For over a decade, PlanetPhillip.com has been a pillar of the Half-Life community, hosting the widest collection of single-player maps and mods available. Yesterday however, the site shut its proverbial doors for the last time…

As Halloween approaches, PlanetPhillip.com has today announced a new single-player mapping challenge for Half-Life 2: Episode 2 entitled “HorrorVille”.

The challenge will run from 12:00am Friday 17th October to 12:00pm (GMT) on Monday 3rd November, lasting 17 days.

The theme is obviously horror orientated and entrants are encouraged to make their maps as creatively scary as possible. The rules also require submissions to feature at least one weapon and enemy or one puzzle scenario, using only assets from the Half-Life 2 series of games.

The winner will be decided by a public vote and all maps submitted to a decent standard will have the chance to be included in a free HorrorVille mod after the challenge ends.

HorrorVille follows PlanetPhillip.com’s series of “ville” mapping challenges and competitions which compile publicly submitted single-player maps into free mods.

For more information, check out PlanetPhillip.com’s announcement post.

This tutorial will show you how to create custom textures for use in creating maps for the Source engine. The process is also the same for creating textures for models, sprays, mods and essentially any image data within any Source game.

“One 4 Nine” is a community created Left 4 Dead campaign made by Kevin “keved” Edwards.

It was originally released for Left 4 Dead in 2010, however it received a significant update in July this year. Since One 4 Nine’s initial release, it has been subject to critical acclaim, receiving a hefty 9.6/10 on ModDB and being elected as a “Featured Campaign” by Valve for it’s outstanding quality.

If you followed Part One of this guide, you should have some idea about the Source engine’s basic lighting capabilities. Now let’s go a step further to look at the more advanced techniques that the engine has to offer, including the extra capabilities of Portal 2, CS:GO and Dota 2.

Thanks to our previous Source tutorials you may have created an excellent map, but without lighting your players are going to feel left in the dark.

There are a range of different entities responsible for providing illumination in the Source engine, and the number and complexity of options open to you depends on which game you are mapping for. This guide will begin with basic lighting for Half-Life 2 and other Source 2007 games, before shedding some light on more complicated techniques.

If you followed our first Source SDK tutorial, you should have gotten to grips with the basic features of Hammer: you can use brushes to create rooms and corridors, change textures and place props. Your level is still mostly lifeless though, so it’s time to use Triggers to make things happen.

Is your map looking a little bit flat? Does it need that extra zing? Then High Dynamic Range can help you add that warm glow to your creation.

HDR is a subtle effect; a simple explanation is that is the effect of your eyes adjusting to a dark room after being in the bright outside. This means that darker areas will be darker initially, and will then rise to a brightness level more suited for interior gameplay. This dynamic balance of brightness adds contrast to your map, meaning an overall brighter and vibrant experience.

Many of us will have played through most of Valve’s titles and enjoyed them. When we’re wrapped up in the action or the story however, the rules of the game we’re playing are almost invisible to us.

As a level designer it often pays to take a step back and look at the purpose of the content of a level. Why things are placed where they are, what do they add to the gameplay and what can we learn from them.

Welcome to the first of our new Modding & Development Tutorials. In this installment we’ll help you take your first steps into creating a map in Valve’s Source SDK.

Creating levels can be challenging, fun and very rewarding (albeit sometimes frustrating) and you will be able to release your creations to thousands of players worldwide.