First of all, I must acknowledge all the other maps that were submitted to this contest and the countless hours of work put into all of them. You can see my votes for all submissions (except for herbicide, I’m sorry half, I’ve heard it was fun though, and Thalassophobia will be getting a vote with feedback as soon as I can play it) here and here .
I’m blessed to be a competitor amongst such great maps, and I hope you are all proud of the effort put in.
Now to talk about how I started my entry, oh boy :/
When I clicked the . in the first new blog post on TF2Maps I figured there was shenanigans afoot, and lo and behold, Stack the Deck was revealed. The concept seemed very interesting and since this was the first contest to take place since I started mapping, I decided to abandon my a2 payload map to brainstorm my new submission.
I was still VERY new to the craft, so I don’t blame myself for the faults of the map and see it more as a sign I’ve learnt a lot. Hey, why don’t I talk about what I learnt
I’m blessed to be a competitor amongst such great maps, and I hope you are all proud of the effort put in.
Now to talk about how I started my entry, oh boy :/
When I clicked the . in the first new blog post on TF2Maps I figured there was shenanigans afoot, and lo and behold, Stack the Deck was revealed. The concept seemed very interesting and since this was the first contest to take place since I started mapping, I decided to abandon my a2 payload map to brainstorm my new submission.
I was still VERY new to the craft, so I don’t blame myself for the faults of the map and see it more as a sign I’ve learnt a lot. Hey, why don’t I talk about what I learnt
- Dear God, please plan out as much as you can.
I’ve found I’m very much a “vibes” mapper instead of one that plans out everything, but I must admit this would only do me a disservice when i had to clean up the mess later, with more on the line. This was only more evident in the train finale some might remember. I had hoped to have a train finale as it would fulfil two cards and be pretty cool. However, I didn’t take into consideration how hard it is to make it fun to retake as red, yet I committed to it anyway. I had also wanted to have the train go above B point yet I didn’t plan this out.
It is only when I reached a9 and onwards I really had to start imagining what I wanted for this map, instead of just using “vibes”. And trust me, vibes can work, but maybe use the vibes to plan instead of going headfirst into hammer.
- Sometimes your map sucks.
Sometimes you gotta face the facts, that cool set-piece does not work. Again, my train finale is a good example of this. I went through so many alphas hoping players would somehow love it when in reality they weren’t. I know it’s cliché to hear but you gotta bite the bullet and cut it out. And 90% of the time, you can make something better out of it. Map making is all about iteration and figuring out what works and what doesn’t, and sometimes it’s good to be harsh on yourself.
- Sometimes your map rules.
Some days you might be feeling like your map isn’t doing well, the feedback page says the balance is 28/72, B is a mess, and dear god is that a visible nodraw?! You’re probably thinking you’re a disgrace to TF2 mapping.
But when you hear people saying how they like the map, you think to yourself:
“What are they thinking, it’s obviously terrible.“
This mindset was me leading up to the finalist voting, and I can tell ya it’s not fun to doubt yourself like this. But in reality, it’s often worth it to take a step back and acknowledge the work you’ve accomplished. Yes, it may have flaws, but you can always work on them later, and the fact that the players are enjoying it anyway shows that they love it despite them. It’s a good feeling to admit you’ve made something people enjoy. It’s a nice contrast to only focusing on the negatives, which will ruin your mental health.
Again, we do this for fun. (Unless you’re on the Workshop grind, Godspeed soldiers)
If you’re feeling down, take a break.
And that’s what I feel like I learnt from my experience participating in this contest. Again, I am very grateful for the support I received for my entry. I hope this lil rant is useful to anyone and good luck to the other finalists!