Re:Portal 2: Desolation is giving the classic puzzle game a ...
by dmr_92 on Sunday March 27, 2022 @02:35PM
(#30822763)
https://www.thinking.withportals.com/ was (is?) the big community for this. I was part of it around the time Valve released their easy map editor (the "perpetual testing initiative")---more than a decade ago now. I had the pleasure of testing the editor before its release. It was an exciting time!
Sadly that editor was geared towards single-player maps, whereas my interest was always in the coop ones. If you'll forgive the shameless plug, https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=89692... was my favourite to make. I put a lot of time into that, but sadly I lost the hard drive with the map's source files some years ago. It's done quite well on the workshop---which always surprises me. I had very little idea about level design or what constitutes a fun puzzle. Beginner's luck, maybe?
It was a lot of fun/pain/curiosity to work with and fight Valve's hammer editor. I remember thinking "this feels like a tool designed to make half-life maps". I can still remember tying brushes to func_detail entities so that they wouldn't contribute visleaves. Good times!
While I'm at it: I'd recommend the "sendificator" series: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=29165303... . These introduce a new puzzle element entirely contained within the map file. I'm guessing it must use some kind of lua script to implement it, since it's entirely contained in the map.
Sadly that editor was geared towards single-player maps, whereas my interest was always in the coop ones. If you'll forgive the shameless plug, https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=89692... was my favourite to make. I put a lot of time into that, but sadly I lost the hard drive with the map's source files some years ago. It's done quite well on the workshop---which always surprises me. I had very little idea about level design or what constitutes a fun puzzle. Beginner's luck, maybe?
It was a lot of fun/pain/curiosity to work with and fight Valve's hammer editor. I remember thinking "this feels like a tool designed to make half-life maps". I can still remember tying brushes to func_detail entities so that they wouldn't contribute visleaves. Good times!
While I'm at it: I'd recommend the "sendificator" series: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=29165303... . These introduce a new puzzle element entirely contained within the map file. I'm guessing it must use some kind of lua script to implement it, since it's entirely contained in the map.