I loched or something before I released the results to the gaming public. I think I got five or six entries, which was pretty disappointing, but a surprising amount of fun came out of it. I recall playing Kryten's map with more than four players.irons wrote:Simplici7y maps are turning out to be my favorite maps of all. I like the limits placed upon the mappers, and I also like the surprising results. You can get a lot out of a map with only seven polygons.
I recently looked up a Doom version of this, the 10-sector map contest from around 2000, and a newer 2-sector contest. I'm not clear on what a "sector" is in Doom, but it sounds a lot less limiting than Marathon's basic polygon unit. I got all misty-eyed about the old, old Simplici7y contest on bungie.org, and with my recent interest in Simplici7y, as well as others' (DcBob is making a pack), I wanted to start a new Simplici7y contest.
Yeah, it can go either way. Some Simplici7y maps are elegant works, while others are obvious excuses for the mapmaker to slap seven polygons together in fifteen minutes. Still, I'd like to see what you guys can do.
The guidelines:The map must have a maximum of seven (7) polygons. (I hope you know this).The map must be merged.The map must be made after this contest announcement. Yeah, I can't really check this unless you use real archiving tools (GNU tar, etc.), so I'll take your word for it. I will run a background check at the popular archive sites to make sure.The map must be original, and made by you. I have the old Simplici7y contest maps, so I know what they look like.The map must be playable at least in EMFH, and may be designed for KOTH and Ball. No other game types.The map must be made for compatibility with Infinity, or if you want, Marathon 2. Note that I will only use Infinity's texture set to look at the maps.The map must use the standard physics model; don't merge it with its own model.The map must not use any MML or Lua.The map must have eight player spawn points.Only one submission per contestant.Send your map in a .sit, .zip, or tarball to jonirons@gmail.com. Include a readme file that at least contains your name and e-mail address, along with the game types you put in the map. Also include your name (preferably your Pfhorums user name) in the e-mail message. I'll send a reply to you when I get the map, and if the file is corrupted, I'll give you a second chance to get it right.The map deadline is May 2nd, 2006.I won't give you solid percentages for how I will judge this, but here are some thoughts on how much weight certain elements will have:
A lot of emphasis will be on EMFH gameplay. It's what I play the most, and it's what I'm best at judging. "Gameplay" includes the ever-worshipped "Flow" of the map, as well as how well weapons are balanced, how often weapons and ammo spawn, and how little repetition there is in a game (did I press the shotgun triggers for seven minutes while I stayed in the same polygon?)
Making a map into Ball or KOTH just because you want to isn't always the best idea. I will consider its performance in those categories as well, and if the map ends up playing like crap on KOTH, it will affect the score. I recommend you stick with a single game type and perfect it. I won't downgrade KOTH or Ball-exclusive maps, so don't worry. On the other hand, if gameplay turns out great for multiple categories, then by all means, go for it.
After gameplay (a.k.a. "fun") will be design. Even though I tend to make symmetrical maps, they usually aren't nearly as interesting as asymmetrical ones. Symmetrical Simplici7y maps apply tenfold to this. Design and aesthetics go hand in hand: if I see all walls with the same texture, no lighting, and so on, I will not be kind to the score.
Any neat tricks (extra wall textures, for example) that go into the map will help the score, but don't get carried away. It's better to have a solid map than a gimmicky one. Environments like low-gravity and vacuum will be looked at carefully. If the environment works well, all the better. But if it makes gameplay ridiculous, don't expect to place highly in the contest.
As a side note, I'm partially starting this contest in order to generate interest in these maps for DcBob's pack. So if you have an excellent map, I would like to ask you permission to give it to DcBob for his map pack. I'll release a merged pack of all the entries, but only the best will go on to DcBob's.
I will be the sole judge of the maps. However, I'll play with other players (probably my room mate) and listen to their feedback.
[attachment=4674:kryten7poly.png]
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I nearly wet myself laughing while we played. There were so few weapons, almost no ammo, and the map was completely open. It was the slowest spawnkilling festival I've ever seen. There was one level I thought was great (Simon of Team Sigma's level, lost to the ether) and there was assassingao's, which was not good but happened to make up for it with its sheer insanity.
I don't know where I'm going with this, really. I'm the only person who puts [too] much thought into seven-polygon levels, but I thought you guys might enjoy a really old slice of irons madness. Maybe I'll just throw the three levels I still have into Thomas Mann's Greatest Hits as a bonus.
![[MGrin]](./images/smilies/11.png "marathon"){kind=small}
![[MUp]](./images/smilies/13.png "marathon"){kind=small}
![[MTongue]](./images/smilies/4.png "marathon"){kind=small}
The thing is, the way I approach these is like a topologist. So once I've constructed all the arrangements of seven polygons that maximizes connectivity and the use of all eight sides, anything else is just a less interesting variation. In other words, I'm not sure I could come up with another batch of seven maps that I didn't feel were uninteresting, or too much like a map that already made it into Seven Stages of Megalopia.
