News posts

Unq2 months ago2024-08-01 12:34:42 UTC 3 comments
Surprise, another compo! Thanks to Hezus for suggesting this one and donating his prize from the previous compo.

Make Black Mesa Come Alive!

Show us your best dynamic, interactive map and Make Black Mesa Come Alive!
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Deadline: October 22nd, 2024.
Unq6 months ago2024-03-18 21:11:16 UTC 1 comment
Yay! The results are in for the Vanilla Half-Life Deathmatch Competition that we hosted in celebration of Half-Life's 25th Anniversary!

Congratulation to the winners, and thank you to all entrants! Some great maps were created for this competition!

See the full results here.
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First Place: Core Critical by Hezus
We couldn't just let Valve's 25th Anniversary updates for Half-Life go without a TWHL-style celebration!

So we're announcing the Half-Life 25th Anniversary: Vanilla HLDM Competition - make an all-new vanilla Half-Life deathmatch map!
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Half-Life 25th Anniversary: Vanilla HLDM Competition

Simple: make an all-new deathmatch map for Half-Life and keep it "vanilla" to stay in the style of the game's standard maps.

Deadline: January 17th, 2024.
monster_urby1 year ago2022-12-11 14:18:33 UTC 15 comments
Celebrating 20 years of TWHL mapping competitions! Check out the newest competition: The Whole Goop Life
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The Whole Goop Life

TWHL Competition 20th Anniversary Extravaganza

That’s right! Today, December 10th, 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of TWHL’s first ever mapping competition! (You’re excited, I can tell)

Now, the 20th wedding anniversary is referred to as the Emerald Anniversary, the precious green gemstone symbolising the occasion and often the traditional gift. Well, the Valve titles aren’t exactly riddled with precious gemstones, but there is one thing they do have. Radioactive toxic waste. Not exactly the ideal gift for your beloved, but the thick, green goop can mix up both gameplay and aesthetics if applied to a map in just the right way.
Penguinboy2 years ago2022-05-26 09:59:03 UTC 7 comments
The results to the Bridge The Gap competition have been announced! We had so many great entries this time around, it was very hard to narrow it down to only three entries for the podium. Congratulations to the winners!

Check out the results here.
Penguinboy2 years ago2022-01-25 01:06:11 UTC 17 comments
Time for a new competition: Bridge the gap!
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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.
Penguinboy3 years ago2021-07-28 07:23:40 UTC 2 comments
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The inevitable Source version of the TWHL Tower project is under way! Whether you're already a Source mapper or new to the engine, TWHL Tower: Source is the perfect chance for anybody to dust off Hammer and create a level in this collaborative mod! Creators are given a template with 1280x1280x256 of available space - what you do with that space is up to you. All skill levels are welcome, so check it out! Submissions are open until December 1st 2021.
Strider3 years ago2020-11-11 14:32:36 UTC 14 comments
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It took a whole year and much blood, sweat and tears, but TWHL Tower 2 is finally out!

Five years ago, you fought and ascended the first tower alone. You thought it would be over, that that would be the end.

But you were sorely mistaken. You’ve received a new call to another tower’s roof and you meet an “old acquaintance” that kept insisting that a team should have been dispatched rather than a “lone wolf.”

You start to have a feeling of déjà vu – except this time, there’s a long descent ahead of you. And if you explore and observe well enough, the sub-basement bonus map will be unlocked!

Work your way through 25 floors from 18 mappers in this superb sequel to TWHL Tower!

Well, what are you waiting for? Grab it from our vault, or from RTSL now!
Penguinboy4 years ago2020-03-24 00:06:43 UTC 7 comments
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It's been a long time, but we finally have a new Half-Life game! This should go without saying, but just in case you need a reminder:
Don't post spoilers for Half-Life: Alyx

HL:A is a game with restrictive hardware requirements - many of us won't be able to play it for many months or years (if ever), and a lot of people would like to stay spoiler-free, if they can. So, if you're lucky enough to have access to a VR setup (or you've just watched it on youtube) - great! But don't talk about any spoilers - for story or gameplay elements.
If you absolutely must mention something that could be a spoiler, be sure to use the spoiler tags. You MUST mark the spoiler as being for HL:A, or your post will be edited or deleted by a moderator. To mark something as a spoiler, use the spoiler tag like this:
[spoiler=Half-Life: Alyx]I don't own VR hardware[/spoiler]
It will show up like this: I don't own VR hardware
Thank you, and have a very safe and productive day.
Strider4 years ago2019-11-04 12:38:26 UTC 0 comments
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In case you missed it, TWHL Tower 2 has started. If you're not familiar, the goal is to build whatever you please in a 1024x1024x224 space, to make all the floors for our very own tower. Any old idea is welcome. It's a nice, small place to start if you're new to mapping, or to challenge yourself if you've been here as long as the rest of us old fogies. It'll be running through to the end of January next year, so you'll have 3 whole months and probably then some to get something together. Give it a look here!

UPDATE:

If you're struggling to finish your map in time, good news: the deadline has been extended to the 29th of February. That's a month and a half still left to get something together. Happy mapping!
monster_urby5 years ago2019-07-01 14:43:18 UTC 0 comments
Once again, we have a new mini competition underway. The Whole Splash Life.

We are looking for maps where water plays a significant role. Yes, you could essentially just make a map that features a lot of it, but where's the fun in that? Try and think of ways that water can be an obstacle to overcome, or indeed a solution to a problem.

The official thread can be found here. Discuss with other members who might be pitching in their own ideas. Share screenshots, ask questions, get involved and spread the word.
Greetings and salutations, people of TWHL. We have a new mini competition up and running. The Whole Warp Life: Build a map or mod with an emphasis on teleportation.

The official thread can be found here, where you can discuss your plans and post progress updates throughout. Remember, the key with these competitions is to make good use of the limited time you have and deliver something that adheres to the brief, rather than something that includes a ton of custom content.

Hope to see as many of you as possible chipping in with your own ideas, or just supporting anyone who is having issues.
Penguinboy5 years ago2018-12-25 00:24:33 UTC 8 comments
Happy holidays and a great new year to everyone from us here at TWHL! To celebrate the festive season, the results for competition 35 are available as of today!

Congratulations to the winners and a big thanks to everyone who entered or commented on the competition. Winners, please get in touch with myself and Satchmo to claim your prizes!
Penguinboy6 years ago2018-09-07 12:00:06 UTC 4 comments
TWHL now has an official Discord server! It's a good place to talk about TWHL, mapping, or whatever else you like! We also have channels for some TWHL projects.A link to the server is on the front page for all logged-in and logged-out users. We haven't set up many channels yet, so if you have suggestions please join in and let us know!
Penguinboy6 years ago2018-06-02 04:57:58 UTC 18 comments
TWHL is different! Welcome to the new version of TWHL, version 4. If you find any issues with the site, please post them in the discussion thread.
After some updates to the shoutbox, it seems that more people are able to locate it, so I've removed the big red message from the post.