Well, that was absolutely magnificent. I gave it the full five stars, because it’s almost impossible to believe this is a debut map. (The secrets guide in the README is what clinched it.) Everything about this is excellent: the design, the visuals, the combats. I hope we’ll be seeing a great deal more from Bloughsburgh.
By the way: a very good decision to go for a relatively small map at very high quality, rather than a bigger one with less detail. This is far more memorable and impressive.
Wow thanks Mike!
I am glad you enjoyed the map and experienced it to the fullest! I think secrets can be “too secret” especially when only the creator knows the answers so I included a cheat sheet if anyone would be interested. Glad to know some people still read READMEs!
I’ll be honest and say that creating this map and fine tuning it (Not to mention, learning everything!) was a very daunting task. I have ideas for a next map but whether it will be fully realized is hard to say at this point.
Thanks!
Unregistered user “dwere” posted:
Quake can only do so much but this is the best I could get.
IMO, if something looks hacky, you shouldn’t do it at all. I’d rather leave the crate static.
As for the wooden planks, the problem is that at least one of them is hovering above the surface.
Unregistered user “Bloughsburgh” posted:
“IMO, if something looks hacky, you shouldn’t do it at all.”
Nah, AD is all about experimenting, I wouldn’t change the bobbing for the world! Lots of things in Quake maps look hacky, I respectively disagree with your thoughts on the matter. 
I’m with dwere on this.
The problem is not with bobbing entities as such, but how they’ve been implemented here. Have a look at the start of jam1_ionous (the ionous/mfx collaboration in Func Mapjam 1) or retrojam1_mfx to see a bobbing crate (done with func_door, I guess?) that does not look hacky.
And I understand what effect you were trying to achieve by making the hanging crate bob, but then it doesn’t make too much sense to suspend it from a chain, which quite obviously is not moving and stretching along with the crate.
The point is that in both instances (the floating planks and the hanging crate) the effect you were going for can be achieved in Quake (even without Arcane Dimensions, although AD does make it easier to achieve), but if it’s not implemented more carefully, it ends up looking hacky and detracting from the map.
That said, this is still a very impressive first release.
Thanks ICToaN for the in-depth critique!
Unregistered user “ezze” posted:
I really like it! I like quick plays and I love Arcane Dimension, so this is pretty much my cup of tea. Keep it on!
Thanks ezze,
Glad you enjoyed the small map, cheers!
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I really liked it and I had fun finding the secrets. Very nice, especially for it being your first level.
horse noises
Thanks QuakePone!
Glad you enjoyed the level and its secrets. Was a lot of fun to make!
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This was rather interesting small map that had a lot of cool mechanics. I have to point out that some of these rope/ladders/stairs might have needed a bit more tweaking to make it fluent to move. There was a lot of little details almost everywhere, it made me really want to see more of that, but having it in a bigger scale map.
Brush work was flawless and very nice looking to me. It’s good to make experimental maps like these, where we can demonstrate/learn cool things.
**** stars for you.
Thanks NewHouse,
This was my first release so lots of rough edges but I am glad you enjoyed the level of quality. Totally agree about the vertical transitioning…very cramped and finicky to say the least!
Haven’t played this yet, but I watched your walkthrough on youtube and found it to be very impressive for a first map. I’m particularly impressed that you were able to integrate 9 secretes into a relatively small space. I liked the start area as well. Only criticism I can make is that several of the secrets are impossible to access without making acrobatic jumps, but that’s a minor complaint.
Thanks JMP,
I hope you get to try out the map as some point and report your hands-on impression here! I agree that some areas (not just secrets) require some finicky maneuvering which I plan to address on future creations!
Acrobatic jumps are OK as long as they’re not too frustratingly hard and don’t involve fancy MP tricks like rocket-jumping or bunny-hopping. Remember that section in the original game where you had to jump on very tiny posts to access a secret level? That was one of my favorite secrets in the whole game.
Glad to see you back, Bloughs. An entry by you in the new map jam will be sorely missed. Wedding went fine?
“That was one of my favorite secrets in the whole game.” As in: easy to spot but reasonably hard to pull off and not involving too much brain-squeezing. This site really needs an edit button.