It's Summer!

That's right, today was my official first day of summer vacation. I've spent the last few weeks not really touching my computer that much as I had school, and during the day, it was to hot to operate a PC. And folks, there is no need for A/C if we usually get 80 degrees for only a month. But now, I got more time open up.

First off, I gotta say I have not touched the Portal 2 Authorizing tools in a while. Not only because I have not gotten a chance to really map, but its due to the fact that I'm pretty dry on ideas. No, I'm not asking for my inbox to be flooded with your ideas, I'm just saying that after a full 3 years now of Portal mapping, I'm sort of burned out. Although with Portal 2 and the new stuff that came with it, I can't find myself to make clever puzzles with them. I guess the Portal 2 Demomap was a bad thing after all since I made my Puzzles in Portal 1. Now, I'm not ditching Portal (2) mapping all together; I'm just taking a break from it, and using the time to work on my weaknesses as a mapper such as outdoor environments, visuals more, and AI interaction. I'll come back to Portal 2 mapping, most likely when the Addon Support is released, and I get to find out how flexible custom content will be. I'm really worried that override models and skins will not be allowed due to the Store that is in Portal 2. And that will throw a rock into my plans.

I was (supposed to be) a judge of the ThinkingWithPortals.com summer mapping contest. And I gotta say, some of the maps were very fun to play and I got the ah-ha moments with them. I'm kinda mad at myself that I did not get a chance to play more, and grade all the maps that I played. If I don't have time for Hammer, I tend not to have any time for anything else. So, I apologize to the people at ThinkingWithPortals who played all the maps and judged every single one, even though they probably never want to play Portal 2 again. People were surprised that I did not enter this one. Well, I was going to join, but after one simple and basic room, my mind went blank and the grid was too complex to build more on it. (Foliage and what-not) So I just ditched the map completely. Besides, the last contest I joined, I kinda got ripped off to an extent.

So what do you expect this summer from me? Well, to be honest, expect anything, or completely nothing at all. I don't know myself. It can be 80 degrees or higher due to the tilt of the Earths axis because of that earthquake in Japan, keeping me off my PC most of the day, or you can expect a Hammer Notepad video once every 3 or so weeks. But all I can say right now, and it may change; Expect less Portal.

Lastly, during my spare time, I was updating this blog with pages containing the mods I've worked on. As you can see, Portal: Project-Beta and Blue Portals have there own page! They each have pictures, descriptions, information and download links. Blue Portals has trivia notes so if your interested in development of games/mods, make sure to check that list out!

Welp, at the moment it is 2:30 AM. stay tuned, as even myself has no idea whats next!

Comments

  1. I wish I had started following this blog earlier

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