I was looking to get some advice. As some of you know, I've prototyped countless maps, across many years, and many games. Some of which even got to the point of detailing, but none of them ever got to be enjoyed by anyone other than myself, and even then, I grew tired of them.

For whatever reason, the bug to make things in hammer has bitten me again, but I'm afraid that I might not be able to release anything. For instance, I have ideas for a survival map for L4D/L4D2, stuff for Portal 2, and even some modelling ideas for TF2.

Somewhere between the idea-phase and the "let's make it"-phase, I get stuck and I stay there so long that someone else has done what I intended to do, or it's just irrelevant or forgotten about.

What do you guys do, or what DID you do (in the case of those who don't make things anymore), to get from one phase to another? If it's at all possible I'd like to release something before my 21st birthday (in September), but I don't know what I should/can do to make it happen. :\

I don't want to be an "ideas guy" anymore

I also have a hard time releasing anything, so my current plan is to prototype lots of different ideas with my Hammer Notepad and see which one people are most interested in.

At a certain point, you have to sit down and do it. Inspirational words and pictures are great and everything, but if you can ask yourself "Is it worth it?" and "Do I have anything better to work on?" and get appropriate answers for each, the time has come to simply sit down and do the deed.

vanSulli wrote:
At a certain point, you have to sit down and do it. Inspirational words and pictures are great and everything, but if you can ask yourself "Is it worth it?" and "Do I have anything better to work on?" and get appropriate answers for each, the time has come to simply sit down and do the deed.

Very good answer, mate. I guess the issue is that there always seems to be something going on irl.

Sven wrote:

vanSulli wrote:
At a certain point, you have to sit down and do it. Inspirational words and pictures are great and everything, but if you can ask yourself "Is it worth it?" and "Do I have anything better to work on?" and get appropriate answers for each, the time has come to simply sit down and do the deed.>
Very good answer, mate. I guess the issue is that there always seems to be something going on irl.

Same, but I've found I can usually devote about 30 minutes per day to pure mapping work.

I've sadly found myself moving away from mapping, but I'll give you some advice from back when I devoted hours per day to it:

Break it down into small, easily achievable tasks. Checking these off feels really good and can help continue your inspiration-train, as well as making it easier to tackle it as a whole, even if it doesn't seem that complicated. Plus, even if one or two of these tasks are problematic, you still have something to show for it. Even if that thing is a dev'd out escape_00 with nary a concrete texture to be found.

Thanks.

I've just gotten done having a bit of a mini-breakdown, so maybe later or tomorrow when my nerves recover I might be able to at least draw a layout or something.

I usually just do it on whimsy myself. I can't find the time to do it anymore, mostly as there seems to be no real reason to.

When I made my latest masterpiece, it was because we needed a cool HL2DM map. It's all about if it'll be worth it.

It was worth it in the end, in that scenario