JPJan 22, 2019
"Doom mapping is often called simple because it's just like drawing a map on a piece of paper. Quake mapping, on the other hand, is a lot like building with Lego."
Thread on an interesting new (still in development) way of building Doom maps: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/103999-announcing-bsp2doom-build-doom-levels-with-a-quake-editor
Show threadJPJan 22, 2019
This tension between models is partly why some of my ideas for a truly powerful engine-agnostic level editor are still not as concrete as I'd like: ideally you want to be able to flip effortlessly between paper map and lego, making the ortho views truly useful for creating *and* revising, but keeping the perspective views powerful enough you can spend most of your time there during eg a detailing stage. Very possible, but AFAIK nobody has grappled with these questions in a broadly useful way.
Show threadJPJan 23, 2019
Finding a lot of my thoughts about level design lately aren't much about building games at all, but about untapped meanings of simulated 3D/2D space to concepts of community.
"Virtual worlds" were this 90s-flavored approach that rode the wave of the internet's commercialization. What does it mean in 2019 to hang out with people in a 3D space? Fortnite has famously become the new mall, with all the attendant top-down corporate control. I'm most interested in alternatives built entirely by users.
Show threadCornflowerJan 27, 2019

@jplebreton I think about this a lot. I spent a lot of my late teens playing counter strike source zombie mod, a game mode where map familiarity was 90% of the skill involved.

I still vividly remember those spaces and all their secrets and tricks. It's not just that they were background to important conversations and moments, the spaces themselves have emotional meaning to me. Living now where I move apartments every year or so some of those maps feel more like my home than my actual home.

Show threadCornflower
@jplebreton Everyone has and talks about those songs that take them back to a period in their life. zm_citylife and zm_moonlight are just as powerful as music from that time to me. I wonder if this is the same for others who grew up with video games. I wonder if kids will remember their minecraft worlds for the rest of their lives.
Jan 27, 2019 at 9:55pmWeb
Show threadJPJan 28, 2019
@cornflower I totally hear ya, thanks for sharing. This idea is very much something I'm interested in exploring in some of my independent work.