At this point I've made a conscious effort to detach myself from these conversations, to let everyone's work speak for itself instead.
https://www.forgehub.com/maps/poo-pushing.5939/ Why would you guys want to not play anything other than this?! He obviously thought very clearly about bis design and direction. ...........kms
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I gave what I mentioned yesterday some more thought and I believe that I've isolated this 'essence' down to something more specific: The essence of a creation is in the message it is trying to convey. If your creation had a voice, what would it try to say? Who is it speaking to? This message is something you can either pick up or miss entirely, but if it is not there, its absence can be noticeably felt after you've been in its presence. Once more, this is not referring specifically to "theme" or "gameplay" or "story" or even necessarily about what is more important to each author. It's that idiosyncrasy that is hardwired into the DNA of an artistic work to bond every element of it together. It's what metaphorically glows when you turn off the lights and see nothing else. We could argue that creation doesn't always need a message. In fact, there is a multitude of entertainment out there with none or relatively superficial things to convey. Therefore, it isn't so much how empty something feels when it lacks it, but how much fuller something feels when it has it. That's what I experience on my recent maps, because even my older works did not have this. They didn't have anything to say. But I've since grown extremely fond of work that has something to say, because I think that's what truly transcends circumstance. It stimulates your mind, latches onto your soul, and haunts you even after you walk away and go back to your busy life. I believe one of my favorite 2v2 maps in this game tapped into that essence, and it's unfortunate that the author deleted it before it could be shared. I'd just really like to see this power explored in level design. It's something I first noticed in music over the summer and I'm slowly becoming more sensitive to its presence.
Who's map was it? I know what you're talking about, and I believe that's what I'm talking about when I say atmosphere. I know that word means something more specific to most people but it's pretty much exactly what you're describing when I think about it.
This should clarify it to the best of my understanding: A creative work is like a pyramid comprised of these basic elements. CORE: This is your foundation - your basic building blocks and ideas. It's your holistic composition and your sketch and everything that defines the extent of your work. In level design terms, this is your raw geometric design and the characteristics of the gameplay therein. If there is a crack in the foundation, it will be the most obvious because it is the largest and it carries the weight of the entire structure on it. Therefore, it's crucial for your baseline to be as solid as possible. STYLE: Here is where you begin to inject identity into your work. Style is your idiosyncratic stamp that gives it character and a home. This would be an artistic theme or any kind of repeated motif or unique arrangement of concepts. TONE: The tone is responsible for the mood and atmosphere of your work. By using color, light, sound, and even the absence thereof, the tone penetrates through to your emotions like a spearhead. It caps off your work, closing all of its lose seams, thereby creating a solid shape with evenly distributed surface tension. DISPLAY: The way you display your work is also known as its presentation. It's the finishing coat that polishes every element of your work. It's the master mix and the final pass, and for that reason it's also the first thing anyone will notice, especially if there are imperfections. VALUE: You may notice a shade underneath and surrounding all of the other elements. This is your underlying message. It's the meaning behind your work - the answer to the question - and the glue that binds it together. It's the energy coursing throughout that makes it alive and warm to the touch. Its value is its soul. I hope this is starting to make sense; if it isn't, put any of your creations through this as a filter and examine them closely. What is its identity? What is it trying to say? How do the shapes and colors influence my emotions and memories? I brought up this topic because design to me is a multi-faceted endeavor that has power in every element - even those that are rarely seen - and the balance between these elements is something I feel I wasn't conscious of until recently. In particular, level design can be much more than a small environment you shoot alians on.
Everything is a pyramid/ hierarchy: Social sctructures, buisiness structures, employment structures, level design, art design, multi-dimentions, God is always at the top of the pyramid, the prime mover of our fractal universe