How to stay motivated
How do you all stay motivated when you start out? This is how my mapping life is playing out currently:
1 Work for hours on my map
2 Become quite happy with what i've done
3 Come here seeking ideas and to commune with my NS2 friends...
4 Look at nice maps that you have all created..
5 Instantly hate my map and either want to start again or just quit because my map is crap in comparison
How do i stay motivated???????????
1 Work for hours on my map
2 Become quite happy with what i've done
3 Come here seeking ideas and to commune with my NS2 friends...
4 Look at nice maps that you have all created..
5 Instantly hate my map and either want to start again or just quit because my map is crap in comparison
How do i stay motivated???????????
Comments
I think you should just not compare your maps to other peoples maps and aim to make your map different for this very reason.
Like fmpone said, having a plan can really help you to keep your motivation. I know this from experience, since there are just so many times I have started to map for cstrike or ns1 and I have created just two rooms connecting to each other before losing motivation. You need to think about what you want to achieve and set some goals for yourself.
Having people actually play your map (I think this is what every mapper wants :)) can really boost your motivation, so try to start with a rough greybox of your map which has all the entities in it and can be play tested. This will save you time later on when you almost certainly have to make adjustments to the layout, not having to move detailed geometry and props around. Then if you feel like it, start with a couple of rooms and try to set the visual theme of your map.
Releasing your map early can really help to keep yourself motivated because of the feedback you can get. I also suggest you to try to keep up with the changes in the game by playing in competitive matches and watching streamed matched to know where the gameplay is heading.
tl;dr A plan, set of goals and instant feedback from the community can help you to keep your motivation. :)
Hehe. This is totally normal. I think, everybody went throught this in beginning. I remeber when I started in 2003 with Hammer editor - From the beginning I knew that I want to make space ship map for NS named ns_Hulk. Actually the first incarnation took me about 2 months and it was utter crap, I've deleted it immediately :-)
On second incarnation I've worked for about 4-5 months and I've made some basic mistakes (enclosing entire map in one big box :-D). Actually visually it was quite good, I've got lots of appreciation here on forums (even from Flayra) when posting screenshots. But unfortunatelly, because of fatal mistakes, resulting in unmanageable number of leaks, I had to delete it again :-D
After that I took a smaller project a combat map called Overmind, on which I tested If even I can deliver a complete map. Overmind took about 3-4 months and I've finaly finished something :-D (but actually it was never played). Empowered by a such succes, I've started 3rd incarnation of ns_Hulk and few months later finished. Although HL1 engine didn't let make it 100% as I envisioned it. Altough the map was not played a lot, I've recieved lots of appreciation and in 2008 (4 years later!) it was includet in 1st unofficial NS mappack with other top notch maps (Achio, Enceladus, Rust, Rampage).
So the moral of this boring story is - If you have the desire within you, you will never give up. Don't make compromises, don't hesitate do start over.
And here is one recent example. I am working over a month already on my first room for ns2_hulk (as a style test and practise) and I've already went throught 4 versions, but there is still lot of improvement to do. <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62994473/Untitled-2.gif" target="_blank">Here </a>I've made small animation to show that deleting is a natural :-)
Rememeber - mapping is a iterative process
You can always find motivation in this forum! Post screenshots, read comments, improve, repeat. NS mapping community is great!
Hope It helped.
If I was making my first map I'd be happy to make a couple of rooms that had lights and people could run around in without falling out the map!
This is a good example of what I would call benevolent envy. Envy is only harmful if you feel the person doesn't deserve it. That obviously isn't the case, because a lot of mappers here so far have demonstrated their capacity for diligence and creativity.
I went through the exact thing you just described, and dropped my map out of frustration several times. Up until a month and a half ago I wasn't planning on releasing it for another year.
When you compare your work to others and you feel your work is ###### in comparison, sit down and learn from that person. Do what they're doing, find your own way. That feeling is there to remind you what is truly authentic.
On a side note, I've had this community as my home chrome launch tab for the past year.. So when I wasn't working on my map I'd feel bad on the Internet : )
+1.
i've been wc3 mapper (which is much more like modding though) for over a decade (longest project went on for more than 6 years) and this really turned out to be the key. in fact, it was dangerously addictive.
after all, UWE does about the same: they released their work as soon as possible. the feedback does not only influence their work (probably in a very positive way) but you can easily notice how they embrace the positive feedback on many occasions.
having a fanbase (or at least some interested people) gives your project a purpose. you can present your changes to them, it's like having a job. except you are doing it for free, which means you get even more respect. for me, this hobby became so demanding that i ultimately had to give it up for university. this was for making modbased games though, so i guess things are less intense when making a map.
until you think your map is ready for some games, you could still post screenshots and/or videos to introduce new parts you have been working on.
The beginning is the difficult part, because you want to share and you probably won't get much feedback. But once your level has enough of it and people have a game and they enjoy it, your work starts to have a meaning. And then you can carry on working on it through that meaning. Mapping then becomes a true moment of fun and for me, finding time is more of the issue than motivation.
A lot of people here say that you must release a version as quickly as possible for testing. I would say that is mildly true, release when you feel there is enough for people to appreciate the map and can enjoy a proper game on it. When people play the map it is much more motivating then when they just test it. And they will come back to it if they enjoy the experience. It took people many games before they started understanding all the strategic possibilities on turtle, and the map made them want to play again and try different strategies, to the point where I started seeing strategies I had never imagined. And from there the different versions developed to open up more strategies. If a map is just good for testing, people will test a game and they won't play it again.
What makes a map unique, is its layout. If your layout resembles too much another map, people will play the map of that layout that works best. Style and theme to me is just a cherry on top. I might have this position from the things I do, to music to designing furniture and buildings. So I have been taught how the inherent structure is much more important than the color of the paint. Spaces and intervals are much more important to a rhythm than the tone of the hit. A chair might be fancy, but if it is uncomfortable people wont sit in it.
We all have to start somewhere, and if this is your first experience in mapping then don't be too hard on yourself. Turtle is my first full map but I started mapping about ten years ago. I stopped mapping for a great deal of time and came back with the coming of the spark editor. Hammer for Source kind of put me off :p Developing a feel for mapping is something that takes many years. And even taking a break can fuel you with other things that you can bring back to mapping.
From little things big things grow :)
It was a learning experience but also a waste of time. Stick to one idea and go with it
Here are some things to consider from my own spiritual point of view.
The thinking mind is not creative. When you are about to map, understand what you're really about to do is meditate. Mapping is meditation, it almost always <i>has</i> to be. When you're mapping and your mind is not thinking and completely clear, you're going to be optimal with creativity. Without the noise of thoughts in your mind, ideas and the inspiration to use them will come to you. The more you map, the better you get at meditation, the better and longer your workflow can be, the more creative you become.
When you're not thinking, you're in a meditative state, but also more specifically you are devoid of your ego and more aware. If you think about the things that bother you, like your map not being good enough, you can take this as a sign that your ego is currently active. The ego deflates itself very easily at times; when you were looking at other maps of great quality, instead of being inspired you were afraid that you would pale in comparison, and lost motivation. The ego has no place in mapping, and you would be surprised how the ego can sneak in through the back door and try to sabotage you. Thinking things like having the best map, comparing difference to other maps, criticizing your own map, having your thoughts dwell on the future and the gratification that will come if you do this or that, or having your thoughts dwell on past and using those events to identify yourself. If you notice, the ego thinks always about the past or future, it is never thinking about the present moment which is where you need to be when you map. It is critical to avoid all thoughts that are past or future, for they are egoical.
You can be free from all these problems by accepting that you're not merely going to map, but meditate. It is your goal to have a clear mind devoid of any thoughts, and the simplest and most effective way to do this is to concentrate on the details of your breathing. Our minds have a tendency to stop thinking when we concentrate on our breathing. You are required to think of your breathing at every moment, so that no other thoughts enter your mind. Try to do this for one full hour, and you may find you do not have as much control over the noise in your mind as you thought you did. If you work at it, what you'll find is that ideas still come to you when you're in total concentration of your breathing. It isn't thinking that gives you ideas, it's not thinking.
TLDR: Stop thinking when you map. Treat mapping as a form of meditation.
Here's the advice:
When mapping, it's not a matter of producing a masterpiece, it's a matter of improvement.
The first step to improvement is to realise that you do in fact need to improve(you have already succeeded here).
The second step to improvement is to consistently work at it. I recommend a minimum of 15 minutes a day working on your map. If you feel like doing more after you complete the required 15 minutes, go for it!
Finally, work at specific areas of improvement; for example, if you need to get better at prop placement, work on that. But this is entirely subjective, and based on your current skill level. Work towards the next level, if you are level 1 mapper, work towards level 2, don't try to be like those level 32 mappers you see on the forums.
As an addition: plan your map with paper and pencil. If you don't plan your map beforehand, then you will likely end up with a mess.
Here's the saying: Do not fear going forward slowly; fear only to stand still.
Which means that as long as you make progress, no matter how slow, or how small, it is still infinitely better than nothing at all.
Staying with a level, over the course of a couple of months can be a bit daunting at first, you may look back through your level after a few weeks and find you dislike an area so much that you just delete the entire section and start over, worse still you may find yourself in a slightly worse than usual mood and end up deleting the entire map.
I found the key is to only open up the editor when the mood hits you, don't feel like you HAVE to progress, progress for the sake of progress isn't good.
Sometimes I get a little spark of inspiration and that just leads to me spending upwards of 14 hours straight on spark, but If you are going to build a map, then like others said you have to plan it out, give it purpose, you must plan it out when building a level or it will likely become an incoherent mess, draw it out on paper and it doesn't have to be the kind of detail from one of Cory's concept art, it can be done on paint.
I also like to think through a map as to the theme and purpose of the map that I'm building, it could be for arguments sake an underwater research lab, so for that you would have a docking bay of sorts, the research labs, communications area, areas that regulate the pressure and various systems at work in the place e.t.c. That also covers the storyline aspect of how the marines got into the place (docking bay), so with that in mind you go ahead and start building your layout on the editor without any detail, just rooms and corridors to get a good sense of scale and run times between each areas. Also when running around your map this way it can inspire you, give you ideas for each room and corridors.
Just go into it with the mindset that this is your map and you want to have a good time building it, don't build it simply to impress anyone else, have fun while building it, just remember you don't have a deadline like most, you can take your time with it and construct each area slowly, adding detail as you go along and if you see something that looks really awesome on the forums that you like a lot then just nitpick from it, take parts you like and see how they might work with your map, don't forget imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery (Just don't copy it prop for prop). When the time comes to show the community your work don't be afraid of what they may say, you certainly don't HAVE to listen to anyone in regards to your map (It is yours after all) but the community in general tend to give really good advice and some decent criticism so sometimes it's good to pay attention to what people have said.
Also if you feel your map has to look as good as some of the maps on here then so be it, that might push you to develop your own mapping skills, but don't feel like you have to compete, some of mappers on these forums have been at this game for a long time and they know the ropes really well, just do the best you can and try to have fun with it.
Amen :)
Couldn't agree more. In fact, when I get an idea when mapping and it involves deleting most of what I have done to fit this new design, I can tell when my ego gets active, as it doesn't want to make the change or undo all that hard work etc. When in the flow, the thought of deleting all that work is a joy, because I know what is to come can only be better :)
Trust in the process, enjoy the process, and enjoy discovering what you are going to create. I have no idea what I am about to do when I start mapping. First I let the design come and then move it on in stages, always eager to see what will come next, but completely unaware of what the result will be.
My mapping has seen a massive improvement since I started painting. For the first time in my life, while painting, I experienced what it was like to work completely without ego, it was an amazingly enlightening experience, and I have now carried that through to my mapping.
When you feel any frustration or negative thoughts coming in. Stop, breathe and if neccesary just get up for a moment, walk around and get some fresh air.
Also, if you find yourself get particularly irritated while mapping, about seemingly innocuous things, you probably need to eat. The brain requires energy from food too :)