Guest Blog: The Success of Half Life 2

Author's Note: Today's blog post has been written by guest blogger Darrel Dunn‏.


Valve Hammer Editor seems like it's history is complete with long details ranging from World Craft days to multiple Map use games like Half-Life. Half-Life first used Quake Engine in their game, so Hammer Editor seemed to be a great fit with their editing and compiling programs. Here's a video for visual support showing some of the basic uses Hammer Editor had on Half-Life games.

Team Fortress 2: Making Maps for Fun and Profit

Valve, being Valve, is unique in the way that the company will recognize and embrace the modders and custom content creators of the community. Valve loves modders (outside of VAC secure servers, anyways) and next to clever hat creators, it loves map makers the most.

This is Just Like Counter Strike!

I will be the first to admit, I have never actually played Counter Strike, in any version. I really only got into PC gaming rather recently, starting with TF2 and Portal. In fact, before starting this blog, my earliest encounter with the mechanics of a Counter Strike map was that of a video of a player getting stuck in a door.

But Counter Strike maps are considered classics, and often reused in other games as mods of one sort or another.

One such class if Counter Strike office or cs_office, which has mostly taken a life of its own in Garry’s Mod builds, videos and machinimas.

Cs_office is definitely an example of a well crafted map with a variety of distinct looking areas, from the snowy outdoors, to the mundane looking offices, to the dim garage level.

De_dust is also arguable the best known map of counter Strike, often used as a way to evoke nostalgia to recognition when referring to the game.

Unlike cs_office, it is a much simpler map, with fewer wide spread areas. Where in cs_office players would be scattered around the map, often in one on one engagements, de_dust usually involves many more skirmishes and team on team battles.

For further reading: Various Authors (2010). Counter Strike Wiki.  Retrieved from

http://counterstrike.wikia.com/wiki//

Guest Blog: Map Exploits

 Author's Note: Today's Entry has been graciously contributed by Brady Lundberg

Map making for video games is like an art form in a way, however creating a map requires much more than artistic skills. Logic, balance, and reason must fit inside maps to make it fair for every player while providing a challenge to them. So, let’s say that you have finished creating a map and you have played through that map several times making sure it is challenging and balanced. It is perfect, right? Well, unfortunately, that is most likely not the case.

 When games are released to the public, often players will try to abuse the games to find glitches in their designs so they can get dramatic advantage in games. Through playing games online I have learned glitches for various maps for various games from other players. Some things to keep in mind when creating maps to be sure they cannot be abused:

Interview with Swindle

 A classmate of mine has oh so generously volunteered to be interviewed for my blog. I asked him a few questions about himself and of Hammer.

Everything's Gone Zombies: The Maps of Left4Dead

In Half Life 2 and other adventure mods, creating a map is usually based around the scripts and reactions for that one player. In Team Fortress 2 and Counter Strike, the maps are created to be balanced, and for the many players with in.

In the Left4Dead series, map creating gets a bit more complicated (no doubt resulting in the separate toolsets).
On one hand, the campaigns do have major 'events', such as those that trigger 'gauntlets' or the rescue attempts. On the other, the maps have to be balanced and prepared for the spawning of the enemy team in versus, as well as the generic zombie fodder.

Step Three

Lights

Lighting is one of the most important feature of your map. It’s necessary whether you’re making an indoor or outdoor location, and knowing what to use for either of those will make a big difference in your map. Lighting provides color as well as brightness, and these two features will definitely add or subtract from your map’s atmosphere depending on how you use them.

Interview with a Layman; Colby Dawson

Colby Dawson is a sophomore student at UTD, and like me, is an ATEC major. We’ve known each other for some time and both share an interest in developing our own games. I’ve decided to ask him a few questions about my blog, the Source Engine and Hammer World Editor.

Press Release: New Blog on the Hammer Basics

Garland, Texas February 27, 2011 — Emily Pich has created a blog for tips and instruction for the map editor tool Hammer: World Editor. A Source Engine enthusiast, Pich had a large interest in the game engine, but not a lot of knowledge, especially with Hammer. However, she stated that by creating this blog and teaching others, she would also be able to teach herself.
Her knowledge comes from a variety of sources, such as Valve developer commentary, Source SDK wikis, and even from amateur tutorials found on the forum community Facepunch. Her current posts include both overviews and step by step instructions with both text and screenshots. The instructions reportedly match Pich’s own progress in learning the program.
Hammer: World Editor has been used by Valve and modders alike since the era of Half Life, and these days is used mainly for Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 mods and custom maps.

Step Two

In this step, we will begin with our first creation in Hammer, the basis for many future buildings. By this, I mean, the most basic room; four walls, one floor and one ceiling, without any other details.

Step One

When opening Hammer for the first time, my reaction was pretty much bewilderment, confusion and a slight bit of revulsion. The thing just looked complicated, even double so when opening up an actual map for the first time. Not knowing the controls, nothing I usually did for other 3D programs was working for me. The drop down menus were also quite cryptic and mysterious. So, to anyone else opening Hammer for the first time. I know how you feel. So let’s begin from the top, with the very basic basics.

The History of Hammer

The program currently known as Hammer actually has a long, long history in the video game industry, stretching all the way back to the period of the first Quake game. At the time, it was actually known as The Forge, before it soon changed names to Worldcraft. It was created by Ben Morris, who worked on the Quake games and used it to design the levels. From there, it eventually ended up under Valve and progressed into the form we know.

1996
The Forge Beta was created by Ben Morris.
It was renamed to Worldcraft, it was sold in its full version for $34.95 later that year.

1997
Valve hires Ben Morris and acquires Worldcraft for use in Half Life.

1998
Ben Morris leaves Valve, and Worldcraft gains Quake II support.

1999
In true Valve fashion, a free Worldcraft version is released, but only for use with Half Life.

2002
Worldcraft proceeds to advance, with new GSL rendering options. It is now renamed to the Hammer Editor.

2003
The Hammer tool now has compatibility with Valve’s Goldsrc Engine.

2004
Hammer is the official mapping tool for the Source Engine, and is released with the SDK. Half Life 2 is released.


2006
Hammer is last updated by Valve.


2009
Left 4 Dead 2 is released, and a more advanced version of the Source SDK is required to modify and create for the game, known as the Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring Tools.

Various Authors (2010). Valve Developer Comnunity Retrieved from

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Hammer_Editor_version_history.

Step Zero

You read that right. This is the step you should take even before you take your first step. What I mean is conceptualization.

Concept is the leading force behind both design and development. When it comes to maps, it is even more important. Maps are more than just a pretty place to have a gunfight, or to fight monsters. It has to be balanced, so that the player or players can’t simply climb up a ledge and be unreachable from the other players. It also has to be well kept, so the player isn’t getting stuck in the gaps between your two decorative rocks.

About the Author

Since a young age, video games and other interactive media have been my passion, and as a result, I enrolled in UTD as a way of learning more about the craft. My specialty with games consists of 3D modeling, texturing, and concept design. I have been working with 3D modeling programs for only a year, but I have several years of experience in 2D media.

My introduction with creating for video games came with the modding community for The Sims series, but it really was Valve’s creations that brought me into PC gaming as a whole. Through games such as Half Life 2 and Portal, I was introduced to the Source Engine, and I found that I quite enjoyed the aesthetic it provided.. Discovering Garry’s Mod opened up a whole new side of the engine for me; creating. Unfortunately, until recently, I did not know how to create anything for the Source Engine. But that has definitely changed.

Around the world, there are a multitude of creators who work with the Source Engine to create their own near standalone games (Half Life Mod Wiki, 2010). Games of particular notability or quality have even been picked up by Valve and officially published. As someone who plans on creating video games in the future, modding has been a goal for me. This blog therefore represents my first step in working with the Source Engine.

The Hammer tool is one of the basic tools of creating for the Source Engine. With it, a user can create completely unique maps for games and scenarios to take place in. It is a complex, unwieldy tool, with even the creators admitting that they want to remake it (Newell, 2011). However, it has been used to make over thousands of maps and mods and this blog will document my own path in learning the tool.

Various Authors (2010). Half Life Mods Wiki Retrieved from

http://halflifemods.wikia.com/wiki/Half-Life_Mods_Wiki.

“Gabe Newell 2011 Interview, Part 1”. (2011). Steamcast.

[Podcast]. Retrieved from thesteamcast.com.