Competition: Bridge The Gap

Competition Status: Closed View Results
Open Date
2 years ago2022-01-24 00:00:00 UTC
Close Date
2 years ago2022-05-02 23:59:59 UTC
Type
Map from Base
Allowed Engines
Goldsource
Judging Type
Judged (each engine separate)
Judges

Loading embedded content: Vault Item #6576

Create a map from the above template!

Happy 2022!
The goal is to create the coolest bridge to allow players to traverse the gap across the canyon.
Any goldsource game is permittable, and any HLDM entries will be added to the HLDM server.

There are no limitations on setting, style or design - be as farfetched and creative as you want, or perhaps you'd rather make something based more in reality.
Rules
  • Engine: Goldsource
  • Game: Any
  • Restrictions:
    • The player must be able to traverse the canyon without cheats.
    • The bridge does not have to go over the gap.
    • The bridge can be in any theme or setting & does not necessarily have to look like a bridge as we know it.
    • You may widen or contract the canyon as needed to suit a variety of bridge designs.
  • Can I modify the template map? Absolutely. I encourage you to create a unique setting for your bridge. Add details and buildings on either side of the canyon! Change textures, change lighting!
  • Can I use custom textures? Absolutely.
  • That's not how you make cliffs. These cliffs suck: Remake them.
  • Can I submit a minimod? I mean... Sure, I guess?
  • Deadline: April 1 2022
  • Prize: £30 Steam voucher
  • Judges: Jessie will Stream the entries (she has not agreed to this) and then some Australians on Discord will briefly stop swimming in lager to decide a winner. The judges' criteria for what makes a bridge 'cool' is entirely subjective.
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
Attached file: Click to download

Results Judged By: Penguinboy Penguinboy Strider Strider AJ AJ

We had a great turnout to this competition! So many of the entries were so good, we had a lot of trouble deciding who to give the top three positions to. I definitely recommend that everyone play all the entries, because there's so much great stuff to experience! Big thanks to everyone who entered, and congratulations to the winners!
1st Place - TheSpacePirate
Caldera
TheSpacePirate gets a well deserved first place with a stunning set of HLDM maps. They feature suspended cargo movers dangling precariously over ravines and mountain bases that would make a supervillain blush. The r-speeds might be a little high here and there but the impressive detail and attention paid to each theme is nothing short of incredible.

I can't decide which theme I like more. Theme 1 is a lava-filled ravine at night, and theme 2 is a lush daytime jungle. Just one of these maps would be a top tier effort so to get two incredibly well done maps is nothing short of amazing. Fantastic work, SpacePirate!
2nd Place - Bruce
Bridgeway of the Gods
I loved this entry. Bruce has built a machine with no instructions and you have to figure out how to make it work. Being a fan of the Myst series, this is very much the type of puzzle I like. Initially, the whole thing is confusing and strange, but as you work it out everything falls into place and it feels fairly obvious - which is how these type of puzzles work best.

The map has a huge sense of scale - which looks and feels impressive as you solve a puzzle and watch the various parts move into place. However, this is both a blessing and a curse, as that sense of scale also means that the map is just a little bit too big and you spend a lot of time walking between areas and waiting for things to finish moving. This is a very minor issue, however.

The script work is very impressive, and the theme and atmosphere are excellent. I would love to see more maps (and mods) like this!
3rd Place - Oxofemple.
The Flow of Time
What an absolutely stunning concept for a map - a time-travelling jaunt through Japan’s history. It goes to show that there’s still plenty of creativity left in the GoldSource crate instead of just pumping out another Half-Life themed map. I just wish it were longer!

Other Entries

In this entry we cross the gap via short section of platforming with collectables in the style of the Banjo-Kazooie games. Platforming across the chasm is a good idea, and it would have been good to see a more involved setup in this entry. It is only a few seconds long, and the jumps are straight forward and simple - there's a lot more that would be possible with this idea!
Finally, Episode Three. This is a very cool and impressively long entry from UbOh that adapts a bunch of 'Epistle 3' concepts into a single-player adventure. It's such an impressive effort the only thing that really stopped it from actually placing in the top three is how little it seems to actually do with Archie's original competition brief!

It's a little sparsely detailed here and there with simplistic combat, but I don't want that to outshine how great this mission is. You'll see a bunch of familiar sights and eventually fight your way on board the Borealis itself. Really great work, UbOh!
Bridge the Gap - Sjaak-altijd-raak
I enjoyed this small set-piece drawbridge. It has a cool style to it and the textures are nice - the bridge is well-built and the raise/lower action is smooth. Detailing on the bridge is good, though it would have been great to see a little bit more detail in the buildings either side of the bridge to give it a bit more life. The ladder on one of the columns is a bit hard to find, I'm not sure if I "solved" the map in exactly the correct way. Overall, a pleasant and enjoyable map.
Derealization
Although the start of this map somehow lagged my 1080Ti (wow), this is a cool little mission. It's a mild puzzler without combat, though there is one pesky little Headcrab to avoid. It gets major points of having you crawl under, through and back over the bridge as you solve your way to safety. And more points for it's moody nightscape that does a lot with vanilla Half-Life assets.

This is a incredibly well-realised map that was a strong contender for a higher place. In my opinion it only just lost out. I love the atmosphere and the path taken through this one, and I really wanna see more like it!
Everything about this map feels wonderfully considered and thought out. The structure of the bridge is very well-designed and feels impressive in scale, while the surrounds give it that perfect Black Mesa ambience without feeling like something that's come before.
Jungle Bridge
While it seems sadly unfinished, Hons.Elle has submitted a visually creative and cool little bridge that twists through a lush jungle scene. There's nothing to do unfortunately, that is except enjoy some nice, natural mapping that's always very hard to pull of in Goldsource. I'd love to have seen this completed with something, even simple, to do.
Mechanical Bridge for Bridge the Gap Competition
Though simple and lacking in polish, the level of imagination (and entity wrangling) this little bridge has is amazing. It reminds me of some of the huge mechanisms in the opening tram ride of Half-Life - an intricate ballet of machinary. I would love to see this expanded, polished up and used in a full map.
Since Urby works for 3D Realms, I can only assume that the rest of this map will appear 15 years from now, finished by an inferior level designer with very little explanation as to why they bothered to finish and release it in the first place.
Half-Mile Gorge
While seemingly simple in execution, anyone who knows even a little bit about how entities work in GoldSouce would know that there's some serious witchcraft being used in this delightful little puzzler. This definitely needs to appear in a mod in the future!
bridgethegap bluesed
This map's theme is great - the castle warfare style is a really good interpretation of the competition's brief. The architecture and the big bridge are well made, and the texturing makes everything fit together for thematic consistency. The interactive cannons are a stand-out feature of this map - they are very fun to use and their destruction is awesome.

This looks to be an aim-style map, but I still felt like the layout could probably be tweaked for better gameplay - an extra route between the two sides of the map could have improved the map. It would have been good to see some more natural barriers on either side of the map rather than invisible walls. I also noticed a few visible null faces and the tree at the bottom on the canyon is floating, but none of these are major complaints.
Metro Bridge
A small entry from newcomer Metro28. It's a simple, old fashioned bridge with no real surprises, but competently made with true to life architecture, which I can personally appreciate. Sadly with no gameplay to speak of there's only so much to see, but it's a welcome entry and I look forward to seeing more work from Metro28!
Archie is at it again with another gorgeous deathmatch map. The texturing is spot on and the lighting work, especially the bridge shadow, is fantastic. The inside of the train is well made and the fact that every strut of the bridge is made of brushwork is simply insane. The small cave inside the cliff is a nice touch as well.

With a reasonable number of people I could see this map becoming very chaotic in deathmatch. Overall it is quite small and the bridge serves as a somewhat tight bottleneck, so gameplay would probably suffer a little and maybe encourage some camping tactics. Perhaps an extra path (or two) between the two sides of the bridge would help in that aspect. The wpoly count is probably a bit too high for some HLDM players, but we don't care about that!