My mapping hobby started with Red Alert1. The editor that followed the game took forever to load on my crappy computer. It was very fun ofcourse but you could only make melee maps and I was more interesting in making Commando-style missions. Some years later I found a custom made mission editor and it was much fun but by then Starcraft 1 had taken over as my main mapping interest.
I have also mapped for Red Alert 2. Made one good mission that even the almighty Concolor approved on. He was the legendary mission maker in Red Alert 2 community so I was quite proud at my accomplishment.
Then followed Warcraft3. By then I had gained interest for making fantasy maps by pen and paper (thanks LotR movies) and photoshoped them (see my avatar) and I tried to incoporate them in Warcraft3 by making WoW-like missions with my maps as loading screen. I probably spent hundreds of hours in the Warcraft 3 editor and probably started a dozen campaigns. None of them finished, and none of them released.
Then it was an hiatus before Starcraft2. My first attempt at mapping SC2 was a WoW-clone with imported WoW models. I still lingered in the fantasy genre. It wasn't before BioTech1 that i began mapping in scifi universe, but I copied alot of the triggers and concepts into the mission.
So what game did you first start mapping for? What is your story?
- Stunts (rally game) was first editor I ever used. (1994?)
- In Doom we just added ton of more weapons and monsters in existing maps and it was fun. (1995?)
- For Wolfenstein 3D I actually created some real maps. I loved that editor, it was super easy to use. (1997?)
- For Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games I made few maps. (1997 and 2013 again for some nostalgia)
- For Starcraft1 I created some campaign like maps. (1998)
- For Warcraft3 I made some missions but not a real campaign. In WC3 it was super easy to make new heroes: just copy-paste the unit you want and change stats. (2002?)
- My current project in SC2: http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/hand-humanity-mission1/ (2010-2014)
- I tested Fallout3 editor but I had not enough patience to learn it. I created some quite small bunker with lot of ghouls in it. (2011?)
It is shame that when games get more complex also map making gets much more complicated. I think this is one of the reasons why "Craft" games are popular nowadays. By the way, test RoboCraft. (http://robocraftgame.com/)
WarCraft 2 / Red Alert 1. Can'T remember which one first. Just trying to create any kind of map, nothing came out of it.
Some attempts to create something for Age of Empires or Heroes of Might and Magic 3, again no results.
For StarCraft 1 I had planned one campaign per race (24 maps), two or three maps were almost finished. During that period I also tinkered with the Unreal Tournament editor, tried to create a map but never finished it. Same thing with Unreal Tournament 3 a couple of years ago.
Then WarCraft 3 came. Inspired by the lore and the book Lord of the Clans I set out and created a campaign based on it, and after 2,5 years I finally managed to finish it. Motivated by the success I created another campaign based on the book Day of the Dragon. Bigger than DotD, more maps, spells, choices, etc. Took me 1,5 years. Afterwards I was still intereste in mapping for WC3 but I wanted to create something different and not as big as DotD, so I made a point and click adventure campaign for WC3 based on the novel The Last Guardian. During that time I also got a job for a german video game company, so I made some maps for a game called Settlers 7.
Worked on some Unity projects for university (side-scroll-shooter and a Racing Game for Kinect)
Since the release of SC2 I have been working on a small but feature-loaded campaign, based on the book Shadow of the Xel'Naga. About 60% complete. Hope to be finished in 12-20 months.
- StarCraft Broodwar. I made horrible campaign maps when I was a small kid, I revisited the editor after downloading campaigns and playing them a few years later. Then I played on battle.net and I got seriously interested in learning it as I've seen that people made defense maps using it. Then my projects became bigger and insane. My last, unfinished project was creating Diablo 1 in SCBW with a real inventory including trade and repair system and original combat formulas. I stopped after I failed to debug the battlefield where you should have been battling with WASD and mouse clicks. Also, I hit the game's trigger limit where save games crashed the game. I had 73k triggers at the end which is the highest amount someone put into a legitimate map so far in SCBW. (Math only using + and - and not even = to copy values... fun fun fun, it makes everything huge... As a personal success, I found out how to divide two variables only using + and -, but I wasn't the first doing that.)
- Followed by SCBW, I started to pick up the SC2 Editor in May 2010.
Other tiny editor experiments, but never doing anything I released:
- C&C Red Alert
- Age of Empires 2
- Empire Earth (its UI feels horrible once you started.)
- Some small, free car racing game where you could build your own tracks and you drove from a top down view. I forgot the name. I should try to find that game again. :( (edit: I found it, it is "gene rally")
- I did a few more free game editor things, but I can't remember them at all anymore.
- I tried to use C&C Generals' editor, but I just didn't understand anything in the editor, so I stopped after failing a few times. I was fairly young when I tried that. :D
I'm old. The first game I modded somehow was the original X-Com, me and a friend translated the entire game to Portuguese back then.
I have made things for some games, SC1, Baldur's Gate I and II, Neverwinter Nights I and II, and even Super Mario World, but only stuff for Neverwinter Nights and StarCraft 2 were released.
I'm more of an artist than a real mapper so I usually try to create or change artwork for the games I mod, and my photoshop skills were built by working on artwork for games mostly. But I also created new spells and items for Baldur's Gate, and made several different things for Neverwinter Nights, from artwork to models, programming, custom character classes and so on.
For SC1/BW I created a few custom unit sprites, and several new doodads that I never released, I had my own mod with some new units, buildings and heroes and I called it Lost Chronicles or something like that. I made another mod with super mario world sprites that never got finished (it looked awesome to have those sprites in SC). I still have the files somewhere so maybe I'll dig them and post pics one day.
I could try to sum it up (and have tried for myself, actually), but I find I always forget about the vast majority. When trying this time, my thought process went something like this:
"Well, two games I've mapped for are StarCraft 2 and WarCraft 3."
"Oh right, Red Alert 2, I mapped for that too. And come to think of it, I didn't even consider Starcraft and WarCraft 2 yet."
-scrolls through thread-
"Oh christ, Age of Empires! And Age of Empires 2! And Heroes of Might and Magic 3! That reminds me, I also mapped for Heroes 4 and 5!"
-reads outsiderXE's post-
"Settlers... Hmm, wasn't there an editor for Settlers 3 or 4 or 5 or something? I'm pretty sure I made some maps for one of those, too"
In the end, it's probably easier to look through the games I played and to assume that if they were Strategy games and had an editor, I've mapped for them. Just glimpsing at my own list again reminded me I've mapped for Dungeon Keeper 2 and Stronghold as well, for instance.
@Mozared: Go I totally forgot about Heroes of Might and Magic 3. Me and a friend would take months creating those huge maps with a very complex underground world, then it would take us several months more to finish a single game because those 99-level heroes would gather huge armies. Feels good man.
StarCraft and Brood War, I certainly have made a few maps and campaigns and stuff, pretty horrible ones, might I add, when I had approximately my 8-10 years. The only time which I actually started planning for something more mature (Intelligent and less child, I mean) was about 17 y/o, when I started learning more about making campaigns, modding, using SCMDraft for advanced terraining and such. I was practically 22 when I transitioned to StarCraft II. The last campaign I planned to release and work hard on it, called 'Infestation: The Pavel Reports', went down the drain when I lost my hard-drive and eons of work over the years due to motherboard corruption. It was practically too late when I started this one campaign, so I decided that'd be transferred to StarCraft II, since it involves the UED and, hopefully, if I can make it, it'll include a lot of custom assets (For UED units and buildings, civilian buildings, doodads and such...). However, this one will only come by the time I'm done with my other project, which I resumed production and I'm on the way of getting 50% on the first part, which is Protoss, by the way. Yes, I had my initial troublings with it, but I came to master it, with my truly serious determination to learn that, far too serious, and with your help, of course.
Other than that, there were only two games which I mapped for, which were Age of Empires 2 and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. The latter, in particular, I made an awful campaign I don't want to ever remember again, I was just too young and naïve to remember it... The only one which I truly gave up was the screwed-up editor for C&C 3, that was too much for me at the time. And too messy, and I didn't even know where to start...
Oh, yes, I also did a track for the Stunts video-game (Y'know, that shoddy 1990 320x240 racing game).
Anyone else map/mod for C&C Renegade? That's where I mainly got started. I suppose I also messed around with Age of Empires 2 editor, but nothing much ever came from it. And now SC2 :D
I got hooked on modding for warcraft3 in 2007, I was 10 at the time. Started off with creating simple maps like TDs and hero arenas, and eventuelly got experienced enough to lead a rather ambitious RPG project for roughly a year. When starcraft2 came around I decided to switch game and has been here ever since. I think it's safe to say I like Blizzard's editor(s).
Doom 1 and 2. It seems in those days people were busy making tools for games. Was frustrated since the editors were still in WIP. Nowadays, the doom editor is very nice and easy to work with. Have it still installed and did a map prior to returning back to SC2.
Warcraft 2 and Expansion. Had fun with those. My best bud always had me making maps. He'd place an order on what map he wanted, and I made it. He plays it on my PC through. Spends hours and hours on it. I enjoyed watching.
Starcraft. During those days, a guy named Xavier had me going. He had the idea of sharing maps to each other for play-testing and sharing ideas. I had my own campaign, he had his. Then I lost him for some reason I can only speculate about.
Warcraft 3. Started one, but got tired quickly because WC3 was cartoony and the models were not good to look at. The hero system also was a deterrent. Or a detergent. Yep.
Broodwar. Just couldn't compete, so I decided to play custom maps made by amazing folks. Made mine, and released a few years back. I get swamped over, so exhausting myself quite quickly.
Torchlight and Torchlight 2. The stormrider character. I had some more work on her just a few months back. New charge bar, spells, animations, icon sheets, ui, spell dynamics. But left it soon after successive blackouts for months on end put an end to my 7950 video card. Damn country where I am.
Darkreign: The Future of War. Just maps I made for myself.
Age of Empires. Self-pleasure maps. Never had a release. hehe
Quake. It was just a few attempts, but gave up eventually. I think the editor back then had problems. Can't remember, but I'm sure to remember being excited that the engine allowed for bridges and floors above floors.
LotR BFME. Modded it for personal use, and made maps for the same purpose.
I'll start
My mapping hobby started with Red Alert1. The editor that followed the game took forever to load on my crappy computer. It was very fun ofcourse but you could only make melee maps and I was more interesting in making Commando-style missions. Some years later I found a custom made mission editor and it was much fun but by then Starcraft 1 had taken over as my main mapping interest.
I have also mapped for Red Alert 2. Made one good mission that even the almighty Concolor approved on. He was the legendary mission maker in Red Alert 2 community so I was quite proud at my accomplishment.
Then followed Warcraft3. By then I had gained interest for making fantasy maps by pen and paper (thanks LotR movies) and photoshoped them (see my avatar) and I tried to incoporate them in Warcraft3 by making WoW-like missions with my maps as loading screen. I probably spent hundreds of hours in the Warcraft 3 editor and probably started a dozen campaigns. None of them finished, and none of them released.
Then it was an hiatus before Starcraft2. My first attempt at mapping SC2 was a WoW-clone with imported WoW models. I still lingered in the fantasy genre. It wasn't before BioTech1 that i began mapping in scifi universe, but I copied alot of the triggers and concepts into the mission.
So what game did you first start mapping for? What is your story?
Stunts, Wolfenstein3D, Doom, Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games, WC3, Starcraft 1&2, Fallout3
- Stunts (rally game) was first editor I ever used. (1994?)
- In Doom we just added ton of more weapons and monsters in existing maps and it was fun. (1995?)
- For Wolfenstein 3D I actually created some real maps. I loved that editor, it was super easy to use. (1997?)
- For Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games I made few maps. (1997 and 2013 again for some nostalgia)
- For Starcraft1 I created some campaign like maps. (1998)
- For Warcraft3 I made some missions but not a real campaign. In WC3 it was super easy to make new heroes: just copy-paste the unit you want and change stats. (2002?)
- My current project in SC2: http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/hand-humanity-mission1/ (2010-2014)
- I tested Fallout3 editor but I had not enough patience to learn it. I created some quite small bunker with lot of ghouls in it. (2011?)
It is shame that when games get more complex also map making gets much more complicated. I think this is one of the reasons why "Craft" games are popular nowadays. By the way, test RoboCraft. (http://robocraftgame.com/)
WarCraft 2 / Red Alert 1. Can'T remember which one first. Just trying to create any kind of map, nothing came out of it.
Some attempts to create something for Age of Empires or Heroes of Might and Magic 3, again no results.
For StarCraft 1 I had planned one campaign per race (24 maps), two or three maps were almost finished. During that period I also tinkered with the Unreal Tournament editor, tried to create a map but never finished it. Same thing with Unreal Tournament 3 a couple of years ago.
Then WarCraft 3 came. Inspired by the lore and the book Lord of the Clans I set out and created a campaign based on it, and after 2,5 years I finally managed to finish it. Motivated by the success I created another campaign based on the book Day of the Dragon. Bigger than DotD, more maps, spells, choices, etc. Took me 1,5 years. Afterwards I was still intereste in mapping for WC3 but I wanted to create something different and not as big as DotD, so I made a point and click adventure campaign for WC3 based on the novel The Last Guardian. During that time I also got a job for a german video game company, so I made some maps for a game called Settlers 7.
Worked on some Unity projects for university (side-scroll-shooter and a Racing Game for Kinect)
Since the release of SC2 I have been working on a small but feature-loaded campaign, based on the book Shadow of the Xel'Naga. About 60% complete. Hope to be finished in 12-20 months.
- StarCraft Broodwar. I made horrible campaign maps when I was a small kid, I revisited the editor after downloading campaigns and playing them a few years later. Then I played on battle.net and I got seriously interested in learning it as I've seen that people made defense maps using it. Then my projects became bigger and insane. My last, unfinished project was creating Diablo 1 in SCBW with a real inventory including trade and repair system and original combat formulas. I stopped after I failed to debug the battlefield where you should have been battling with WASD and mouse clicks. Also, I hit the game's trigger limit where save games crashed the game. I had 73k triggers at the end which is the highest amount someone put into a legitimate map so far in SCBW. (Math only using + and - and not even = to copy values... fun fun fun, it makes everything huge... As a personal success, I found out how to divide two variables only using + and -, but I wasn't the first doing that.)
- Followed by SCBW, I started to pick up the SC2 Editor in May 2010.
Other tiny editor experiments, but never doing anything I released:
- C&C Red Alert
- Age of Empires 2
- Empire Earth (its UI feels horrible once you started.)
- Some small, free car racing game where you could build your own tracks and you drove from a top down view. I forgot the name. I should try to find that game again. :( (edit: I found it, it is "gene rally")
- I did a few more free game editor things, but I can't remember them at all anymore.
- I tried to use C&C Generals' editor, but I just didn't understand anything in the editor, so I stopped after failing a few times. I was fairly young when I tried that. :D
I'm old. The first game I modded somehow was the original X-Com, me and a friend translated the entire game to Portuguese back then.
I have made things for some games, SC1, Baldur's Gate I and II, Neverwinter Nights I and II, and even Super Mario World, but only stuff for Neverwinter Nights and StarCraft 2 were released.
I'm more of an artist than a real mapper so I usually try to create or change artwork for the games I mod, and my photoshop skills were built by working on artwork for games mostly. But I also created new spells and items for Baldur's Gate, and made several different things for Neverwinter Nights, from artwork to models, programming, custom character classes and so on.
For SC1/BW I created a few custom unit sprites, and several new doodads that I never released, I had my own mod with some new units, buildings and heroes and I called it Lost Chronicles or something like that. I made another mod with super mario world sprites that never got finished (it looked awesome to have those sprites in SC). I still have the files somewhere so maybe I'll dig them and post pics one day.
I could try to sum it up (and have tried for myself, actually), but I find I always forget about the vast majority. When trying this time, my thought process went something like this:
"Well, two games I've mapped for are StarCraft 2 and WarCraft 3."
"Oh right, Red Alert 2, I mapped for that too. And come to think of it, I didn't even consider Starcraft and WarCraft 2 yet."
-scrolls through thread-
"Oh christ, Age of Empires! And Age of Empires 2! And Heroes of Might and Magic 3! That reminds me, I also mapped for Heroes 4 and 5!"
-reads outsiderXE's post-
"Settlers... Hmm, wasn't there an editor for Settlers 3 or 4 or 5 or something? I'm pretty sure I made some maps for one of those, too"
In the end, it's probably easier to look through the games I played and to assume that if they were Strategy games and had an editor, I've mapped for them. Just glimpsing at my own list again reminded me I've mapped for Dungeon Keeper 2 and Stronghold as well, for instance.
@Mozared: Go I totally forgot about Heroes of Might and Magic 3. Me and a friend would take months creating those huge maps with a very complex underground world, then it would take us several months more to finish a single game because those 99-level heroes would gather huge armies. Feels good man.
StarCraft and Brood War, I certainly have made a few maps and campaigns and stuff, pretty horrible ones, might I add, when I had approximately my 8-10 years. The only time which I actually started planning for something more mature (Intelligent and less child, I mean) was about 17 y/o, when I started learning more about making campaigns, modding, using SCMDraft for advanced terraining and such. I was practically 22 when I transitioned to StarCraft II. The last campaign I planned to release and work hard on it, called 'Infestation: The Pavel Reports', went down the drain when I lost my hard-drive and eons of work over the years due to motherboard corruption. It was practically too late when I started this one campaign, so I decided that'd be transferred to StarCraft II, since it involves the UED and, hopefully, if I can make it, it'll include a lot of custom assets (For UED units and buildings, civilian buildings, doodads and such...). However, this one will only come by the time I'm done with my other project, which I resumed production and I'm on the way of getting 50% on the first part, which is Protoss, by the way. Yes, I had my initial troublings with it, but I came to master it, with my truly serious determination to learn that, far too serious, and with your help, of course.
Other than that, there were only two games which I mapped for, which were Age of Empires 2 and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. The latter, in particular, I made an awful campaign I don't want to ever remember again, I was just too young and naïve to remember it... The only one which I truly gave up was the screwed-up editor for C&C 3, that was too much for me at the time. And too messy, and I didn't even know where to start...
Oh, yes, I also did a track for the Stunts video-game (Y'know, that shoddy 1990 320x240 racing game).
Anyone else map/mod for C&C Renegade? That's where I mainly got started. I suppose I also messed around with Age of Empires 2 editor, but nothing much ever came from it. And now SC2 :D
I got hooked on modding for warcraft3 in 2007, I was 10 at the time. Started off with creating simple maps like TDs and hero arenas, and eventuelly got experienced enough to lead a rather ambitious RPG project for roughly a year. When starcraft2 came around I decided to switch game and has been here ever since. I think it's safe to say I like Blizzard's editor(s).
I started mapping with Warcraft 2 and Broodwar (pretty crappy though). Then i mapped for Warcraft 3 and now i am mapping for Total Annihilation Zero.
http://www.tauniverse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43725
@TaShadan: Go
How dare you, sir.
Doom 1 and 2. It seems in those days people were busy making tools for games. Was frustrated since the editors were still in WIP. Nowadays, the doom editor is very nice and easy to work with. Have it still installed and did a map prior to returning back to SC2.
Warcraft 2 and Expansion. Had fun with those. My best bud always had me making maps. He'd place an order on what map he wanted, and I made it. He plays it on my PC through. Spends hours and hours on it. I enjoyed watching.
Starcraft. During those days, a guy named Xavier had me going. He had the idea of sharing maps to each other for play-testing and sharing ideas. I had my own campaign, he had his. Then I lost him for some reason I can only speculate about.
Warcraft 3. Started one, but got tired quickly because WC3 was cartoony and the models were not good to look at. The hero system also was a deterrent. Or a detergent. Yep.
Broodwar. Just couldn't compete, so I decided to play custom maps made by amazing folks. Made mine, and released a few years back. I get swamped over, so exhausting myself quite quickly.
Torchlight and Torchlight 2. The stormrider character. I had some more work on her just a few months back. New charge bar, spells, animations, icon sheets, ui, spell dynamics. But left it soon after successive blackouts for months on end put an end to my 7950 video card. Damn country where I am.
Darkreign: The Future of War. Just maps I made for myself.
Age of Empires. Self-pleasure maps. Never had a release. hehe
Quake. It was just a few attempts, but gave up eventually. I think the editor back then had problems. Can't remember, but I'm sure to remember being excited that the engine allowed for bridges and floors above floors.
LotR BFME. Modded it for personal use, and made maps for the same purpose.
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
Galactic battlegrounds, starcraft, broodwar as well, age of empires, star wars jedi knight series, battle front 2, starcraft 2, and skyrim.
@Charysmatic: Go
I meant my mapping approaches were crappy. BW is the best RTS ever (in my oppinion), i played it for several years.
i lost my cherry on load runner in 1984