Category: Creations

Podcast 17 To Interview Portal 2 Mapmaker And Employee Of The Moment, Mevious [UPDATED]

May 15th, 2012 · By Vic · 0 Comments

[UPDATE: It's going on right now! Tune in here, and join the Steam chat here!

Some of you might know that, during my spare time, I co-host the tubular Podcast 17. Today, in approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes (4PM PST/7PM EST/0AM GMT; check out the Steam Group announcement for exact scheduling in your area), we’ll be interviewing the one and only Mevious, one of the world’s top Portal level designers (creator of Portal Pro and Rexaura), and currently the Employee of the Moment on Portal 2′s Perpetual Testing Initiative, over at the Steam Workshop.

Stay tuned to P17′s TwitchTV, as well as P17′s Steam Group, for more info.

Part 2 Of Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s Black Mesa: Source Interview Is Out

May 13th, 2012 · By Vic · 6 Comments

In more than slightly late news on our part, the fine folks at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have posted up part 2 of their interview with Carlos “cman2k” Montero of the Black Mesa: Source devteam. And, yes, there is a bit of new BM:S media – but just a little bit! Read on.

Portal 2′s Perpetual Testing Initiative Hits 1.3 Million Downloads; 35,000 User-Created Test Chambers; And More!

May 11th, 2012 · By Vic · 5 Comments

Released barely two days ago, Portal 2′s latest DLC offering, the Perpetual Testing Initiative has turned out to be a pretty massive success, as heralded by a press release from Valve in which they announced some of the PeTI service’s early statistics. Apparently, over 35,000 custom puzzle levels have already been created and published over the Steam Workshop. In total, the Portal 2 playerbase have already consumed over 1.3 million test chamber downloads.

In celebration, Valve is holding a Weekend Workshop sale on the Steam Store, during which Portal 2 will remain at its Midweek Madness discount of 66% off (about 6 dollars/5 euros), Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will be 33% off, and within Team Fortress 2′s in-game Mann Co Store, many of the officially released, community-created Steam Workshop items will be available for 50% off their regular price. Now that’s science for you. Quick, go buy things!

And if you haven’t had enough science within the PeTI, then allow me to provide you with some of my recommendations: CaretCaret’s “12 Angry Tests” series, which contains some of the greatest level design, puzzle gameplay and bizarre humor I have ever experienced; Jaxe’s excellent “Decay” mini-series, sporting some incredible level design, built for intermediate to skilled Portal players; Motanum’s A La Tag series, with unique and innovatie gameplay strongly focused on gel gameplay; and the Podcast 17 Community Chamber collection, encompassing all puzzle levels created by my brothers in arms and colleagues: the Podcast 17 community members.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun Interviews Carlos Montero, Lead Developer of Black Mesa: Source

May 9th, 2012 · By Vic · 14 Comments

It seems like everything even remotely Half-Life related is ultimately doomed to spend some time in some manner of development hell, limbo or purgatory. No one knows this better than the modders still hard at work on Black Mesa: Source, a remake/reimagining of the original Half-Life, built on the modern-day Source engine, and in the works since late 2004. It’s a colossal endeavor for a team of maybe two dozen amateur developers. With no actual budget, their only resource is time, and they have had a lot of it.

Now, Rock, Paper, Shotgun have managed to ”crowbar the answers” out of Carlos “cman2k” Montero, project lead of BM:S, in an insightful and well-done two-part interview. Let’s take a look at part 1, after the jump.

Oh My God, Someone Is Making An Animated Portal Movie

April 30th, 2012 · By Vic · 7 Comments

Since Portal 2′s release in April of last year, we’ve seen the release of a number of terrific fan-films: the poignant and clever “Outside Aperture“; the intriguing but lovely “Portal: No Escape“; and of course, the hilarious “Aperture: A Triumph of Science“. They serve as testaments to the community’s dedication, and appreciation for the world that Valve has so masterfully crafted. But every once in a while, one of those amazing projects comes around that’s just so promising, you can’t help but just be stunned. And this is one of them!

The G-Man Squad Is Back, And Fully Remastered

April 26th, 2012 · By Vic · 4 Comments

These days, the art of machinima isn’t doing as well as it used to. But way back in 2008, one of its masters was, and still is Xanatos of the Janus Syndicate, who released the first episode of the G-Man Squad series that same year. While he’s still making some awesome stuff these days, the G-Man Squad remains many people’s favorites from the Janus Syndicate. Which might be why Xanatos has decided to return to its origins, with a ten-minute G-Man Squad special containing re-shot and re-edited video from its first 3 episodes, as well as some never-before-seen footage. And yes, you get to hear Boris’s… distinct scream, in HD audio.

The Evolution of Aztec

April 22nd, 2012 · By Vic · 15 Comments

Oh, Counter-Strike. We really do love you. Which is why we stalked you and took pictures of you while you aged! We’re a lot like paparazzi, except instead of selling the pictures, we just put them on YouTube. That way, everybody wins!

PlanetPhillip’s 6×10 Source Level Design Competition

April 17th, 2012 · By Vic · 0 Comments

Level design is, undoubtedly, a noble art. Sun Tzu might not have written a book about it, but he was probably afraid that David Sawyer (arguably the greatest level designer to ever set foot on this Earth, and supposedly, also plays a mean Sniper in TFC) would have written it better than him. But Sun Tzu got lucky, as David Sawyer, along with the rest of Valve, were too busy making cool games, to even consider kicking Sun Tzu’s ass back into the… well, whatever age he was born in.

And that brings us back to our main point – Source level design. It’s been a while since there was a nice little level design competition to test our skills in the mapping arena. But we need wait no longer, as PlanetPhillip has revealed one of the most intriguing and original mapping contests in a very long time!

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