NEWS
by Mark Barley
Like Portal 2? Like Creating Maps? Valve Has Just The Contest For You!
Valve has announced the 2011 Summer Mapping Initiative, a contest for Portal 2.
The competition, which officially kicked off yesterday, will run through June 6 and will have you creating some zany maps in the process.
Here's everything you need to know:
- Maps must be submitted no later than June 6 at 11.59pm/EST.
- Both Singleplayer and Co-op maps are allowed. You may submit one map of each game mode.
- Maps cannot contain custom assets of any kind. No exceptions. Spend your time working on your puzzle, not making models, textures, sounds/voices, or other extra content.
- Maps must contain both an Entry and an Exit elevator, the style of which as appropriate for your map theme. 1940′s Aperture maps can use the old style elevators, destroyed Aperture can use the destroyed looking elevators, and so on.
- Maps must be able to be completed without using engine or portaling glitches of any kind.
- Entries must be uploaded to the ThinkingWithPortals.com Download Database and uploaded in a compressed file format (such as ZIP, RAR or 7z).
- Entries must include the source VMF.
- Remember – making a puzzle extremely difficult does not necessarily make it better! Players of all skill levels will be playing and judging the maps, and while we all enjoy a good challenge, maps should be accessible to all players. But don’t take that to mean they should be “easy”!
The maps will be judged based off of puzzle complexity, visual appeal, attention to detail, imagination, innovation, overall theme, fun, and playability.
First and second place winners will receive:
- Ultimate Portal 2 Gift Pack signed by the Portal 2 developers
- Map spotlighted by Valve on the official Portal 2 Website
- ThinkingWithPortals.com Community Spotlight
See all the official rules and details through here.