Valve's TF2 References

[zpqrei]

Hey all, It's me again. Haven't you missed me?

I had the great opportunity to go and visit the guys at Valve, and among other things, some of the TF2 level designers let me have a look through some of the books they used for references. I figured you'd like to see them, so I grabbed some photos on my phone.

This is the one they used for Foundry. They used the blue stickers (coming out of the top) when they found something they liked. Not everything they liked went in, but a lot of it is very close to what's in the books.

This one's a little blurry, sorry, I was in a bit of a rush. This is the one they used for Granary (no shit, sherlock), and I think the cover photo was used as inspiration for the middle control point.

Also, that is a custom Hammer-colour-coded keyboard there. It was awesome.

The books are by a couple who go around taking photos of old things, and these two books were used really heavily in the design of Granary and Foundry. If anyone can find a copy of these books online somewhere, you should definitely link it here.

Hope this is useful guys!

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Do they sell those keyboards?

Also, where the hell did you come from?

 

[Grizzly Berry]

Very cool! Quick search on Amazon shows you can buy them there. A bit pricey though.

 

[zpqrei]

Do they sell those keyboards?

Also, where the hell did you come from?

I don't think they do, they got them custom built apparently. I guess there are sites where you can get one like it made.

Edit: And I've been studying abroad of late, so I only brought my laptop, ergo not much level design. It's a shame, but I really need to get back into it.

 

[xzzy]

Very cool! Quick search on Amazon shows you can buy them there. A bit pricey though.

Any drive between the rockies and the mississippi will give tons of samples to copy from too. Good examples of old industrial stuff all over the east side of the US too.

So basically, go road tripping.

 

[YM]

>See thread started by zpqrei
>Assume it's a superbump
>Click anyway to see what the drip who bumped it has to say for themselves
>Discover untold riches

 

[Ice Crystal]

You can order a custom full set of keycaps for mechanical keyboards, I'm just wondering how they color coded it
http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index..../104-key-cherry-mx-keycap-set.html#ad-image-0

 

[Seba]

What's so special about the keyboards

 

[xzzy]

Probably useful for people who can't type by touch or have learned all the hotkeys yet, just look at the keyboard and see what the button does.

Science!

 

[Seba]

Also, that is a custom Hammer-colour-coded keyboard there. It was awesome.

Oh, I missed this part