Competition: Make Black Mesa Come Alive
Closed
View Results
- Open Date
- 4 months ago2024-07-31 00:00:00 UTC
- Close Date
- 1 month ago2024-11-07 23:59:59 UTC
- Type
- Full Map
- Allowed Engines
- Goldsource
- Judging Type
- Judged (each engine separate)
- Judges
Make Black Mesa Come Alive!
For this challenge, we're asking you to create a dynamic Half-Life map. Half-Life was at its best when the world was interactive. Characters responded to you; the world reacted to your actions. You could break stuff, move stuff, change things.So, create a map or series of maps that are dynamic, interactive, responsive, atmospheric, and so forth. Draw us into the world. It's called Make Black Mesa Come Alive - but it doesn't have to be set in Black Mesa as long as it still 'feels' like Half-Life. So, we're looking for vanilla-ish maps.
Pre-disaster? Sure!
Post-disaster? You bet!
During disaster? Maybe the best of both worlds!
Single player will likely work best for this compo, but multiplayer maps are also allowed.
Custom content such as textures, models, sounds, and sprites is allowed - but not custom code (dlls). The submitted map must run on an unmodified copy of Steam Half-Life. You can submit in minimod format if you like (folder). Remember, vanilla-ish is the goal here so keep custom content in the Half-Life theme.
Think ahead and get your map playtested - early and often! Hit up the TWHL Discord server and you'll find folks willing to help and try out your map (#competition-lobby and #work-in-progress channels are the ones to visit).
Submissions
Entries close October 22nd, 2024 November 7th, 2024.Note: to submit an entry, make sure you're logged in to TWHL and the submission form will be visible below.
Post any questions, comments, or in-progress screenshots to the official forum thread, or hit the Discord!
Prizes
- First Prize: The one, the only Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar book from 2004 and now out of print (excellent condition).
- Second Prize: Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories book (excellent condition).
- Third Prize: $25 USD Steam Gift Card.
Credit
Special thanks to Hezus for the theme suggestion and donating Raising the Bar from his prize for the last TWHL Compo!Header image from Half-Life: Echoes by MrGnang.
Results
Judged By:
Unq
•
Penguinboy
•
Strider
•
monster_urby
•
Hezus
This is a fantastic example of an alive and breathing environment. From the hustle and bustle during a normal day at the BMRF to the chaos and stress of surviving the Resonance Cascade, the maps are littered with fun little nuggets of lore, interesting engagements with NPCs, and many fully functional objects. It really pays off to roam and check everything, especially since the mod also comes with achievements to make sure you haven’t missed a thing. Next to being very alive, the mod is also very well balanced in gameplay and looks fantastic! A clear winner in our books.
Reality Shift is a very lengthy mod with many unique sequences. During your fight for survival you’ll encounter several scripted events where BMRF staff or the HECU forces fight off aliens. The facility feels alive and is, especially in its damaged state after the incident, a very convincing place. You can follow NPCs around watching them interact with the world. It has a good mix of exploration and combat, albeit quite difficult at times. A few bugs here and there but this surely was a great example of a dynamic world, especially with having three different endings.
Duffseg has put in a lot of effort to make this map dynamic and engaging. There’s plenty of moving machinery in the facility and much of it is interactive. Even the NPCs react to events taking place by your hand or otherwise. The sequence where the Gargantua escapes is particularly well done. The facility has a BMRF feel to it but the design does deviate a bit from what we’re used to. It’s a very fun map to play but the visuals could use a bit more love here and there.
Other Entries
Honorable Mention
Escape Velocity has pretty solid gameplay and an interesting angle: you’re in contact with your colleague who guides you though the use of text messages. This adds some flavor but can also be tricky when you’re mid-combat. There is some interactivity in the world but overall it is rather static and the quality level goes down a bit toward the end. Still, very fun to play and good use of func_vehicles.
Escape Velocity has pretty solid gameplay and an interesting angle: you’re in contact with your colleague who guides you though the use of text messages. This adds some flavor but can also be tricky when you’re mid-combat. There is some interactivity in the world but overall it is rather static and the quality level goes down a bit toward the end. Still, very fun to play and good use of func_vehicles.
One of the more unique submissions we’ve played! The way you’ll have to manipulate the world to reach your goals is very clever and well made. However, the objective of the competition is to make ‘BMRF Come Alive’ and the environment in Silent Exterminator doesn’t feel very realistic. Be sure to give this one a try, though.
An interesting take on the HL story mostly centered around conversation and exploration, with mixed results. Half-Life just doesn’t work well with a lot of text. The design is cool at times but areas are also very empty, even desolate towards the end. Very little interactivity apart from the one time you can pick a dialogue option.
This map had a very strong start visually and also in terms of interactivity. There were plenty of NPC sequences with custom voice lines and interesting things going on. However, the version that was submitted was too broken and bugged to really be a contender. With some more development time this might turn out to be an interesting mod.
Honorable Mention
The judges were quite impressed with Silent Echo. It’s a very good map with fun gameplay and well-designed areas. There are a few interesting sequences (the laser firing sequence being the highlight) but in regard to being alive and dynamic, it fell a bit short behind other submissions. However, if you’re looking for a solid Half-Life experience, be sure to give this one a try.
The judges were quite impressed with Silent Echo. It’s a very good map with fun gameplay and well-designed areas. There are a few interesting sequences (the laser firing sequence being the highlight) but in regard to being alive and dynamic, it fell a bit short behind other submissions. However, if you’re looking for a solid Half-Life experience, be sure to give this one a try.
Untitled is a bit of a mixed bag. It comes with a lot of custom content but not all of it feels at home in a BMRF setting. Some areas look quite good, others are quite unremarkable. There are some interesting sequences but overall it feels a bit cut short.
Lounge is exactly what it says: it’s a lounge. With some scientists (without any sequences) and lots of prefabs with which you can’t interact. Unfortunately, this map falls short in pretty much every regard of the competition.