The Lost Tests- Puzzle maker needed

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Arachnaphob
412 Posts
Posted Oct 12, 2013
Hello everybody. I am creating a portal 2 story-driven mod called The Lost Tests. It features new characters, an original soundtrack, a giant story, survival horror, and a new environment. We wanted to create something completely new but still keep the feel of portal 2. After many days of thinking and designing, we came up with an epic story that has a similar feel to the original portal 2. Here is a trailer for the lost tests, featuring a play through of one of the maps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdarKud5upw
(Thanks for my friend Imagineertwins for letting me upload with his account. He is also participating in the creation of this mod.)

We have the story, characters, and environments down, but I am horrible at making good puzzles, so we are looking for someone that would be willing to help and be included in the making of The Lost Tests. We would handle all of the visuals, so all you would need to do is make a puzzle in the PTI editor, but if you want to create a map in the hammer editor, there's nothing wrong with that. For time management, though, just make it's visuals basic.

If you are interested in making some puzzles, here is a list of all of the puzzle and what their puzzle elements are.

Chapter one: The Lost Tests:
These maps will end up being overgrown. They should have easy/medium difficulty. You can use any element except for gel or tractor beams. In total, this will have five maps.

Chapter two: The Basement:
These maps will end up in underground. They should have medium difficulty. We will need five to seven maps. You can only use testing elements found underground. The first and second map will have blue gel. the next two should have orange and blue gel. The rest can be a combination of any.

Chapter three: The Corruption:
These maps will feature a brand new style, limbo. They should have medium/hard difficulty. It has a significant lack of physics, and is when the facility is being taken over by a supernatural force. It involves impossible geometry, floating elements, and breaking chambers. It also introduces the void cube, which is a cube that only moves when you pick it up. These can include any testing element and should include many things that would normally be impossible.

Thank you,
-Arachnaphob and Imagineertwins

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FelixGriffin
2,680 Posts
Posted Oct 12, 2013
Replied 4 hours later
You might want to post some examples of what you have already. People won't want to commit to a project where it looks like they will do most of the work and receive little of the credit. :wink:
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Arachnaphob
412 Posts
Posted Oct 12, 2013
Replied 56 minutes later
Like the horrible tests I've created from scratch or some of the story events? Did you see the video?
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Gemarakup
1,183 Posts
Posted Oct 12, 2013
Replied 2 hours later
To tell you the truth, you've created a good puzzle with laser relays and that doesn't happend a lot. I don't mind making a puzzle though, because the video proves you've been working on something. Just the world portals have a wierd usage.
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Arachnaphob
412 Posts
Posted Oct 12, 2013
Replied 55 minutes later
I agree. In that map, the world portals really are in a weird place. Originally, the chamber was supposed to fall before going through the exit, but once I found out that you can't have them open while moving I abandoned that idea. Once I get a puzzle designer, I'll swap that puzzle for theirs, or maybe just keep it there if it's good enough. If you want to check out the map, here is the BSP if you want to check it out.
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Gemarakup
1,183 Posts
Posted Oct 13, 2013
Replied 15 hours later
(I'd recommend zipping before shipping).
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FelixGriffin
2,680 Posts
Posted Oct 14, 2013
Replied 1 day later
Sorry, missed the trailer before. Yeah, that looks nice. I'll send a PM.
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Portal Master
18 Posts
Posted Oct 14, 2013
Replied 1 hour later
So I have some questions about this.

1) In the overgrown "Lost Tests" portion, is it a tutorial stage or are you skipping that phase?

2) Do you want a unique underground theme similar to old aperture or straight up old aperture?

3) Is this strictly Portal 2 themed? (For the first two chapters, of course) I think I would be great to introduce a new style, but closely following Aperture's overall style.

4) There's no clean chambers?! (hopefully this character doesn't have OCD.)

5) Is there any progression you want? Like smaller, easier chambers go in chapter 1, etc.

Otherwise, I think I'm interested.

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Arachnaphob
412 Posts
Posted Oct 14, 2013
Replied 30 minutes later
Thank you for volunteering Portal Master!

When it comes to the lost tests, it isn't a portion of the story, it is the entire mod. The whole story takes place in an abandoned testing shaft that was sealed off and erased from the memory of GLaDOS. The environment features underground, behind the scenes, overgrown, and limbo, which closely resembles Wheatley style. To answer your question, the first tests are not a tutorial, they are just simpler than the rest.

Underground will follow extremely close to the normal underground theme, except there's no Cave Johnson and there's core management rails. Both of these will be explained in the story.

The whole thing should really resemble portal 2, except for the end. It starts with you behind the scenes in normal aperture, then you transfer to the abandoned shaft, with overgrown and destroyed tests. From there you go to an abandoned behind the scenes, and then underground. From there you travel up and into limbo. Limbo is a behind the scenes environment that is being corrupted by a supernatural force. The tests in limbo should be breaking, but in a weird manner. For instance, wall panels will fall, but then freeze in mid air. You may walk into a test, and then the whole wall opposite you moves away from you, creating a gap you have to get past. Also, limbo introduces a new test element, the void cube. I still need to get its functionality fixed up a bit, but it is a cube that only moves when you pick it up.

There are, in fact, no clean chambers. You also don't have OCD. (It's actually CDO because that way it's in alphabetical order.)

The first chambers should be easy/medium, and should be small/medium in size. The visuals will be handled by my friend who is really good at the overgrown theme. The underground tests will be placed in the geodomes, obviously, and depending on their size, I will fit either one or two in one dome. The final tests should be giant. Not like those crappy PTI puzzles that take up the whole space, but like Wheatley size but a tiny bit bigger.

Thank you so much for volunteering to help! Is there a preferred way of communication that we can share files? Google drive maybe?

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Portal Master
18 Posts
Posted Oct 14, 2013
Replied 45 minutes later
I have a gmail account, so I would be fine with Google drive. My Steam account's name is Portal Master. (as you could have guessed) You can friend me and send messages to me that way. (If you have a steam account, of course)
One more short question: Can the I make the puzzles clean when showing you the idea?
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Arachnaphob
412 Posts
Posted Oct 14, 2013
Replied 19 minutes later
making the tests in the clean style would be preferred. It's also okay if you make it in the PTI editor, just remember to export to .vmf

I'll friend you on steam and then from there we shall create thou document.

EDIT: Apparently there a a lot of portal masters on steam. What's your profile pic of?

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Dafflewoctor
415 Posts
Posted Oct 14, 2013
Replied 2 hours later
Watched the video, it certainly looks interesting.

I made a map last summer, and it was of extremely low quality. It's deleted now but I still have the draft of the puzzle in my PTI editor. Most people who played the map said that they really liked the puzzle, just not the visuals. :lol: I don't plan to remake the map really and I don't want want it to just sit there forgotten, so you could use the puzzle. It's of medium difficulty, not hard to execute, and relatively small, so I would think it should be part of the overgrown section.

I just have to make some changes and touch it up a little, so I'll PM you the .vmf in a little while.

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Arachnaphob
412 Posts
Posted Oct 14, 2013
Replied 24 minutes later
Thank you so much! It's great you guys are helping!
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Gemarakup
1,183 Posts
Posted Oct 15, 2013
Replied 3 hours later
Emm, why to export vmf? To see it or to edit it? I hope it's only to see it.
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Arachnaphob
412 Posts
Posted Oct 15, 2013
Replied 29 minutes later
I would want to see the puzzle and then my friend will go over it and handle the visuals. This makes the process much quicker in the end.
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Gemarakup
1,183 Posts
Posted Oct 15, 2013
Replied 1 hour later
By editing the VMF? I think it's a bad idea because of the 128 cubes that are textured on all sides and all the other things that don't help optimization.
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Arachnaphob
412 Posts
Posted Oct 15, 2013
Replied 7 hours later
^actually very good point. I would just like to see it though, so we could re-assemble it.
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Lpfreaky90
2,842 Posts
Posted Oct 18, 2013
Replied 3 days later
I just watched the video; it looks pretty good but I would've done a few things differently:
- I'm not a big fan of the blue/orange light switching, I would just stick with normal lighting. Also them named lights really make your compile much much longer.
- There's a big wall with one yellow back-panel texture. I would go for one of the big plastic textures; they generally look better on big walls.
- Overall the lighting could improve a bit; highlight the important parts more.
- Add fog!

The puzzle with the laser is great and I like the exploring part. Can't wait to see more :smile:

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Arachnaphob
412 Posts
Posted Oct 18, 2013
Replied 3 hours later
Thanks for the suggestions! The test will be replaced, so don't worry about that. Since the map is in a very early stage, I am still open to any suggestions. The lighting will be greatly improved, and I'll also try switching the texture on the test chamber. Also, there is fog, but it's just black, to make you feel more isolated. The whole thing is supposed to be creepy and isolated. Is it too far maybe?
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Dafflewoctor
415 Posts
Posted Oct 19, 2013
Replied 7 hours later
No. I think you've really pinpointed that feeling really well. Especially in the part with the "LEAVE" and the haunted bts place right after that.

Also: I'll have that map for you soon, I just haven't got around it to it. Are you sure you don't want the .bsp instead, because PTI .vmfs are usually laggy and take a while to compile if you a actually want to play the puzzle.