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I wanted to write this in the blog section but I couldn't create a topic there. I figured this might be a better idea.
Let's get to know each other!
I will post my story. It's a little long, but it's what I have to give... let's hear your story as well in this post!
My Map-making story, by IronManSC:
I grew up in Los Angeles, California (or as we californians like to call 'social'). I've lived in the same area/city my entire life and I'm the youngest of 4 siblings (2 brothers including me, and 2 sisters) in my wonderful family of 6 total including the parents. I'm the only one not yet married  My father grew up as an hand-drawing artist, and later became a graphic arts designer who does work for the Angels, Ducks, and 49ers. My brother grew up as an artist as well, and is now currently working with my father in the graphics business. My oldest sister is a teacher, and my other sister is a nurse. My two brother-in-laws are math teachers and water-pipe engineers, and my sister-in-law is a science teacher as well. It boiled down that I grew up in a 'artistic' and 'creative' family and somehow it was catchy enough to make me an artist myself.
Growing up throughout elementary, middle school, and high school, I won several hand-drawing contests -- mostly simple drawings such as coke cans, knights, shoes, and scenery. I was always drawing on napkins at restaurants and I would steal my brother's drawing pads all the time to see what he drew and I would try and draw the same things in my pad. We mostly enjoyed drawing military-related things, such as little stick-figure battles (don't all guys like to draw battles? lol). I also had a thing for nature. I loved looking at pictures of beaches, greenery, sunsets, and pictures that featured gorgeous flowers, and even took a photography class so I could do more of this. During this time I was really into StarCraft Original and StarCraft Broodwar, and although I didn't know much about the editor, I was adoring the things I could do with it and I made a host of maps based on scenery.
In 8th grade my starcraft CD broke so I veered off into the realms of the real teenage world.
Throughout highschool I played Battlefield 1942 and I looooved taking scenery pictures in that game. I made album after album for a clan at the time who adored the photos of battle scenes I'd capture. I liked the idea of being a 'photographer' on a game. In the middle of my battlefield life, during my sophomore year of high school, hand-drawing became less and less of a hobby, and I started leaning toward graphics design with photoshop and illustrator. I took classes each year for it and won a few t-shirt contests, but that was about it. People had given me a few comments about how good I was with graphic designing and that I should join in on the family business. I thought about it hard and long and decided I wanted to do it since I felt college wasn't for me. After I graduated in 2008, I realized that although I felt good enough to join in on the business, I didn't enjoy it. I simply couldn't sit down and willingly design things for personal enjoyment. I didn't like the idea of being told how to design something.
A couple years later I started watching beta videos of StarCraft 2, and the scenery captured my attention more than anything! (and the graphics). Something clicked, and I wanted to get back into map-making.
2010. StarCraft 2 comes out. I am stoked.
I dove into the editor. I started messing with the nature aspects that it offered, and I immediately began to enjoy it even though I didn't have much knowledge of it. Almost one and a half years later after the release of SC2, I have released maps like Scars of Aiur RE, Ohana & Ohana RE, Antiga Prime, Bel'shir Walkway, and Fractured. I am on The Planetary Workshop which consists of 8 skilled aesthetic map-makers, and have placed second in Map of the Month #7 with Antiga Prime. Mr Bitter commented on it during a live match and said "this is such a pretty map." I also recently placed second in the Teamliquid Map Contest, with my prized achievement that TPW Ohana received, which was "a map achievement of architecture, design, and aesthetics."
I sat back the other day and realized there was a creativity storyline behind all this that brought me to where I am today. I may not be a gosu map-maker, but I enjoy map-making because I can design it the way I want it to look. I am not boasting --- I simply enjoy it more than anything. You will never see me create a city map since my love is for nature and anything battle-related. I don't know where I'll be in one, three, seven, or ten years from now, but I know the creative side of me will show up in one way or another, no matter where I am or what I do. But for now, here in SC2, I'm going to reveal the best of my creative skills so you can all enjoy starcraft 2 a little longer 
I am IronManSC, and now you know my story of how I became a map-maker. Thank you!
Now it's your turn... what's your story? Who are you? How did you get into map-making?
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Welp, I guess I get to go next.
I've always been a gamer. As long as I can remember I've played games by myself, with my family and with friends. I've played a vast assortment of games from Super Mario Brothers on the NES (I wasn't actually born until the 90s but my family has, until very recently, always lagged behind the technology curve somewhat) to Starcraft 2 more recently.
As I said, gaming was a really influential factor in my life. When I was really young (probably around five-six) I used to play Warcraft 2 over the modem with my family. Obviously I didn't get the game but I understood it enough to play completely autonomously. I think it was Warcraft 2 that really started my love of designing games. I used to fool around in the editor making cool maps or trying to make little games (I forget if the War2 editor had triggers). This trend persisted through most of my gaming career. I would generally spend more or comparable time in game editors than the game itself (although much of that time was spent making two armies crash into each other). I remember specifically creating entire campaigns in Age of Empires 2 (Again, I wasn't very old at the time and I can't really remember what the levels consisted of or the quality of each level).
I think it was receiving Warcraft III for my 10th(?) birthday that really pushed me over the edge though. I must have started making a thousand user map settings games. Looking back some of them were actually pretty cool too. Unfortunately, I didn't play a lot of Starcraft and I never played Brood War until ~ 2009 so I didn't really get into the scene there. Making UMS maps in Warcraft III pretty much gave me my game design fix until the last three or four years. Between then and now I've dived into Counter Strike map making, Team Fortress 2 map making, brushes with Dungeons and Dragons and even programming my own, simple games. I also fell in love with a game called ArmA whose entire lifeblood was user created content.
In the last year or so I've become obsessed with Starcraft 2 much in the same way I did with Warcraft III when it first came out. Now I'm older, and have more experience with strategy and logical thinking so I'm just discovering competitive strategy gaming for the first time though. I love making maps and it's really cool to interact with the community here. This is my first real brush with making maps intended for competitive gaming as my Team Fortress/Counter Strike maps mostly consisted of things I thought would be cool.
Obviously, I'm still learning. If I had to guess I'd say I was platinum league at map making. I'm incredibly excited to get better though and hopefully someday I can make something that finds it's way into a tournament (even a small one like the motm tournaments or recent TL map making open.)
Anyways, I'm currently completing my first semester of studying Computer Science and I'm hoping my love of designing games can take me somewhere (but also accept the possibility that it won't).
In summary: I've been interested in game design since a young age and Starcraft 2 map making is a great outlet and learning experience.
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Well this is my first post here on teamliquid. So i guess i use it to introduce myself
Here we go...
The whole thing started five years ago when i found the world editor in my warcraft folder, my imagination started to make alot of ideas and i wanted to do something with this creativity. I found thw (The hiveworkshop) and i quickly got attracted 1000 posts on one month or something, well there is a small sc2 section in thw and i always looked at it without having starcraft at all. I later found out that CloudMax and CloudWolf had created a community called udmod and i started to get active there aswell. I am now a news reporter and i plan to get terrainer status later on. I just got sc2 three days ago and i fast got interested in melee maps, i actually came here to check out the great maps that are being posted here So well i dont have a long story, but mine just begun!
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A long time ago, at New Year's Eve, while their parents, uncles, aunts and all the oddities that make up a family were partying, two young boys were exploring the old computer rooms. After two or three times narrowly avoiding getting crushed by tumbling masses of falling disks, they finally found one that looked oh so interesting.
And it was Starcraft I. (The vanilla)
By morrow evening they had finished the terran campaign - but that was mostly the older one's feat.
That was my first real encounter with video games as thrilling new worlds.
Quickly, as I realized I was taking beatings all the time by the easy AI with cheat codes enabled, I assumed I would never be good. So I opened the editor, and as I realized that I didn't understand anything either to this complex program in a foreign language, I dumped the game aside and played something else.
Then SC2 came out - I started in Bronze (), and by season 4 I was plat (), rising by one league each season. I was (rather) good. I was even better than my older cousin.
But the editor thrill was still here. I have a reputation for creativity amongst my friends. So when they wanted to have fun private tournaments they would ask me for maps. I'd say no. And then think, why not ? A few weeks ago, after a lifetime of noes, I have put real effort into mamaking.
And my friends think the maps are beautiful . They'd rather be, since they have no notions of balance and thus it's the only thing they see ^^.
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I've always loved to create things and I played a lot of custom maps in Warcraft 3.
One day, a friend of mine showed me a tutorial site for using the editor. I followed them strictly and enjoyed using the editor. I quickly decided to work on what would become a DotA clone. The tutorial site was actually a child site of TheHelper
4 unfinished projects later and finally Starcraft 2 was released. I played 3 seasons of melee ladder but I've given up now. I've got too much other stuff to do. I turned my head to the editor despite the scary-looking Data editor.
Over a year later and I now have 4 UMS projects going although I am concentrating on only one of them right now. I tried making a melee A.I but it's on hold indefinitely.
I've also earned $100 selling a melee map with horrible terrain(I'm not an artistic person). I guess that makes me a professional?
Even though the data editor was scary, even though the popularity system is bad for development of new custom maps, I still continued creating and I probably will for a couple of years to come.
I also spend a lot of time helping other people with custom maps over at TheHelper and I recently got promoted to moderator for that specific sub-forum.
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All I can say is that I make maps for two reasons:
1) map making is just another artistic endeavor for me. its true i don't spend much time on doodads and such as other users here, but i prefer to make my style through map shape and terrain.
2) im not a yes-man. i dont understand this whole blind affection of blizzard and everything they make or change for sc2. in fact, i think blizzard is fucking terrible at making maps and i think sc2 is pretty garbage in general too. making maps is my attempt to try to change blizzard's "norm" and try to get people to try new things and enjoy the game
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I´ve been drawing stuff and building with lego for as long as I can remember. I guess my parents encouraged creative activity as they were both painting as a hobby. I have always followed the creative path, playing guitar since I was 12, and I became an architect.
I started making maps when Warcraft 2 came out, then I continued making maps for Total Annihilation. I quit RTS for a while playing more guitar, in terms of gaming I was more into Tomb Raider & Jak & Daxter, but I returned when Supreme Commander came out, and I became part of that community, which was awesome, because people were very dedicated and players like TLO and his brother TheBigOne were encouraging map makers. I managed to churn out quite a few good SupCom maps, even got one into a minor tournament, but eventually I lost interest and SupCom2 was a big disappointment.
Then I heard about SC2 coming out born as an E-Sport, and with an incredible Editor, I thought I might have a chance to create some good stuff.
I you stalk my posts you´ll find that I didn't even know what main, natural & 3rd meant at first, LOL.
I feel I have come a long way, and I´m very grateful for all the excellent feedback and encouragement I have received on this forum. You guys rock!
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Funny story...
I saw IronMan's thread on b.net about his map Scars of Aiur, and I thought, "People can create things like that?" For some reason I was under the impression that blizzard maps would always be better than community maps, which is very silly looking back on it (and before anyone asks, I didn't play sc1 or any competitive RTS's, so I really couldn't know that community maps are better from previous knowledge).
Anyway, a few youtube tutorials later, I figured out how to open the editor and how to make cliffs and spawn points. And then I made my first map: Spring's Hope. If you look at it, you can see how it was kinda influenced by Scars of Aiur, although my execution was of course much below that of IronMan's.
Now I've kinda hit a block, where I want to make more maps, but I struggle to find a layout that interests me enough that I would spend the time to decorate it... sigh. We'll see if I can come up with something over winter break. But I still probably won't finish the map for a few months. xD
Edit: sp
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Well, here's my story:
I think it started back with Brood War, where I'd pass tons of time screwing around with triggers to try and make something cool. I don't think I ever actually finished anything, but I do recall actually learning the editor's workings. Just a matter of not having the time to go deep into UMS maps I guess. As a result of playing both the campaign and messing with the editor, I felt a great deal of nostalgia for both.
jump roughly 8/9 years ahead...
I had seen gameplay from the SC2 beta, and quickly remembered BW and all the fun I had playing it. I knew, almost instantly, SC2 was going to become a part of my life. A couple months later, I finally got the game, and shortly thereafter realized my computer was, putting it lightly, less than ideal. So I strayed away from the more competitive 1v1 action, despite how much I enjoy that sort of thing. However...
Once I had finally gotten a computer that wasn't total crap for the game, I had begun playing. And my earlier forays into the world of 1v1 were simply drenched in a coat of ignorance. I knew nothing about the matchups, what's good against a certain race and why, and knew even less about the maps, as I was trying to focus on my build orders. However, I was always slightly appalled at how massive Tal'Darim Altar felt. I still remember awful games, against other awful players, where I'd take some random expansion knowing they'd never find it. Nobody ever scouted lol.
I wasn't solidified enough as a player to focus on the features of the map, and as such have a very foggy memory of the games I had played then. The maps felt entirely different to me, just as any place in real life would, if you were completely lost in it. I basically thought of Altar as "The big green map". Which it is, of course. At some point, though, I noticed in Altar's description that it wasn't really made by Blizzard, but by some fine person by the name LSPrime. This sort of opened up the door for me, as an interest in the thought of map-making took hold. I had begun playing with the idea of cracking open the editor.
Elsewhere, I had been browsing the Blizzard forums. As an almost complete newbie(or, as Day9 puts it, n00d), I was largely unaware of what the forums were really like. There are some wise-minded folk there, but they were - and still are - far and away outnumbered by other posters who defy any positive description. I had just begun playing with the editor, and knew almost nothing, but felt like it was worth it to pursue further knowledge. Back on B.net, I stumbled on IronMan's thread for his latest creation, Astro Field, which to my dismay has since fallen off the radar. I really thought it was a cool map, and it really spurred me on to try and forge my own path into this world of mapmaking. Of course, I shortly thereafter checked out his other maps, and decided I wanted to be in those shoes as well. As someone who always tried his hand at whatever level editors I got my hands on, I determined SC2 should be no different for me.
Of course, the actual experience of making maps for SC2 is like nothing I've undertaken.
I've yet to make a map that's won a contest or seen the light of day in a tournament setting, but I'm just getting started...
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On December 21 2011 06:17 MisfortuneS Ghost wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Well, here's my story:
I think it started back with Brood War, where I'd pass tons of time screwing around with triggers to try and make something cool. I don't think I ever actually finished anything, but I do recall actually learning the editor's workings. Just a matter of not having the time to go deep into UMS maps I guess. As a result of playing both the campaign and messing with the editor, I felt a great deal of nostalgia for both.
jump roughly 8/9 years ahead...
I had seen gameplay from the SC2 beta, and quickly remembered BW and all the fun I had playing it. I knew, almost instantly, SC2 was going to become a part of my life. A couple months later, I finally got the game, and shortly thereafter realized my computer was, putting it lightly, less than ideal. So I strayed away from the more competitive 1v1 action, despite how much I enjoy that sort of thing. However...
Once I had finally gotten a computer that wasn't total crap for the game, I had begun playing. And my earlier forays into the world of 1v1 were simply drenched in a coat of ignorance. I knew nothing about the matchups, what's good against a certain race and why, and knew even less about the maps, as I was trying to focus on my build orders. However, I was always slightly appalled at how massive Tal'Darim Altar felt. I still remember awful games, against other awful players, where I'd take some random expansion knowing they'd never find it. Nobody ever scouted lol.
I wasn't solidified enough as a player to focus on the features of the map, and as such have a very foggy memory of the games I had played then. The maps felt entirely different to me, just as any place in real life would, if you were completely lost in it. I basically thought of Altar as "The big green map". Which it is, of course. At some point, though, I noticed in Altar's description that it wasn't really made by Blizzard, but by some fine person by the name LSPrime. This sort of opened up the door for me, as an interest in the thought of map-making took hold. I had begun playing with the idea of cracking open the editor.
Elsewhere, I had been browsing the Blizzard forums. As an almost complete newbie(or, as Day9 puts it, n00d), I was largely unaware of what the forums were really like. There are some wise-minded folk there, but they were - and still are - far and away outnumbered by other posters who defy any positive description. I had just begun playing with the editor, and knew almost nothing, but felt like it was worth it to pursue further knowledge. Back on B.net, I stumbled on IronMan's thread for his latest creation, Astro Field, which to my dismay has since fallen off the radar. I really thought it was a cool map, and it really spurred me on to try and forge my own path into this world of mapmaking. Of course, I shortly thereafter checked out his other maps, and decided I wanted to be in those shoes as well. As someone who always tried his hand at whatever level editors I got my hands on, I determined SC2 should be no different for me.
Of course, the actual experience of making maps for SC2 is like nothing I've undertaken.
I've yet to make a map that's won a contest or seen the light of day in a tournament setting, but I'm just getting started...
Well Ironman, it looks like I'm not the only one you converted. =)
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your Country52797 Posts
In brood war I had a knack for coming up with the strangest stuff- strategies, tricks, etc. I had never heard of competitive play, I had given up on the campaign because I couldn't beat it, and I was tired of losing to the few people I played every once in a while. I turned to the last unexplored and known realm and created maps.
I tried to make symmetrical maps, but since I didn't know how, I would either estimate or copy/paste one player's stuff everywhere else, so basically it was 4 or 2 or 6 of the exact same image, not rotated, not flipped, just in its original form. My maps were often island maps that were either really small or strange. I was also scared of making (or playing) maps with more than 2 bases per player because I thought the computer would get every base on the map super fast and overwhelm me.
In Starcraft 2, I didn't touch the editor for a few months until curiosity got the better of me, and I went back into mapmaking. I started with a 64x64 map called lunar brawl after a few trials to figure the basics out. Basically, it was a "roughly" symmetrical map that had 5 bases, watchtowers that could see into the main, and cardinal main ramps.
In my second map, I finally discovered the diagonal ramps, and used them to great effect to create my second, better map, Doom Pit.
I eventually discovered the symmetry tool and first used it in the map Xel Temple which I believe I incorrectly submitted to a MotM. Soon, I was creating monstrosities like this:
(open it in new window/tab), which I submitted into MotM 7, again incorrectly.
My maps actually became much better when I gained inspiration from community made maps- including, believe it or not, Scars of Auir. To this day I churn out unsuccessful maps, waiting for inspiration.
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It all started in high school. I went to a friend's house who said, "...and after we wrestle that bear, I'll show you a fun game." Of course, I was all for it. My friend was always in-the-know when it came to games, so I trusted his judgement on the subject. Unfortunately, the bear beat him senseless and I ran away.
The next day, I went to another friend's house who showed me Starcraft. As he was playing, he mentioned that there was a map editor which lets people design their own maps that could be used in the game itself! I thought that was super cool and couldn't wait to put a map together. When I finally did, I ended up giving myself a fleet of battlecruisers in addition to almost three of everything else. The computer was lucky if it got four workers and a supply depot to start with. I won that fight.
As the night came to a close, I began to scheme about how I could leave with his copy of Starcraft. I had a thousand different ideas: I could ask him for it; I could slip it into my backpack while he wasn't looking; I could accidentally include it in my pile of audio CDs for the car; I could do a lot of different things, but suddenly, the perfect solution came into view. It was my friend's external CD burner. "Of course," I thought, and In a flash I picked it up and bashed him over the head with it. Soon after, I was at home installing Starcraft on my own computer, and my life was never the same again.
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your Country52797 Posts
but suddenly, the perfect solution came into view. It was my friend's external CD burner. "Of course," I thought, and In a flash I picked it up and bashed him over the head with it.
You can't be serious...
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First off, replies:
TehTemplar
In brood war I had a knack for coming up with the strangest stuff- strategies, tricks, etc. I had never heard of competitive play, I had given up on the campaign because I couldn't beat it
O.O Not gonna lie, I'm almost tearing up with how sad that is (with laughter obviously :p). I was pretty bad on my original play through of the campaign, and some mission did take a few tries, but, not . at . all? You should definately go back now that you've improved your mechanics in SC2 and see if you can beat it -- so worth it for that awesomely cheesy dialogue.
@ lovablemikey -- you win this thread, btw.
TehTemplarShow nested quote +but suddenly, the perfect solution came into view. It was my friend's external CD burner. "Of course," I thought, and In a flash I picked it up and bashed him over the head with it. You can't be serious...
rofl, and you quoted the *last* line?
And now on topic... Here is my quick map making bio that I wrote up over lunch:
My uncle had a pinball machine and a Tempest arcade game in his basement so I've known about video games for practically my whole life. The NES was my first real contact with games in a proximate capacity (i.e., not out in my uncles basement or at the bowling alley, etc.). My family got a home computer somewhat late in comparison to a lot of my friends, so I missed out on a lot of the early PC games like doom/quake/etc., but at the time I was much more of an RPG (e.g., Final Fantasy) and fighting game (e.g. Street Fighter II) kind of gamer, though, I never really had a wide variety of titles. After some time with an internet-less PC, my father finally got us online through AOL. It was about this time that I witnessed one of my friends play WC2 when I visited his house for the first time. Long story short, I wound up racking up a ton of hours on Engage (AOL's gaming server/system) playing WC2 (shout-out to clan Dark Covenant if any of you are out there) which was not inexpensive since it was an hourly service. In any event, I did not actually wind up owning the game until later. When I finally did own it, I spent quite a bit of time in the editor trying to make really interesting maps like in the campaign. However, since all maps were essentially melee maps back then, I wound up giving up on it after making a few Garden Of War / Plains Of Snow type maps.
Then Starcraft came out, and the editor was so much more awesome. Triggers allowed for many neat things to happen, but still there were quite a few things lacking. At the time I was interested in two things: making campaign type maps, making maps where you spawn with all three races. But the shortcomings of the editor made these things difficult to impossible and so I gave up on it again for a long time...
I started to get back into mapping a little bit in Broodwar when I first found out about the Korean scene. One of the main things that discouraged me from the editor was the lack of "backward ramps" but the maps I was seeing seemed to have them. That's when I first downloaded a custom editor and began to experiment with mapping again, only more specifically making melee maps. But it wasn't too long after this that SC2 was announced, so my attention for Broodwar mapping again waned. Also, already being a family man at that point, my time for such things was limited to begin with.
Despite my long lasting love of Starcraft, I did not get the game as soon as it was released, though I did get into the beta. And then after I did get it, there was a period of months where I was not able to touch the game due to the things life throws at you. When I did get back on and was able to once again follow the pro scene more closely, I started to get the urge to try out the editor. When the TL Contest was unleashed I burned a lot of husband brownie points.....
So for some context: I'm old enough that hippies cannot trust me. I am a programmer (I wish I could remove those two letters) by trade, and have decent artistic and strong mathematical leanings. As somewhat of a jack of all trades, I never concentrated too heavily on my artisitic talents (though I've also never been considered "bad" artistically speaking) and generally wind up falling back on geometric art, which is probably part of why mapping is appealing to me. I grew up with early aspirations of being some sort of engineer or architect, but as I got more into computers and gaming, my desire to build shifted into programming. While business logic wasn't quite what I had in mind, it is what pays the bills until my ship comes in. Until then, I will continue to fill the creative void in my 9 to 5 and make maps every now and then that push the envelope with purposefully "bad" elements to challenge the status quo metagame and that make you shudder. And if you don't shudder at my maps, you've either played on them or still have not gotten over how badly written this is.
But mark my words, you will play on one of my maps one day and like it!!! 
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So, mine's kind of short....for obvious reasons. (Just finished writing this. Didn't exactly turn out as short as I thought. I guess I like to ramble...) Where I just started mapping, I figured I might as well share.
My Starcraft story started off kinda rough. I was given the The original Starcraft and Broodwar for my 9th Birthday. I turned it down and instead asked for Age of Empires II. To this day I somewhat regret that decision, though I did have a blast playing Age of Empires II on my Pentium II running windows 98. Nevertheless, I found myself in the Age of Empires II editor making awesome battles and campaigns, or at least that I thought was awesome. I was 9 after all.... Eventually however, with the announcement of SC2, I picked up Broodwar. Didn't play it too much, was sucked into WoW/Guild Wars at the time. Which, is also something I somewhat regret. Though when SC2 officially was released I picked up a copy. After a year or so of playing like every other casual player making my way to diamond, I discovered the editor. I have always enjoyed creating things, whether it be in the form of drawing or via games such as Rollercoaster Tycoon or Sim City, I enjoyed them all. Thus it was no surprise to me that I enjoyed messing with the editor on a night where laddering simply did not seem appealing. Simply said, I highly regretted that I pulled an all nighter the following morning.
As my map making career began, I do have a confession to make. Despite the word that Haven's Lagoon was my first map ever made, it was not. I did make a few others simply for the joy of messing with the editor. I suppose I'll share those at the end of this post. However, I would like to say that Haven's Lagoon was the first map where I seriously tried to make a good and balanced melee map. It didn't start off balanced, nor it did not start off as it looks today. Most likely, it won't even stay the way it is now. (Haven's Lagoon Re a consideration.) With that in mind, I suppose it can be considered my first REAL map I've made.
Literally, three weeks after I mess with the editor for the first time, the TL Map making contest was announced. With the layout of Haven's Lagoon, then known as Havanian Lagoon, shaping up I decided to enter the contest. Judging by how much my friends liked playing on the map, I was thinking an honorable mention or something neat-o like that. Maybe just something to get my name out there. Anything would have been super amazingly cool.
It wasn't long before I started seeing other submissions, and then realized just how awful Haven's Lagoon looked aesthetically compared to the others. Just kind of shrugged my shoulders with an 'oops', then went about my day. Thought nothing of it really, as I pretty much expected to not even receive and honorable mention at that point. Just be one of those dumb maps that got submitted by some diamond scrub. Granted, some may still think such, but I guess haters gonna hate. Anyway, a few changes allowed it to become a finalist in the TL map making contest. Wasn't long before the aesthetics/openness/3rd too far/you got lucky tears started rolling. Happy as ever to even make it as far as the finals, I set out on the following weekend to make Haven's Lagoon look better than those cheesy tropical/Caribbean post cards you receive from Alaska. Turned out decent I suppose. Only issue I have with it now is my geometric cliff work. (Something I'll most certainly fix in a Haven's Lagoon Re.) As the other balance issues were dealt with, the map seemingly went from being hated by every single mapmaker and all else with eyes, to one of the more beloved maps of the finalists. Whether it be the tropical tileset or the general layout, I did something right, and the community seemed to agree after receiving 5th in the TL map making contest.
In the end, I certainly got my name out there, won some awesome stuff, and I landed a spot on the ESV Mapmaking Team. All of which has been shocking, yet very very awesome at the same time. Not too sure how else to put it, or what else to share.
All I can say is that I'm now trying my best to prove that I'm not a one hit wonder when it comes to mapping. Some of you probably noticed I was trying a bit too hard, as seen here, here, and here. Lesson learned I suppose. Still learning the workings of things as of now, but currently I have Scorching Dawn in the works, which so far as receive quite positive feedback.
All in all, this turned out a bit longer than I expected, but w/e. Here are some pictures of previous maps I made as I was 'learning the ropes' so to say, as well as pictures of Haven's Lagoon as it progressed.
Older Maps
+ Show Spoiler +THIS is the first map I've ever made. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/USO7r.jpg) This is the my first attempt at a four player map. I liked my rocks then... ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/XaERI.jpg) I discovered the height tool. Din't really care about the layout, just wanted to use the height tool. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/8npeX.jpg) This one, I might come back to. For now, I have it named Desert Crossing. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cNCFk.jpg) Made this one right before Haven's Lagoon. I intended to do a Shakuras Plateau part 2. Instead I got something that looks more like the newer Entombed Valley as far as main, nat, and 3rd layout. Coincidence of course. I have it named as Xillian Plains. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9lFLf.jpg)
Haven's Lagoon
Glare upon the eyesore, as it once was.
+ Show Spoiler +First draft ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/On339.jpg) Got some feedback, made some changes. This is the layout that was seen when the finalists were revealed. I got rid of the forest in between the mains due to fps drops. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/QGgyP.jpg) After 10ish hours of aesthetic work... ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Hvjev.jpg) What it is as of the date on this post. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Gjb2v.jpg)
With all that said and shared, I must say I'm seriously craving cookies. Hope it was a worth while read even though there wasn't too much for me to talk about.
EDIT: spelling and grammar
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I really like Scorching Dawn. But haven is everything that scorching dawn isnt .. uninspired and unrefined. It was never really a matter of jealousy from those posters. haters not hating, just experienced map makers expressing their professional judgement on the matter.
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hey guys
can we get some non circular-expo maps going on here?
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your Country52797 Posts
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EPT![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/j9Hgs)
