As I was staring into Ghosthunt 3's soul the other night (The map's soul. It's all wireframed and shit.) I began thinking back to when Ghosthunt was just some crazy-ass idea that came to me one day at work. You know, since I made the first Ghosthunt I've gotten a degree, I've moved three times, gotten married and had a baby.
During my time developing these maps I've always felt like I wanted to expand the idea into some sort of a MOD. That's where the Idea for Hartley came from. My friend and I had big plans, we put a bunch of maps together and it was really going well - but we began to realize that soon both of us wouldn't have much time to work on it at all because, you know life and shit.
I've never really fully commented on what happened with Hartley so here it is. We spent around 6 months mapping together, drawing up plans and writing a pretty neat little story. We had a good prototype going and it was pretty creepy. Whilst we were doing this I couldn't help myself but go off on tangents and create other things. I'm rather impulsive and I kept taking time out to work on these other things.
Doing the same thing over and over again is dull, right? There are only so many events that I could think up in Source. Building the Asylum went from being fun and interesting to being extremely samey and annoying. Then somewhere along the way I got married and holy shit I'm a grown man now.
So Hartley is gone. God rest it's soul - but I learned a lot along the way. This news may disappoint you. Don't worry. I know that it's for the best. Something better will take it's place. It's a bit like the post I wrote the other day. Sometimes when I'm mapping I will spend hours on a particular section, play it, hate it and then delete it and put something better in it's place. Every single time I've done this, I can confidently say that it has turned out for the better.
Ghosthunt 3 will probably be the last 'Ghosthunt' themed map I will release. I've got better ideas, and I'm tired of bending the resources of the SDK to something extremely remote from the franchises the material comes from. I'm tired of not seeing any Half-Life anymore, so whatever my next project turns out to be, it will be in some way or form related to the Half-Life universe.
On a lighter note, Ghosthunt 3 is nearly finished.
During my time developing these maps I've always felt like I wanted to expand the idea into some sort of a MOD. That's where the Idea for Hartley came from. My friend and I had big plans, we put a bunch of maps together and it was really going well - but we began to realize that soon both of us wouldn't have much time to work on it at all because, you know life and shit.
I've never really fully commented on what happened with Hartley so here it is. We spent around 6 months mapping together, drawing up plans and writing a pretty neat little story. We had a good prototype going and it was pretty creepy. Whilst we were doing this I couldn't help myself but go off on tangents and create other things. I'm rather impulsive and I kept taking time out to work on these other things.
Doing the same thing over and over again is dull, right? There are only so many events that I could think up in Source. Building the Asylum went from being fun and interesting to being extremely samey and annoying. Then somewhere along the way I got married and holy shit I'm a grown man now.
So Hartley is gone. God rest it's soul - but I learned a lot along the way. This news may disappoint you. Don't worry. I know that it's for the best. Something better will take it's place. It's a bit like the post I wrote the other day. Sometimes when I'm mapping I will spend hours on a particular section, play it, hate it and then delete it and put something better in it's place. Every single time I've done this, I can confidently say that it has turned out for the better.
Ghosthunt 3 will probably be the last 'Ghosthunt' themed map I will release. I've got better ideas, and I'm tired of bending the resources of the SDK to something extremely remote from the franchises the material comes from. I'm tired of not seeing any Half-Life anymore, so whatever my next project turns out to be, it will be in some way or form related to the Half-Life universe.
On a lighter note, Ghosthunt 3 is nearly finished.