CS_FAWLTY_TOWERS ROADMAP ------------------------- Table Of Contents: 1.0 - How Did I Come Up With The Concept? 2.0 - How Long Did I Work On The Map? When Was It Released? 2.1 - What Was The Hardest Part? 2.2 - What Was The Easiest Part? 2.3 - If I Could Go Back, What Would I Change? 2.4 - How Would Those Changes Impact The Map & Dev Time? 2.5 - Who Did What Exactly? 2.6 - What Software Packages Were Used? 3.0 - How Did The Map Get Valued By People? 3.1 - View & Download Counts? Any Noteworthy Credentials? === 1.0 === After working on my levels during the day, I sometimes unwounded with an episode of Fawlty Towers before I went to bed. One of those episodes has Basil frantically running up and down the staircase when it suddenly hit me: "That could be a pack of infiltrating Counter-Terrorists!" The concept didn't actually get started for about another week. During that time I drew a basic layout of the interior and quickly noticed lots of windows, which gave the whole 'rush the building' core of the level a fresh perspective considering they usually only have a select few entrance/exit points. I also asked around on servers to ask people whether they'd like to see it and I got some very positive feedback there so I went ahead and did it. 3 Months later... pondering about the concept was HISTORY, for it had been made! === 2.0 === Approximately 220 hours during the scope of approximately 3 months. Released: 10/26/06 (MM/DD/YY) === 2.1 === Using almost exclusively the Fawlty Towers episodes as a reference to accurately represent Hotel Fawlty Towers. Fawlty Towers in nature is a fairly fast-paced show and it's not that obvious how the hotel is lain-out. So it definitely took some time to. A constant ballet of creating brushwork, moving brushwork, re-sizing brushwork and deleting brushwork. === 2.2 === Sounds. Extracting the fire bell and burglar bell, although requiring some searching to find a piece where there was no background noise/actors speaking, was still easily the most easy thing of all. Plus it's 100 percent authentic. Lovely. === 2.3 === The lighting. I think I got caught up a little bit to much with making it look like the show, although it has its benefit for authenticity purposes I would've changed it. Currently the interiors get lit up from one constant light in the middle of the rooms, much like the spotlight boom lighting in the show. If I were to change it, I would keep that light but tone its intensity down as an ambient light and put spotlights in the doorways/windows to simulate light coming in from the outside. I would also set more furniture with the debris flag so they don't block the player. And with my increased modeling skills I possess today I would have included more custom models. Taking little effort, I would also generate normal maps for most wallpaper textures, not that wallpaper really has depth to it... but because of their inherent low-resolution it would've helped make it look better. === 2.4 === On both counts, little. The lighting looks fine and does the job (e.g. Get players to see) however it could have been better. Wouldn't have been a drastic change in looks but neither in developmental time. The same is true for the furniture. The models on the other hand would have taken significantly more time. === 2.5 === Brushwork: 100% Materials: Many standard materials were used but also many custom materials. Most of these though were not created by hand, rather they were extracted from the show and processed with Photoshop. Quite tricky! Models: Were done by Hooni, a person from Finland who offered to do the models since I (at that time) still wasn't very comfortable with modeling. Turned into a nice partner-ship, but I couldn't have relied on him for future projects since he doesn't have that much time these days. Sounds: Some standard sounds, all soundscapes are standard too. A good chunk of custom sounds, none of which were created by me however, they were either extracted from the show or downloaded from TheFreeSoundProject website. Lighting: Done by me, calculated with the compiler (VRAD) provided by Valve. Optimization: Done by me, calculated with the compiler (VVIS) provided by Valve. BSP Tree: Generated with the compiler (VBSP) provided by Valve. === 2.6 === Hammer Editor Autodesk 3D Studio Max Adobe Photoshop GoldWave === 3.0 === Feedback was very good. Although the amount of servers running it was a little disappointing since they prefer to run another map (Dust 2...) all the time. But apart from that it's better than I even hoped for! === 3.1 === FPSBANANA: In the Top 25 Most Viewed Maps Of All Time. The only one there who's being released for under a year! 64,574 Views - 6,556 DLs - 6 Favorites. 9x Approved 10/10 - 4x Approved 9/10 - 3x Approved 8/10. FILEPLANET: Frontpage For Over A Week! Downloads: 3,790. Reader Rating: 4.1/5.0 (30 votes total). TELEVISION: Seen & Mentioned On Charlie Brooker's ScreenWipe! (01:07) LANMANIAX: Map Of The Week! PCZONE: One Full Page & One Half Page Mention (Including An Interview) In The February 2007 Issue!