This contest is a follow-up to the successful 2011 Summer Mapping Initiative here at ThinkingWithPortals. We are aiming to promote and reward skill in puzzle design and advanced map-making techniques. In achieving the above, we anticipate the contest will produce fantastic content for the Portal 2 player-base to enjoy, and provide incentive for folks newly introduced to mapping via PTI to grow and expand their skills.

The contest is a free-roaming mapping competition, meaning entrants have complete creative freedom over their entry. The very best maps, as judged by a team of staff and community members from the Thinking With Portals and The Portal Wiki communities, will receive the prizes listed below; and have their work spotlighted on ThinkingWithPortals.

The contest will run from Thursday, July 18 until Sunday, August 5 - 19 days to map!

We will be awarding a huge number of prizes given to us by Valve and The Portal Wiki staff members. Entry rules and more specific information can be found on the contest site.

The 2011 contest produced a huge number of amazing maps, and we are sure this contest will be no less! What are you waiting for? There's no time to waste!

2012 Heavy-Duty Super-Mapping Super-Contest

AND IF YOU'RE WONDERING WHY IM TYPING IN CAPS ITS BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WOULD FIT THE HEAVY-DUTINESS OF THIS CONTEST

Another Bad Pun wrote:
AND IF YOU'RE WONDERING WHY IM TYPING IN CAPS ITS BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WOULD FIT THE HEAVY-DUTINESS OF THIS CONTEST

I like your style.

portal2tenacious wrote:
I knew it. You all called me crazy when the baseless speculation outbreak or 2012 was my fault, but I was right. How does it feel to know I am a psychic? I am the best psychic EVAR!

portal2tenacious wrote:
I knew it. You all called me crazy when the baseless speculation outbreak or 2012 was my fault, but I was right. How does it feel to know I am a psychic? I am the best psychic EVAR!

No one called you crazy. You took a line of text that said something around the lines of "...something will happen..." and than you typed "OMG IT'S ANOTHER CONTEST I MUST TELL EVERYONE!" When he never confirmed it was a contest. So yes, at the time it was rather baseless...

Anyway, I'm hyped for the contest, I just hope I can work around Hammer's more consistent crashing lately. I'm hoping to see some excellent maps from you all!

Djinndrache wrote:
portal2tenacious wrote:

I knew it. You all called me crazy when the baseless speculation outbreak or 2012 was my fault,;but I was right. How does it feel to know I am a psychic? I am the best psychic EVAR!

I should have expected that.

Djinndrache wrote:
portal2tenacious wrote:

I knew it. You all called me crazy when the baseless speculation outbreak or 2012 was my fault, but I was right. How does it feel to know I am a psychic? I am the best psychic EVAR!

Btw, which is the last day for accepting contest submissions? is it Aug.8th or 5th?

UsCobra11 wrote:
I get home August 4th... >_> oh well, there's always next contest...

Judge AHEM

Brainstone wrote:
Now I am caught in the decision of making a map for the contest or finishing my mappack.

I am in a nearly similar situation. What I've thought is to map one of my already drawn in paper ideas that will be for my mappack, but giving it a completely different style than my mappack's. Then, I can still use it later for the mappack by simply modifying the visuals... The advantage is that all the structure will be already mapped, and changing only the visuals won't take much long...

josepezdj wrote:
Brainstone wrote:

Now I am caught in the decision of making a map for the contest or finishing my mappack.

I am in a nearly similar situation. What I've thought is to map one of my already drawn in paper ideas that will be for my mappack, but giving it a completely different style than my mappack's. Then, I can still use it later for the mappack by simply modifying the visuals... The advantage is that all the structure will be already mapped, and changing only the visuals won't take much long...

I don't see how you cant do it the same way visually as your map-pack. We are allowing custom content afterall.

ChickenMobile wrote:
I don't see how you cant do it the same way visually as your map-pack. We are allowing custom content afterall.

Yeah, that's true. I maybe will do so.

ChickenMobile wrote:
I don't see how you cant do it the same way visually as your map-pack.

Ah, I guess that answers my question in the FAQ thread. Cool, custom visuals.

The Irate Pirate wrote:
Anyone else going to try an Undeground themed map since that's what i'll go for, just like last year!

... Maybe

Are we allowed to modify PCF files, which can't be packed? For example, adding the sticky gel back into the paintblobs file?

FelixGriffin wrote:
Woo, time to finish my portal deflection map!

Are we allowed to modify PCF files, which can't be packed? For example, adding the sticky gel back into the paintblobs file?

I think the contest site is fairly clear that the final product must consist soley of a BSP file.

Quote:
Your submitted map should only consist of one single map file (one .bsp)

Quote:
Maps may contain custom assets as long as they are packed completely into the .bsp.

The rules also say that you may not use engine glitches. I asked Jeep Barnett (Portal/Portal 2 dev) and he said that the laser deflection the gel now exhibits was an unintentional bug. (and then told me a story about even stranger bugs when I told him I found it odd that such well-defined behavior could happen by accident... I can find a chat log if you want it.)

Quote:
Maps must be completed without using engine glitches of any kind.

I think this is a bit of an edge case for the glitch rule though, so that'd be something to ask msleeper about.

Quote:
I can find a chat log if you want it.

Who wouldn't want to know?