. I like microcontests for their experimental nature, so it's no surprise that a prompt designed for a more traditional, more serious, higher-stakes contest wouldn't do it for me.
Favourite Map I Made This Season:
My side of koth_zythetiftid_mc19_a1. I had fun making 3/5 of my microcontest maps, but koth_zythetiftid_mc19_a1 was the only one that also turned out kinda fun to play. Well, it wasn't until we split it into two separate maps, but still. It was the first time I'd ever collabed with someone, and somehow me and zythe blindly collabing with each other led both of us to make the best maps we'd ever made. I guess we didn't wanna let each other down.
Most Memorable Map(s) Made by Others:
cp_mache, for being a map that I failed to understand for the longest time, then eventually I realised that it was actually really well-designed. Although I never played the microcontest version, only the later, better versions.
koth_ismaciodismorphus_mc14, rd_chokepointhell_mc15 and cp_ismac_mc18 for being difficult to comprehend in the most charming way possible.
arena_idolon_mc18 for looking like it was made by a madman but actually being surprisingly well-designed and easy to wrap your head around.
bo5_sarexicus_codex_mc18 for bringing multi-stage Arena into the spotlight.
sd_zythe_mc18 for having the most awesome, most enjoyable train-tracks area I've ever seen in a tf2 map. (I mean the curvy one, but the straight one with the tug-of-war train was actually fun too)
(man mc18 gave us some good maps wtf)
ctf_floof_mc13 for having a water sphere
Thoughts on the 24hr format vs the 4hr format:
In late 2020, for MC8 - Thinking Inside the Box, I made my first ever microcontest map.
The microcontest started at 2am, with one hour to plan. I resolved that I wanted to make a Gravelpit-style map.
Bad idea.
3am came, and I spent an hour trying to make this idea into a layout. By 4am, I had decided that this wasn't going to work.
I instead came up with the brilliant plan to take gravelpit, but cut out the C point. But also, because I was only given a tiny box to work in, I made the points right outside BLU spawn.
By this point, it was 5am, and the lack of sleep had begun to set in. I was entering the state where a coherent chain of thoughts is impossible, and I was making completely rectangular corridors with no height variation.
By 6am, in a state of extreme distress, I compiled the map and uploaded it to the thread as a bsp, so I didn't have to claim ownership of this disappointment by making a download page for it.
Then I went to sleep. At least, I hope I did.
The 24hr format has improved the possibility of undertaking microcontests for me immensely. Thank you for thinking it up.
It's also done something else - proved that it doesn't take months to make an enjoyable map.
It was rarer to find a fun map in the 2020 microcontests, because you can't really make one in 4 hours. But 24 seems to be plenty, and microcontest maps are now frequently fun.
I mean, after seeing people make genuinely fun maps in a mere 24 hours, what reason do I have to spend months mulling over whether my unreleased a1 needs to have a crate moved 64 units on B?
And it makes it feel way more worthwhile to participate, since you know you actually have a chance of making something playable.
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