First Level Experiences

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JEV3

JEV3

There and back again~
Hi,

I was just curious about what everyone's experiences are with their first made level. (not first released)

I know that with my first ones (one broke and one working) I tried to get all complicated, first with teleporters and fof blocks, then with water and layers (fofs again)... I got lazy near the end of my working one and didn't evenly distribute the fofs for a uniform second level. That and my *lots of obstacles and teleporters for the win* ideas turned the map into a complete and utter failure.

I learned however how to use water blocks and fofs... (colormap too) I also learned a little bit about linedef executors even though it took me months to figure out how to use teleporters... (a destination thing? an incomplete wiki sure helped with that *rolls eyes*)

Over all it was somewhat funny though. I had made frequent use of bee hive textures showed off on here a long time ago so the colors were very bright, and the teleporters served to ruin every game I played with my brothers and sisters.
 
Well, when I first decided to make levels, I went to the wiki and downloaded a copy of SRB2Doombuilder, since the article I read made me feel it was "user friendly". Once I downloaded it, I opened it up and lo and behold, a gigantic, unyielding blank grid. The first thought that came to mind was,"Crap, I think I may be in over my head, here".

So I drew a box. At this time I had absolutely NO idea what the hell I was doing, so I started to draw another sector inside the box. "Hmm, a platform. it's definitely a start." I then started to expand the box, forcing it into a long, crooked hallway. I threw a start piece in the box, looked it over in 3D mode, and ran the map. At this time I found it necessary to make the manly arm pump, for I, Kuja, master of all that is mapping, DREW A BOX. OMG.

So yeah, it took me a week to understand how to do basic doombuilder stuff, and a month to master control sectors, as I didn't figure out what those were until much later.
 
My first level had no thok barrier, and I couldn't figure out why my water blocks wouldn't work properly, not to mention that a colormap was a foreign concept for me...

Heh.

But, at least my rings were deafed. I have to hand myself that.
 
In my first level, I spent at least an hour not quite getting how FOFs work. Eventually AJ showed up and explained it to me. My level design didn't begin to mature until I completed Poisoned Paradise, now known as the first act of Metal Wasteland Zone.
 
I had trouble with FOFs as well. I didn't knew you could have 2 tags on the same sector, thus creating 2 FOFs. After that, I tried my level in openGL for the first time, and saw how much broken linedefs I had. All because of switching from WadAuthor and DeePsea.

Once I finished my first level, and wanted to make more, then my following 5 levels were actually part of my first level. I just removed all sectors and Things until I was left with the first sector containing the thok barrier.
 
on Edge said:
What first released level? T_T
Click to expand...

No, first made level...

And this is in Editing because it is about Editing SRB2... Actually Fof's weren't the things that made it hard for me, it was stacking layout so you don't have the second floor messing up the first floor with overlapping sectors. And linedef executors... but I had a lot of fun with them when I started figuring them out. ;-P
 
I tend to advertise Red Zone of Death as my first level, but actually it was my first working level. I made a level in SRB2 Doombuilder when I was first learning to use it that didn't work. I died as soon as I spawned.

However, That and RZoD both had thok barriers. RZoD also had a header.

I learnt most of my mapping skills while I was making Winter Twilight Zone. It started off as a plethora of broken sectors, overlapped linedefs and failed FOFs until I asked for help on #srb2fun. After I got the basic deal on mapping, I started to learn things for myself as well. That was my first playable, finished and released level.
 
Not counting the level made as I followed the Wadauthor tutorial, I actually made a fairly decent level, considering it was my first.

Of course, it still sucked. The player started out in a graveyard area, closed in by weird walls. They walked through a broken gateway, into a cramped castle corridor. Through an inexplicable transparent pillair. They then saw a few ghost enemies, thanks to the SRB2JTE darkworld. Afterwards came a bit of platforming, complete with fake platforms. Rather than this challenge being painfully cheap, it was painfully easy. Land on the platforms that aren't transparent, and you won't fall to your doom. Then was an invisible path, lined with torches. Simple enough. Finally, a colormapped room filled with Jetty Gunners. Run past them into a room with upwards-flowing wind, and the exit sector.

Overally the level sucked, but still beat the hell out of a large portion of first levels. Unfortunately, it's still about the extent of my levelmaking "skills." x.x
 
I made a maze out of linedefs :<, and I mean, I actually just had single linedefs making hedges, not even a thok barrier...

I am ashamed...
 
Har. You've all played it. At least, a slightly modified version to prevent it from being a gigantic error. Arena Zone, in Mystic Realm, is my first ever map. Modified from smatch.wad, by someone with absolutely no clue how to WAD properly.
 
Imagine the first part of "Dimensional Zone", the space part, except it was only those tubes, and you have my first level.
 
Go ask JTE for a link to MiniMiniMole. This was back when the tutorial just came out... So I can't remember carp. Other super early levels include Chaotic Match and Koruno Factory (which was pretty impressive considering how long I've been wadding at the time).

I can relate more to my first NEW levels. My first SP one was Generic Linear zone, which was actually somewhat decent for a first-time SP level. After that came Los Gehts and Fluffypuff Winter, the former recieving awfully high scores from a SP contest some time ago for some messed up reason. My first CIRCUIT level, Molten Wasteland, was pretty impressive for a first Circuit level except for the fact it was insanely short.

Except I still suck at wadding. :|
 
The first level maker I tried was wadauthor, I had some trouble making thok barriers with it and other things that I forgot, so I thought that I give up tring to make levels. Then after some time, I decided to try out doombuilder and follow the tutorial on srb2.org (I think it was on that, I don't remember). I didn't have a problem with fofs since the tutorial helped me with that.

After learning doom builder I wanted to make a sp level. So I started making one without having a real idea of what I wanted in it. So as you would have guessed, it was small, crappy, linear and didn't have any originality. It did have a thok barrier, deafed rings and water. I knew that it was bad when I worked on it, so I decided to find something that might help my creativity. So then I started making the srb1 mod so I can get some ideas. It originally wasn't going to be a full blown mod as it is now.
 
I'm sure a few of you have seen my first (And only) map-pack...it sucked horrably...as Cueball said..."I am ashamed"

It was kind of funny how things went for me, I figured out FOF's before I figured out ho to make basic...uhh...raised floors...
 
My first level had no level header, no thok barrier, no FOFs, no rings, no finish, no textures, and only 1 sector.


ZOMG I MA TEH MASZTAH OV LEVEL MAKIN'!!!!!1111one!1one!!!!22111!





*Shot*
 
Do I even need to say it?

The first pieces of data that ran in SRB2 without crashing that I shoved up it was a horribly screwed tutorial level, and a room with rings and crap. I also remember something about an attempt at a port from Sk8land, but at the time I hadn't gotten the technicalities figured out about unclosed sectors and the like. My first actual map was Green Valley, which sucked. Horribly. The emerald part was my second level, but I just tagged it on for the heck of it. ;P

I actually came back and revamped Green Vallley a time ago, but it still sucked. Just not horribly.
 
Chaos Zero 64 said:
I had trouble with FOFs as well. I didn't knew you could have 2 tags on the same sector, thus creating 2 FOFs.
Click to expand...
What he said. Surprisingly I learned how to make water sectors before FOFs for some reason though.
Also, what's surprising is that my first map was a 2D map. More specifically a map for DMSC. When I started making 3D maps, I must have made about 3 other 2D maps, it was really a challenge for me since at the time It was hard for me to make a 3D map.
 
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