AntiMatter_16 on 16/7/2013 at 22:45

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My first released mission, Darkstone Mine, was created start to finish in about a 24 hour period. It had a tiny scope, being in a 64' cube, but I always wondered what other authors could do if they really challenged themselves to a deadline.

@SirPranceAlot
You could always join in yourself. If not for fortune and glory, why not just for fun? I've enjoyed a lot of missions that were pretty simple in design. I tend to prefer missions that are a 'light snack' as compared to a '6 course meal'.

AntiMatter_16 on 17/7/2013 at 21:03

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Correct, you may prepare or gather whatever resources you want before the 48 hour period, so long as they're not mis, gam, or vbr files.

AntiMatter_16 on 22/7/2013 at 20:44

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The mantra "It doesn't matter if it isn't perfect," might be helpful here.

With a time crunch like this, FM authors will have to be careful about not getting lost in the details. I'd organize my time into stages. Something like: Planning, terrain construction, object and AI placement, objectives and gameplay tuning, detail work, testing and other finer tuning.

Before you begin your level, you'll want to have at least a general overview of what kind of level you want to create. You could get super detailed, plan everything out, and hold to the plan absolutely, but I personally wouldn't do this because it's not my style and it prevents the level from growing and evolving as you build. You also run the risk of overplanning, trying do more than you can effectively fit in a 48 hour build period. However, your plan will still need it to be specific enough to avoid running out of ideas and losing direction. You'll also want to gather your textures, sounds and models in the planning stage.

Once you get the base, and begin mission construction you'll want to decide how much time to dedicate to different phases. I'd probably dedicate the first 24 hours or so to making terrain geometry. The next 12 for object and AI placement. The next 6 for objectives and gameplay tuning, and then the last 6 as a buffer and for testing and adding extra details, time willing.

You could plan your mission to have a small scope with lots of details, or you could plan a larger scope with fewer details but more expansive gameplay. Either way, you'll probably want to start out making all the areas you want in the mission, and as coarsely as possible, THEN slowly start to add details uniformly over all of them. As opposed to focusing on a single area and making it super detailed and essentially completing it, then moving onto the next one on your list.

Don't be afraid to cut ideas as you can always do a "gold version" later, or using them in another mission. And if you catch yourself getting caught in the details, you'll probably find yourself falling behind schedule VERY fast.

AntiMatter_16 on 31/7/2013 at 16:33

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I prepared a base mission for this contest with the directory structure and with a basic setup in the mis file, however as I was doing this, I began to feel that it would be best to leave this up to the authors. I might save them 5 minutes by doing this in advance, but it might cost them some time to unused directories or brushes in the mis file. And it means more work for me to distribute the base to authors when they decide they want to start, and I might not be able to respond immediately to their request for it.

With this in mind, I've decided not to require authors to use a mission base. Instead, post in this thread when you start your editing, then go to File->New in dromed for your base. =P
Post again in this thread after your 48 hours has completed, and PM me a link to the zip file containing your mission. I typically use (http://www.mediafire.com/) MediaFire for hosting. They'll host files up to 200MB for free.

FireMage on 31/7/2013 at 17:05

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Funny Website!
Although, nothing better than a good Brain Storming! :p