Quote from Inspirata on May 16, 2014, 12:18 am

I'm back, and it's been a while. I've been recruited to post the following list of Steam users (I'm keeping this post updated).

The following singleplayer level designers are all honors in my book (not sure about coop, but it's probably the same). They utilize good principles of test design, including good visuals and tests that aren't too difficult:

Mostly or exclusively PeTI (with or without mods):
AD_79, Azorae, camerson1313 (select tests), Demon Arisen, Gig, Jotta (thanks to wildgoosespeeder for introducing me to him), Kimmi, Lawliet, Mathey2009 (semi-hard!), Mevious, Mothalius, Near (thanks to wildgoosespeeder for introducing me to him), smfinch10, Toothless2603, and TuRboz.
Total: 15 mapmakers

Other honorable mentions (PeTI mapmakers) include: Andi (learning Hammer), dire.fcs and GBMusicMaster (list in progress).

Mostly or exclusively Hammer or mixed Hammer/PeTI:
| _/ (), Arachnaphob, BanJaxe, BEN 77, BenVlodgi, bhoun, ChickenMobile, ColorCubeMan, CosmicD, DaMaGepy, Dr. Orange, Dr. Toaster Waffles, Dreey, Firefox, Fluppy, FourthReaper, HMW, InvisiblePanda, laakkone, Layne, LoneWolf2056, LpGoaty90, LuckyRJ, Metallic Hero, Mevious, Motanum, Moth, Mr. P. Kiwi, p0rtalplayer, PsychoBR, Rand0mNumb3rs (conceptual testing), RectorRocks, Reep?lue, RubyCarbuncle, Seji-Evan, Sleter, Snake, SpAM_CAN, sprowl, srs bsnss, Tmast98, and zivi7.
Total: 42 Mapmakers

These 9 level designers also follow fair principles of level design, but they tend to create levels that are too hard for most players, myself included! I'm wondering when these guys will ever come up with anything easy:

• camerson1313 (select tests), Cyhborg, Donderbus and toncica (PeTI tests only)
• greykarel, josepezdj, marKiu, Piranha.A/Innocentive and Prototype

Chances are, you've been listed more than once in this thread. Also, there's no guarantee that any of these guys are also on TWP (unless of course you know them). If you have good content exclusively on TWP, I exhort you to share at least a taste with the Steam Workshop too.

Quote from wildgoosespeeder on May 16, 2014, 12:24 am

I think Lawliet and Near are the same person!

Quote from greykarel on May 17, 2014, 3:22 pm

You are talking about challenging maps? But why no one has mentioned jonatan here yet?
He is simply incredible and his Seven Gates is my ever favorite.

Quote from josepezdj on May 23, 2014, 5:14 am

greykarel wrote:

You are talking about challenging maps? But why no one has mentioned jonatan here yet?
He is simply incredible and his Seven Gates is my ever favorite.

I totally agree with you, my friend. I also loved Devil's Chamber and Enigma.

Inspirata wrote:

These level designers also follow fair principles of level design, but they tend to create levels that are too hard for most players, myself included! I'm wondering when these guys will ever come up with anything easy:

Cyhborg, Donderbus and Toncica (PeTI tests only)
greykarel, josepezdj, Pirahna.A and Prototype

Just by allusion, I'd like to say that to me the motivation to make a puzzle is innovation, in the sense that I only start building a map when I want to show a creative mechanic or unusual sequences of moves. You have to agree with me that after these 2+ years we've been developing puzzles, we've seen almost everything already! and it is difficult to come up with interesting and creative puzzles. To me, a puzzle is interesting as soon as, after entering the map, checking out the environment and identifying each puzzle element, I can't solve it straight and quickly. To me the puzzle must be a challenge in this way. For some experienced players like me, sometimes it's truly easy to know the sequences of moves we must perform to reach the exit quickly, and the avoidance of this is crucial to me in order to make the experience interesting. This often ends up in making a challenging map where the moves aren't esily deducible, but I really think this is the way things must evolve... towards innovation and exploration of new moves and combinations to make anything actually new, even though our maps are developed for only a few advanced players... not towards making the same as everyone, with the average difficulty so workshop players can enjoy.

This is my point.

Quote from reepblue on May 25, 2014, 3:06 am

josepezdj wrote:

Just by allusion, I'd like to say that to me the motivation to make a puzzle is innovation, in the sense that I only start building a map when I want to show a creative mechanic or unusual sequences of moves. You have to agree with me that after these 2+ years we've been developing puzzles, we've seen almost everything already! and it is difficult to come up with interesting and creative puzzles.

I use to do the same, and that became Blue Portals. Sadly, most of those elements have been replaced by the main mechanics of Portal 2 (Lasers vs Light Beams, Funnels, vs Magnets/Fans). From my experimentation's, the only new thing I created for Portal 2 that really added to the experience was the gel cube in A Little Higher. And when I released that mappack, I got accused of copying another map's idea although I did not pay any attention to the releases. Goes to show you that it was not too cleaver. To be honest, other elements and other's I've seen just made the game more of a game with portals then about them.

I've mapped for Portal for about I would say 5-6 years and I rarely get any Portal ideas anymore. The ideas that do come are usually done before, boring, or required a lot of custom content which sucks when it came to publishing on the workshop. More into my own puzzle/Portalish mod these days.

Quote from Inspirata on July 2, 2014, 4:24 am

New addition to your list: Demon Arisen. Overall difficulty is comparable to that of Gig, Mevious and Azorae (and others alike).

Quote from Brumi on July 3, 2014, 1:18 pm

By the way, can any of you recommend some coop mapmakers? We like maps with a lot of logic and less ninja'ing. Aperture Valentine (together with the advanced chambers) has been our favorite so far. PortalCombat has quite a bunch of coop maps, we've already played through them.

Quote from greykarel on July 3, 2014, 2:01 pm

Elite Squad by marKiu.

Quote from Arachnaphob on July 3, 2014, 2:06 pm

Linking-yellow: new mechanics and interesting chambers
Yunas jet: amazing tests
Zhayd
Lopoi Yoshi
Inferno: more execution-based abuses of the PTI editor
Meraknar
Togedie
Flutters
SentientClockwork: great pulse-based tests
Portal Master: great tests