I’ll be the first one to admit that I have been a part of a lot of community mapping projects before, and I can probably count on one hand the number of them that succeeded. Depending on the game or the engine, we either hit game limitations for entities or brushes or lights, or the guidelines for size or "scope" were too broad so once compiled it had the worst budget/FPS ever, or the theme was too open ended and so nothing really meshed that well.
Thankfully Portal really kind of solves that problem for us, since it’s easy to say "okay your map must begin in an elevator shaft and end with a fizzler and an elevator shaft". Sure there are some more limitations but in the end, there is a clear start and finish.
So to that end, in lieu of another mapping contest, I am going to attempt to start a ThinkingWithPortals Community Pack. I don’t have anything set in stone other than your map must start and end with an elevator, and can be as long or as short as you’d like.
Any ideas welcome.
