News | Forum | People | FAQ | Links | Search | Register | Log in
Explore Jam 2
Explore Jam 2 is released. You have five experimental maps from Bloughsburgh, Naitelveni, Newhouse, PuLSaR and Topher.

No monsters, just mind-blowing puzzles, crazy jumping, traps and many more.

Screenshot

Download

Find your way to the exit, explorers!
First | Previous | Next | Last
Holy Shit 
This is fast. Good job guys! 
 
Is quaddicted pack going to have that fix, or did this also include it? (Can't yet, on phone) 
Newhouse 
This is the version with that fix 
Thank You~ 
Can't wait to play other maps, by you guys. 
Yay 
Congrats to all, it was a challenge to create (hopefully) interesting explore maps. 
@Bloughsburgh 
By looking screenshots about your map, visuals will give you extra points* 
Hey Thanks 
Thanks NewHouse, I worked on visuals the last day as I did gameplay first. I still struggled with brushwork and making things look good but I had a good deal of fun creating this place!

Actually, all of the screenshots from the lovely montage picture look fantastic! 
 
Indeed they do. Seems like a good mix of themes. 
 
Wohoo! :) 
 
well..

my map is short. i quickly cutted the second part, so the end will be a bit abrupt, like "this is it?" when you enter the castle.

the jumps may be hard. it's a combination of slope jump, circle jump with a 180� turn. in hard skill they are pretty hard, specially the upper platforms.

i quickly checked my map in the jam and there is an error

i checked the folder and i saw a .prt file
vis completed just fine, but i thought that a .prt file was generated for leaks.

so i resized the sky brushes just in case, and now the teleport trigger in the skill room is below the sky brush.

it's really detrimental if you want to select hard skill

so n00b, lol

i don't like doing patches for things like that.
but... here is a fix, i just have to move the teleport trigger 16 units up in the z axis

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B72Jjyg-RfNFN0FtZkQ0WDNlTnc 
 
When pointfile is created, it is only for fixing leaks? When playing map, you just need bsp and lit, right? 
 
i don't have a clue
i would think that if vis.exe finish with exit status 0 there are no leaks. and that the .prt file is generated by vis.exe to store and process data, and when the vising is finished the file is not needed anymore

and it's not a leak file, the leak file is a.pts

my error, the extensions are similar 
My Lit File 
http://www.mediafire.com/file/na6ckw65mbu5jee/explore_naitelveni.lit


I didnt know i had to include .lit file, so my map doesnt display colored lights that could help in solving the map. 
 
Naitelveni should work on the lighting some more, methinks. It is mostly made of small spot lights scattered semi-randomly across the map - a rather 1996 approach. Everything else seems fine.

Same thing about the RJ6 map, but less obvious. 
Point Lights, Actually 
 
Screenies Look Great 
I can't wait to try these out congrats everyone! 
@dwere 
Sometimes in a jam you don't have time to really tweak the lights. I personally like the 1996 "look" but I assume that's the issue here. 
Going To Be Playing Through This In About An Hour 
Feedback 
Bloughsburgh � Excellent. Very interconnected layout with lots of things to do and explore. Managed to get 29/30 pillars, though I cheated at the gold key door puzzle because I just didn't have the patience for that one. This is how you do an explore jam map: no risk of dying unless you're really stupid, shortcuts, large variety of challenges and non-linearity. The best in the pack, and it looks pretty good to boot.

Naitelveni � Alright. It looks good but the only thing to do is the lava maze, which is pretty damn annoying because the puzzle is quite obscure. I actually solved it after I went through the maze, through trial and error. It's a shame the surrounding buildings and walls don't have anything to visit.

Newhouse � Very good. No real risk of dying and the challenges are all well tuned, with some good teleporter exploration at one point. The style is fantastic and very interesting. Found all the secrets!

Pulsar � Really disliked that one, sorry. Far too punishing and too linear, relies too heavily on very precise jumping sequences which don't play well with Quake's floaty physics. That would be fine if there was no risk of dying, but lava and other traps become extremely annoying very quickly. Found one rune but couldn't be arsed to find the rest.

Topher � Slope jumping galore! I really liked the moving rocks and the castle. It's a shame you can't explore it more but time constraints and all. First map? Pretty good overall.

Demos: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwnUnvcoU4HFTWtRdHctOFp0bDA/view?usp=sharing 
@Bloughsburgh 
I finished your map, though I only discovered (was lazy) 8 runes, is that going to be secret ending behind that barrier?

This theme feels something I haven't seen much, but definitely fits for Quake. You always give me new ideas how to improve and be creative. Some of the jumping/timing/falling puzzles where quite hard to pull off, especially that one where you have to time when jump, and there is ..5 layers of moving platforms close to each and they always push me off finally when I get higher (maybe it was too fast for me).

But everything else felt interesting to discover and finish. That one part where you have to somehow get on top of that iron elevator, how do you do that? Close to the puzzle, where you have to push floor button to rise up path, you need to use in order to get behind iron bars was challenging (first thought I can't make it, but was able to do it, timing was just right).

There is too much to talk about, I really enjoyed my time. 
 
Naitelveni: can you email me that lit file so I can update the archive or upload it to a different hosting, cuz it doesn't download for me.

Skacky: true, the map is punishing. I wanted it not to feel like a training map, but like a usual map just without monsters. There are actually 3 jumping encounters where you can die, the latest one is really hard. 
 
Bloughsburgh

Got 25 pillars. The elevator one was among the ones I didn't solve - still hoping to figure it out on my own. Great map, looks very good, and has a wide assortment of little challenges - some of them hard, some of them easy.

It was this map that made me think that an Explore Jam should probably feature custom progs that remove falling damage or add an item that removes it. It's both annoying and pointless.

Didn't like the challenge behind the gold door. It seems like the kind of challenge that just makes you stare at the moving things for half an hour, waiting for that one OK opportunity to present itself, but it's so hard to even recognize that you end up savescumming through the gauntlet anyway, cussing in the process. Maybe I just could't figure out a better way.

Naitelveni

Technically a one-puzzle map, but I liked it. Figured the "protection" part out without colored lighting.

The visuals are relied upon a lot, almost like the map was supposed to be bigger, but the author ran out of time. They aren't quite up there with the resident "heavyweights" who used the theme before, but that's mostly because of the lighting.

Some stray fullbrights.

Newhouse

More stray fullbrights.

Two decent obstacle courses, looks decent as well, nice secrets. One obligatory... ahem, no spoilers, I guess. I expected it, but somehow looked everywhere except for the right place at first.

The series of teleporters - or rather the way to the element - felt like random guessing to me, and it's never fun. The way to the exit, on the other hand, is too simple to figure out.

PuLSaR

Really liked this one. Maybe because I'm a graphics whore, or something. Looks really slick. Also, I don't record anything, and savescum in unpleasant situations.

Found all runes, and was really surprised by the reward. As for the buttons - judging by the messages, I'm not even close. I wonder what the prize is. Quad damage? :)

This map made me think about the lighting improvements that were talked about in the Mark V thread. That big sinking building - when you're inside your gun lights up like you're walking over lava, and you can't illuminate the dark corners because the dynamic lighting doesn't work right.

Not the mapper's fault, of course.

topher

Looks interesting, but the lighting is rather simplistic. Slope jumping was fun. A nice little map to finish the jam. 
@dwere 
Thank you~ I indeed run out of time, would have tweaked dream part more, so I have to make it easier to guess than what I was originally writing down on my papers. 
 
@skacky

yeah
first map
first func_train
first colored lighting
first everything
and in the skill selection,, see comment #10
also, i need a message "jump to the upper area to select hard skill", or something like that.

the most i did for modifying games was editing text files

i planned spike shooters and hidden button hunting in the castle, with two floors, and a rooftop. but i strugled with simple things, and trying to do those 30� and 60� walls of the castle.

and i think it was a good idea to make hard skill hard to access. it can be frustating. it's a bit like pro/speedrunner jumping. piece of cake for speedrunners and pro qw players, but hard for us. at least you didn't have much difficulty making the jumps in normal. 
 
Figured the lift out. See you later, elevator!! 
First | Previous | Next | Last
You must be logged in to post in this thread.
Website copyright © 2002-2024 John Fitzgibbons. All posts are copyright their respective authors.