We have an old thread on this I believe.
Captain P has some very wise words within it.
I assume you meant
this thread?
In fact, there's a lot of threads like this, or at least a lot of search results...
Anyway, I might as well go and detail that long-ago post with some examples:
- I got the idea for my map 'Detention' after having seen an early Nova Prospekt screenshot. After some mapping and a few tried out layouts later, I wanted to break up the prison theme with something different. I then remembered some articles about indoor/outdoor balances, so I decided to do a rooftops part. Turned out to be great for vertical combat and a nice breakup from the prison theme. All in all, I think the two styles fitted together quite well.
- 'The Playtest' is another map I've actually finished. I got the idea while delivering newspapers. It was just before my exams when I suddenly got that idea. I had a texture set already, done for another map that I didn't finish, so that gave me some direction as well.
- 'Sector Gamma', a map I never finished, was based on the Chernobyl reactor. I got interested in the game Stalker and that brought me to the Chernobyl setting.
'Mudanchee', another map I never finished (but that's still inspiring me), was loosely based on the game 'Abe's Oddyseus'. It's fantastic still backgrounds had such athmosphere, I just had to do a level about it. The cave-styled level turned out to be a bit too much for the HL engine, but still, a nice experience and up to this day, a source of inspiration.
- There's several other maps I never released. I got some ideas from cartoons (drifting damaged spaceship), other ideas from books (gloomy elven forest), others from talking to fellow mappers (old steam-century factory).
And yeah, experimenting with entities, lighting, textures and such might not give you a map instantly, but it's valuable later on. It gives you knowledge but also a source of inspiration and reference material.
Hmm, perhaps I could do an article about this?