House of leaves

Ideas and concepts for maps, discuss here.
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RageQuit
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 2:58 am

House of leaves

Post by RageQuit »

Hello again, sorry I have been so inactive, but such is life I suppose.

Recently I began working on an icy jump map that is loosely based on the book House Of Leaves. I suppose it is very loosely, as aside from the name and atmosphere it will be different. If you have never read the book though, it is in part about a family that moves in to a home, only to have hallways appear out of nowhere. The husband decides to explore them, and all sorts of shitty things happen when he does.

Concidering I have only ever released one map (which didnt even work do to spawn issues) I am still something of a noob to mapping, but my goal is to make a genuinly scary map, and at the same time do some "new" things for icy jumps.

Ideas: Some Ideas I have had include having walls that seemingly move on their own. I plan on accomplishing this by turning entire walls into doors of sorts, that will be triggered by unmarked places in hallways with trigger multiples. This idea is central plot point from house of leaves, and it will give the map depth as the when the walls move, the path will change until it is triggered again...this should be interesting in multiplayer.
The other main thing I want to do it use sound and story as a major part of the map. Not only will there be leet sounds and the like, but (taking a cue from portal and the technique peacecat used) at the beginning of each jump will be a bit of audio, which will reveal another part of the story of how and why things are the way they are in the map.

The biggest problem I am having so far is my own limited understanding of jump maps, and my mediocre skill at icy. I am ok at icy, but by no means "pro" so it is hard to gauge how difficult a jump really is.

Anyway, just wanted to start a thread about the map. I am more than welcome to ideas and suggestions from the forums and more experienced jumpers/mappers, so feel free if something is jumping out at you. As of now I have the noob filter just about done, the first noob jump done, and the first jump from nooby leet mostly done. I will post screenies as I get closer to a look that I am happy with, and a video as soon as I can figure out how to record a decent looking one.

tl;dr...there is no tl;dr....Im sorry D:
.:AnP:.+Rocks=TLF

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KroniK
Posts: 169
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:44 pm
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska, USA

Re: House of leaves

Post by KroniK »

Sounds Awesome!! Cant wait to see what you do!!
"I still miss my ex girlfriend, but my aim is improving."

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RageQuit
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 2:58 am

Re: House of leaves

Post by RageQuit »

http://youtu.be/53etOo37XV8

here is my progress so far. This is the noob filter, first jump after failing the noob filter, and two jumps that I am not sure what where they will go yet. I'm not sure if the noob filter will be in the final map, just because it is too narrow, can cause lemmings, and ultimatly it is too hard to just up and miss the landing ramp, so I'm worried it would get clogged. Also it may exceed the max size something can be. Before I made a giant box of caulk around it it seemed fine, but after the box (made because I was feeling too lazy to caulk each face) I am getting the "max visibility" error.

Some themes from the book I am trying to incorporate are low lighting (as low as possible), and having little to no variation in the walls and floors. The lack of variation is going to have to be mixed up a bit, so the map doesnt get too boring, but overall I plan on the map having a very bleak look and at times being confusing as to where you are (like how in the video the last jump is a clone of the one before it, but with a new way to finish it.) I have a lot of plans for the look of the map, but I may end up sticking with the grey and black textures shown here.

I really want to incorporate a story in the map, but as of right now I'm having trouble figuring out how to accomplish that. At the moment I have sounds at the jumps that tell something of what is going on, but the sounds are just me with my voice edited by audacity, and they sound stupid as hell. So if anyone is up for some voice acting, let me know ;)

Lighting is temporary, but my goal is to crest lights that blend together to form natural looking colors. The map will be very dark, so what little light there is has to be good.

(sidenote) The shaft of the noob filter where the payer falls seems to be impossible to light, even a little. I tried regular lights, spot lights, and shaders, but nothing ever shows up. This has to do with the height of the shaft, but as far as width goes its a very small area, so I expected at least something to show up...oh well.

let me know what you think so far.
.:AnP:.+Rocks=TLF

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skuzzzz
Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Jun 21, 2013 10:37 pm
Location: United States of America, Oregon

Re: House of leaves

Post by skuzzzz »

I hope you haven't given up on this map yet because just from the video I really enjoyed it. The atmosphere gives off a creepy vibe to it, which I like. Great use of teleports. I would love to see more

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