An opportunity for artists, scouts (no, not the 'boy' variety!), budding level designers and makers, and creators of all things in h2g2!

'Half-Life', well, what can you say about it? Even though it's about two & a half years old now, it is still very highly acclaimed, still sells in shedloads, and has some of the best graphics, controls, and enemy AI ever seen in a computer game. Even after someone's played the single player game hundreds of times, he still keeps on to it for one reason: multiplayer! This is one thing that not too many first-person games have, but which is growing in popularity.

It is possible for level designers to build virtually anything they like for Half-Life - including our wonderful world of h2g2!

Yes, it's true! We are now embarking on a project, in conjunction with Game Mapping UK, to create h2g2 as it presently stands for Half-Life's multiplayer system, so that people can battle each other over the Internet in familiar places. That may not sound like the 'h2g2 thing', killing each other, but everyone who owns Half-Life enjoys it, seeing as it isn't real...

How the project will span out...

This is a huge project. To first map out all of h2g2, and to then create it in 3D for Half-Life - it's quite a task. And on man can't do it alone. This is how the project will go.

We're always ready to recruit people to help us in this project. The first stage is to map out of h2g2. This is possibly the most important of the tasks to e undertaken, and will require a very large workforce. A team of scouts will find out from the makers of certain areas of h2g2 (like the Waterworks and Beach, the Town Centre, the... well, everything!) how exactly the areas are laid out, and would then give that detailed knowledge to a team of artists, who would in turn actually visualise what they get from the scouts. The scouts and artists will then check over the details together, and then hand it over to the modellers, who would design and build the level.

Two teams of artists will be needed of course: the ones who draw the areas of h2g2 to be mapped, and ones who come up with the appropriate textures to go in the levels. The second group of artists will work closely with the map modellers so they get the right details put on the textures, the right dimensions, and make sure the texture fits in the level.

So, here's the flow of things:

1. People sign up for the project, and are assigned relevant jobs.
2. The scouts go and find the areas of h2g2 that are to be mapped, and gather information on them from their creators.
3. The artists use this information to draw the layout of the area of h2g2. The creator of that particular area would check it over, with the scout and artist for the area.
4. The teams of mappers and texturers would design and make the levels.
5. Once finished, the levels will be posted at Game Mapping UK for download by anyone on h2g2 who has Half-Life.
6. At all stages, information, textures and drawings will be displayed at the website for access by everybody. After all, we don't want people doing the same work twice, do we?

Other possibilities...

Of course, it's possible that we may convert or make some maps specially for various Half-Life mods¹ such as Counter-Strike, which is possibly the most popular.

And a new idea has just sprung to mind people! If we could get an experienced coder on our Team, we could get him/her/it to fiddle with the game engine a bit to get multiplayer maps to use multiple levels. This would allow for a team-based game where teams of h2g2-ers can fight together through the h2g2 maps, to perform some sort of task, say vanquish some aliens or something... there are so many possibilities!

More probable is that we may make maps for other games: Quake III and Unreal Tournament immediately spring to mind.

So then, the jobs...

Scouts - People who will wonder around h2g2, find the best places for multiplayer maps, and get a very, very detailed description of them from that particular area's creator. They will give that information to the artists and me.

Artists (sketchers) - People who will gain the information from the scouts, and will visualise (sketch out) the areas. They don't have to be amazing drawings, and they can be 3D or top-down. They will verify their artwork with the area's creator and the original scout to see it's what the creator thought it would look like, and then pass it on to the modellers and texturers.

Artists (texturers) - Texturing is a job which is rather specialized, so we will need people to work with the artists and modellers to create textures for the levels. These would include walls, floors, signs for bars and the like, and other details. Ideally you should have experience of Paint Shop Pro and texture editors like Wally.

Level designers - This obviously one of the more critical areas of the project. If you have experience of using Worldcraft (or any similar BSP map editor), please let us know!

h2g2 Area Creators - Erm, we don't need any more of these. All you lot out there have done a wonderful job in making h2g2 what it is today, and we really don't need you to make anything else for me to map! (Even though it would be nice for us if you did).

If you would like to apply for any of these jobs, please give me your name and your desired work status in the thread below...

If you have any other questions, please ask in the other forum below, or alternatively, you can email Krans... [email protected]

If you don't feel you're up to this project, please do tell other people, as they might be!

The Current Team

Professor Christopher Tonks - h2g2 area designer, modeller & artist.
PurpleJenny - h2g2 area designer & artist
Krans Hopeson - h2g2 area designer, texturer, webmaster & modeller
RedFish - scout
Njan - h2g2 area designer, scout & texturer
Peregrin - texturer & modeller
Amy the Ant - h2g2 area designer, artist, texturer & modeller