The CHALLENGE chugs on!

[Glass Mouse]

So one of the creative hobbies I have is level design - building environments for existing games. What would be a reasonable day's worth of work on one of those? It's difficult to pin down a "unit" for it like one photograph or one word.

I can paint five models in a week or write 1500 words a week in an estimate of an hour a day (this is fairly non-intensive, though), so my suggestion would be that I eyeball it at that, and provide before/after screenshots to prove i've been doing it. Does that seem fair? If you (and i'm meaning you all as people who get the same amount of "credit" as me for the challenge, not just the boss) disagree, I could try for something else - one incremental version of the map a week is my next best bet.

Ooh, is that TF2? Been way too long since I played that.

As for your question, I think the most reasonable way would be to treat it like a drawing. Drawings can be broken up into chunks for Challenge purposes (e.g. one person, one particularly detailed piece of BG, etc.). I don't see why we couldn't do the same for level design.

I'm a bit leery about going for straight-up time estimates. The Challenge is build around very rough estimates, so it is incorporated, but doing it directly takes away from the result-orientedness. I'm also much more comfortable with measures that can be verified to some degree. The "meaningful chunks" approach obviously still has a lot of leeway and interpretation, but it follows the spirit of all the other piece definitions better.

I would count the above as: 1 toxic waste, 1 building, 1-2 chunks of out-of-bounds area. Maybe 1 more if you count waste and surrounding area (=foreground and middleground) as separate.

Does this approach seem reasonable to you (and everyone else)?

[LeSwordfish]

In addition to the maybe-five-days worth of mapping I posted yesterday: here's a sixth: 270 words of novel.

Spoiler

Show

Kesslers office was up one floor- they climbed a ladder, the movement easy and familiar after hauling themselves up the building, and rounded the corner of the building. The office window itself was floor-to-ceiling, inch-thick glass set into a circular frame.
“At this height, there’s no reason for windows to open.” Gideon said. “The building should be air-conditioned anyway. Which makes our job a little more complex…”
He drew a small cutting torch from his bag. “But, given that windows at this height aren’t alarmed, not unduly so.”
He went around the outside of the glass, cutting at the bonding between it and the frame. The glass was wobbling before he was halfway around: Cora took the torch and continued slicing while he used his gecko gloves to steady it. It was slow work, and the incandescent flame of the torch occasionally flickered and guttered in the cold wet air. Twice Mathilde asked for status updates - Gideon answered testily.
Finally, however, the glass was free - Gideon carefully lowered it from the window and, with Cora’s help, dropped it onto the scaffolding. Gideon took the torch back into his bag, and then they stepped into the office of Stephen Kessler.
It was surprisingly bare, and only it’s size and minimalism marked it out as not being the office of a middle-manager anywhere else in the company. There was a whiteboard, and a large screen: a bookcase with a series of books and a pair of glass trophies on, a large leather chair, and a desk. It was wood - Mahogany maybe, though cora didn’t know - and solidly constructed.

[jseah]

Does this approach seem reasonable to you (and everyone else)?

Sounds perfectly reasonable.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Episode 6 of Majora's Mask Point Race is live as of Friday!

[Cuthalion]

Dumping all of the art.

[5a Violista]

I got it for this past week!
No photography this time; I wrote 1392 words of background for a character, fitting the theme "Memories", and then I marked up a jig called The Sweets of May for stylistic (celtic) markings.

Here.

[LeSwordfish]

Ooh, is that TF2? Been way too long since I played that.

As for your question, I think the most reasonable way would be to treat it like a drawing. Drawings can be broken up into chunks for Challenge purposes (e.g. one person, one particularly detailed piece of BG, etc.). I don't see why we couldn't do the same for level design.

I'm a bit leery about going for straight-up time estimates. The Challenge is build around very rough estimates, so it is incorporated, but doing it directly takes away from the result-orientedness. I'm also much more comfortable with measures that can be verified to some degree. The "meaningful chunks" approach obviously still has a lot of leeway and interpretation, but it follows the spirit of all the other piece definitions better.

I would count the above as: 1 toxic waste, 1 building, 1-2 chunks of out-of-bounds area. Maybe 1 more if you count waste and surrounding area (=foreground and middleground) as separate.

Does this approach seem reasonable to you (and everyone else)?

Hah! I didn't notice that i'd been ninja'ed. That seems perfectly reasonable to me. Since posting those screenshots i've done a lot of fiddly stuff like tweaking lights and sounds (one of which barely shows up in screenshots and one of which obviously doesn't). I've written up a character backstory now, so i'll add that as my last day's work.

[Artman77]

Well, I missed a week, so that sucks. But I'm back at it!
New stuff.

[Glass Mouse]

Eep eep eep, I forgot I'd changed the time back! So sorry. Minor setback. But here is the status post for the week July 20 - 26!


Glass Mouse passes with a Genre Unsavvy comic strip, a sunny skyline, a Greek Olympian, and an illustrated OC memory.

Lycunadari passes with six pretty nature photos.

Allan Dotson passes with a Critters page, a Hezrou demon, a land fish, a shaman, a Nightmare, a tiny ape, a Marilith demon, and a big bad wolf.

Cuthalion is back and passes the past 7 weeks with a gazillion animal drawings, two houses, a portrait, and four flower paintings.

Artman77 passes with a Calvin/Hobbes nostalgia piece, a memory-sucking Dumbledore, an elephant, a human head, an orc head, and someone in between.

LeSwordfish passes with three TF2 level designs, and a character write-up.

TheWombatOfDoom passes with Majora’s Mask Point Race episode 6.

Mahonri Violist passes with 1392 words of character memories, and a Celtic song.

jseah passes with 5705 words of Hero’s War.


Thus, no one FAILS this round!

Glass Mouse, Lycunadari, Allan Dotson, Artman77, LeSwordfish, TheWombatOfDoom, Mahonri Violist and jseah PASS this round!


Current standing:

Spoiler

Show

Glass Mouse
Current run: 248 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: 2 weeks

Lycunadari
Current run: 133 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

Allan Dotson
Current run: 47 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

Cuthalion
Current run: 19 weeks
Longest run: 13 weeks
Themes: -

Artman77
Current run: 1 week
Longest run: 13 weeks
Themes: 1 week

LeSwordfish
Current run: 5 weeks
Longest run: 5 weeks
Themes: 1 week

TheWombatOfDoom
Current run: 5 weeks
Longest run: 71 weeks
Themes: -

Mahonri Violist
Current run: 6 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: 2 weeks

jseah
Current run: 5 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

This week's theme (July 27 - August 2), chosen by me, is Sisyphus.

Next week's theme is chosen by Lycunadari - let me know in PM or this thread, and I'll include it in the next status.

Dumping all of the art.

Welcome back

Well, I missed a week, so that sucks. But I'm back at it!
New stuff.

Damn, I'd hoped you’d just forgotten to upload for a week. Oh well. Back on the saddle and all that!

[Artman77]

Damn, I'd hoped you’d just forgotten to upload for a week. Oh well. Back on the saddle and all that!

That is exactly what happened actually, I've got last weeks art just chillin. That being said, if you got a job in the real world, and do your work but don't hand it off you still get written up/fired/not paid.... so..... Yeah. I didn't want to cheat. This is as much about meeting deadlines for me as it is a reminder to practice.

[Artman77]

http://wingmind.tumblr.com/ -- here again.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Majora's Mask Episode 7! Things are really heating up....

[jseah]

Oh crap, I nearly forgot to post.

Luckily the email notification for wombat's post reminded me.

Here, 6377 words on Hero's War by FP count.

EDIT:
This week was terrible. I wrote the chapter in a completely messed up order, the battle with the Titan was mostly wrote today.

Also there was supposed to be another section where they explore the ruin afterwards (and a rom-com like introduction for Ereli), but the chapter is already long enough...

[LeSwordfish]

This week I took part in tf2maps.net's 72hourmap contest, to design a map from nothing in 72 hours. As of now, i'm a little less than 48 hours in, and i've made this:

http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=25205

I also tried to write some rules for a tabletop game, here.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Oh crap, I nearly forgot to post.

Luckily the email notification for wombat's post reminded me.

Here, 6377 words on Hero's War by FP count.

EDIT:
This week was terrible. I wrote the chapter in a completely messed up order, the battle with the Titan was mostly wrote today.

Also there was supposed to be another section where they explore the ruin afterwards (and a rom-com like introduction for Ereli), but the chapter is already long enough...

Gladd my poat helped!

[Glass Mouse]

Status post for the week July 27 - August 2!


Glass Mouse passes with a Genre Unsavvy strip, a two-people portrait, and a li'l fleeing Sisyphus.

Lycunadari passes with six pretty nature photos.

Allan Dotson passes with a Critters page, a gnome bard, a mech, a carrion crawler, a big moth, a sea serpent, a quasit demon and a pretty fishy dude.

Cuthalion passes with two parrot portraits, six more birds, some wolves, two elephants, and a big cat.

Artman77 passes with three mugshots, one pizza-juggling Michelangelo, one Sisyphus with his rock, and one commission.

LeSwordfish passes with 48 hours of TF2 map making and 1156 words of tabletop rules.

TheWombatOfDoom passes with Majora’s Mask Point Race episode 7.

Mahonri Violist didn't upload/send me anything.

jseah passes with 6377 words of Hero's War.


Thus, Mahonri Violist FAILS this round!

Glass Mouse, Lycunadari, Allan Dotson, Artman77, LeSwordfish, TheWombatOfDoom, and jseah PASS this round!


Current standing:

Spoiler

Show

Glass Mouse
Current run: 249 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: 3 weeks

Lycunadari
Current run: 134 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

Allan Dotson
Current run: 48 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

Cuthalion
Current run: 20 weeks
Longest run: 13 weeks
Themes: -

Artman77
Current run: 2 weeks
Longest run: 13 weeks
Themes: 2 weeks

LeSwordfish
Current run: 6 weeks
Longest run: 5 weeks
Themes: -

TheWombatOfDoom
Current run: 6 weeks
Longest run: 71 weeks
Themes: -

Mahonri Violist
Current run: -
Longest run: 6 weeks
Themes: -

jseah
Current run: 6 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

This week's theme (August 3 - 9) hasn't been chosen yet, so it is up for grabs.

Next week's theme is chosen by Allan Dotson - let me know in PM or this thread, and I'll include it in the next status.

EDIT:
This week was terrible. I wrote the chapter in a completely messed up order, the battle with the Titan was mostly wrote today.

Also there was supposed to be another section where they explore the ruin afterwards (and a rom-com like introduction for Ereli), but the chapter is already long enough...

Ugh, I know that feeling all too well. Hope this week's writing is gonna run more smoothly.

[Artman77]

Theme: Variation.
I would recommend this as a two-part theme; one subject and a variation (or multiple variations) of that subject.

[Cuthalion]

I did this the other day, just haven't uploaded yet. That's kinda how my schedule works, uploading lags a little behind production. So I got this theme down already.

[LeSwordfish]

Firstly i'm going to upload my first three days work: Two models and a day's detailing on my tf2 map for the final 24 hours of the contest: Before, After.

Which brings me to my next point: i'm out saturday, and have earmarked my (long, long) bus journey on sunday for a chance to get some writing done. My destination has pretty patchy internet, so I might not be able to upload whatever I do until monday - is that okay?

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Majora's Mask Point Race - Episode 8 - Avalanche

(the episode is a variation from the norm we've set, where I've been in the lead. Yey theme.)

[Glass Mouse]

Which brings me to my next point: i'm out saturday, and have earmarked my (long, long) bus journey on sunday for a chance to get some writing done. My destination has pretty patchy internet, so I might not be able to upload whatever I do until monday - is that okay?

That's fine, Swordfish. And noted :)

[jseah]

4138 words on Hero's War.

Since Hero's War is going to "stall" for one week on nothing but a Cato's Notes chapter (which have very low word count), I may have a post on the Culture-40k coming up soon. And a prologue/first chapter of a side project.

[LeSwordfish]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xfznlra0qv...eatre.txt?dl=0

Six pages of script to round off the week.

[Artman77]

Uploaded stuff last night, forgot to post link... wingmind.tumblr.com I guess this is the norm and I could put it in my sig...

[Glass Mouse]

Hi peeps. I'm very sorry, but I just got back to my hostel, and my laptop is currently irretrivably in the safe deposit box (I'm writing this on my phone). I'm gonna do the status tomorrow instead. I know, I suck, I'm sorry. Next Monday, I'll make sure to do the status before the fancy-beers pub crawl.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Hi peeps. I'm very sorry, but I just got back to my hostel, and my laptop is currently irretrivably in the safe deposit box (I'm writing this on my phone). I'm gonna do the status tomorrow instead. I know, I suck, I'm sorry. Next Monday, I'll make sure to do the status before the fancy-beers pub crawl.

You're totally fine to do it late. The challenge will live with the delay!

[Glass Mouse]

Status incoming from sad hungover land and many apologies for the delay. The week of August 3 - 9!


Glass Mouse passes with a Genre Unsavvy strip, a background, a fanart, and an RPG character in various versions.

Lycunadari passes with four sky photos, two flower photos, and one water fountain.

Allan Dotson passes with a Critters page, four different lego squads, an erinye, a drow mummy, and a shedu.

Cuthalion passes with two sheets of face sketches, a bird, a... dragon?, and two variations on the same lake reflection.

Artman77 passes with a fantasy commission, and six different orc faces.

LeSwordfish passes with a finished TF2 map, and six pages of scripts.

TheWombatOfDoom passes with a new and exciting lead in Majora's Mask Point Race episode 8.

Mahonri Violist didn't upload/send me anything (again).

jseah passes with 4138 words of Hero's War.


Thus, Mahonri Violist FAILS this round!

Glass Mouse, Lycunadari, Allan Dotson, Artman77, LeSwordfish, TheWombatOfDoom, and jseah PASS this round!


Current standing:

Spoiler

Show

Glass Mouse
Current run: 250 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: 4 weeks

Lycunadari
Current run: 135 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: 1 week

Allan Dotson
Current run: 49 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: 1 week

Cuthalion
Current run: 21 weeks
Longest run: 13 weeks
Themes: 1 week

Artman77
Current run: 3 weeks
Longest run: 13 weeks
Themes: 3 weeks

LeSwordfish
Current run: 7 weeks
Longest run: 5 weeks
Themes: -

TheWombatOfDoom
Current run: 7 weeks
Longest run: 71 weeks
Themes: 1 week

Mahonri Violist
Current run: -
Longest run: 6 weeks
Themes: -

jseah
Current run: 7 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

This week's theme (August 10 - 16) hasn't been chosen yet, so it is up for grabs.

Next week's theme is chosen by Cuthalion - let me know in PM or this thread, and I'll include it in the next status.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xfznlra0qv...eatre.txt?dl=0

Six pages of script to round off the week.

Damn, transportation time can be downright excellent!

You're totally fine to do it late. The challenge will live with the delay!

Thanks, Wombat. It doesn't destroy me to be late, but I still prefer to keep delays to an absolute minimum.

[Artman77]

Theme grab: Turning Gray

[jseah]

A Cato's Notes chapter. 2604 words. Not counting the comment at the start.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Majora's Mask Point Race - Episode 9 - Wind Fall