Contest idea thread!

[GPuzzle]

We'd have to find a Valve artist who is willing to commit a lot of time to detail a map.

And seeing as Artpass can take a lot longer than layout development, I wouldn't be surprised if no one was free to do it (or would want to commit the time). It'd just be time that could be used on something else more important to the company (recently released game, Un-announced games, etc).


Also, when you're designing a layout, you have a specific theme in mind. With that theme in mind, you design your architecture and geometry around it. When you try and use another theme on it that wasn't originally intended, things just start to look weird. The original artpass was nice, because the layout was just really generic enough, it could be artpassed as anything. But, getting a generic layout like that is a lot harder than it appears.


I'd also suspect that Valve would be more cautious with the layout, since thats the finicky bit. You can detail it however you want, but the gameplay really needs to be GOOD ... really good .. and generally that is tough.

tl;dr: Reverse artpass is a neat idea, but I don't think valve would want to commit the time to artpassing ... and it'd be risky on the actual quality of the gameplay.

It would be a very neat idea, but if we had this type, it would be more viable to choose partners and make a collab, one designs the map and the theme, the other makes the artpass. But considering it would take about 9 months, it would be just too hard.

 

[Idolon]

Custom theme contest. Make a map in a theme unused by any official maps. Deserts are boring.

 

[GPuzzle]

custom theme contest. Make a map in a theme unused by any official maps. Deserts are boring.

How many props we would have to make? 10? 100? 250?
Textures?
Skybox?
It would be a long contest.

 

[Ælement]

Custom theme contest. Make a map in a theme unused by any official maps. Deserts are boring.

You know, that could work.

 

[Idolon]

How many props we would have to make? 10? 100? 250?
Textures?
Skybox?
It would be a long contest.

It's all up to the creator. Occult and Volcanic have proven you can create an entirely new theme with a few custom assets, not to mention we have existing themes like Construction and Bulletcrops.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

It would be a very neat idea, but if we had this type, it would be more viable to choose partners and make a collab, one designs the map and the theme, the other makes the artpass. But considering it would take about 9 months, it would be just too hard.

Then you have the issue of time commitment of the partners, and it's hard to project out sometimes a few months in advance to scope how much time you have.

 

[henke37]

I say, just stop forbidding collaborations and have a normal contest.

 

[GPuzzle]

Then you have the issue of time commitment of the partners, and it's hard to project out sometimes a few months in advance to scope how much time you have.

I was just trying to scope the time, and considering 1 month for everybody to sign in, 3 for making the layouts and 5 for detailing and correcting issues, plus about 3 months for judgment I didn't considered, it would be a one year contest.


Just my predictions.
Might take longer.

 

[tyler]

Collaborations would be terrible. It's basically twice the work put into one map. You'd have to collaborate to win.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Personally, the only type of contest I could see allowing collabs is a TC contest. And we all know that isn't going to happen.

 

[Belli]

Custom theme contest. Make a map in a theme unused by any official maps. Deserts are boring.

Yep, the percentage of desert-themed maps is way too high.

However, I'd say a contest based on existing themes would probably work out better.
I mean, not even valve can make new themes (like Soho , or Grordbort items) without half the community complaining about "breaking the art style". Custom themes would probably go the way of Hydro and Junction...how many commonly played maps have the swamp theme, for example?

But why not make something out of the themes we already got?

Halloween, Soho, and Spacecraft/spytech are all rather rare.

 

[tyler]

Mountain Lab is about half swamp, you know. That's why Valve bought the swamp pack. Also, "spytech" isn't a theme, it's a sub-theme. The theme is where the facade is. That's why people don't like Junction's detailing.

 

[Prestige]

how many themes you can combine into one map contest

 

[Ptimz]

No props. wood textures only.

 

[Pocket]

Mountain Lab is about half swamp, you know. That's why Valve bought the swamp pack. Also, "spytech" isn't a theme, it's a sub-theme. The theme is where the facade is. That's why people don't like Junction's detailing.

I thought it was the cramped size they hated about it. The detailing is fine considering how little space it accounts for; the problem is that a whole map shouldn't be that small in the first place.

 

[LeSwordfish]

Nucleus is an example of how all-spytech can work- though in practice it's mostly industrial.

 

[TheKieranator]

how many themes you can combine into one map contest

A winner is Aly

 

[Dr. Spud]

Still haven't had a shit map contest. We need more traingrids and ritalins.

 

[Okrag]

Still haven't had a shit map contest. We need more traingrids and ritalins.

You need more ritalin.

 

[henke37]

We didn't? I could have sworn that we did a bad map event for Aprill fools.