Noesis Interactive recently contacted us and kindly offered to sponsor our mapping contest by providing some of their training modules as additional prizes!
Noesis Interactive is the premier developer of training materials for game modders and indie-developers, multi-disciplinary artists within fields such as: game design, programming, 3D and 2D art, machinima, UI design and web development. Working with leading game studios and software developers such as Valve Corporation, Avid Technology, Inc., and Autodesk, Inc., Noesis actively expands the knowledge and creativity of its user base preparing them for industry careers or independent production. The Valve Store has been selling Noesis' products as official Source SDK training DVDs for a long time now.
Noesis is offering contest winners their choice of three downloadable training modules for first place, two for second place, and one for third place! They'll also be giving us a hand with judging entries. Check their site for a full list of available modules. Though most focus on Valve's Source engine, some of the skills taught would apply to all types of game development.
So the full list of prizes is now:
1st: $70 USD -OR- Up to $70 USD worth of Steam gifts, plus 3 Noesis training modules of your choice 2nd: $50 USD -OR- Up to $50 USD worth of Steam gifts, plus 2 Noesis training modules of your choice 3rd: $35 USD -OR- Up to $35 USD worth of Steam gifts, plus 1 Noesis training module of your choice
As well as an official Sven Co-op T-shirt for each of the three Grand Prize winners, the chance to have your map included with the mod, etc. Since the training modules are worth up to $50 each, this brings the total prize pool for the contest up to over US$500.00 !
Remember to check out the full contest details and rules if you haven't already! As before, the final deadline for all entries is the 9th of September, 2009. Best of luck to everyone working on a map for the contest!
Official Sven Co-op Mapping Contest! 8 June, 2009 | by JPolito
Lately, map submissions to the Map Showcase have been few and far between, and admissions of maps into the Best of Maps Showcase have been even fewer. Thus we have decided to hold a BOMS (Best Of Maps Showcase) revival event by holding an Official Sven Co-op Mapping Contest!
The goal of the contest is to stimulate our near-dormant mapping community and create a collection of new and interesting levels which, in turn, may be used to attract more players to Sven Co-op. However: entries must be, in some way, unique in comparison to the majority of previously released Sven Co-op maps in order to be considered as a winner of the contest. Guidelines on what we're going to be looking for are listed below. Mappers will have three months to create and submit their entries. See the bottom of this post for information on how to register yourself for entry in the contest.
Three grand prize winners will be chosen, and will be awarded the following prizes:
1st: $70 USD -OR- Up to $70 USD worth of Steam gifts, plus 3 Noesis training modules of your choice 2nd: $50 USD -OR- Up to $50 USD worth of Steam gifts, plus 2 Noesis training modules of your choice 3rd: $35 USD -OR- Up to $35 USD worth of Steam gifts, plus 1 Noesis training module of your choice
All three grand prize winners will also receive an official Sven Co-op T-shirt!
Additionally, the three winning maps will have the opportunity to be included in the next version of Sven Co-op, and all maps which have been entered in the contest (so long as they are serious attempts and fulfil the guidelines and rules) will be released in an official Sven Co-op map pack (including the three winners, until the next version of the mod is released).
Guidelines for Entries:
What exactly are we looking for in a winning map? Again, we're looking for unique entries. Thus, standard walkthrough maps are highly discouraged. The following qualities will be what the judges will be specifically looking for in all entries. Applying them to your entry will enhance your likelihood of winning the contest. Note that these are not requirements, but recommendations:
1. Custom Content - Custom Content is always a good way to give the player the feeling of playing something new or original. Utilization of default Half-Life won't hurt your score, but it will decrease your map's chances of winning the contest if someone else's map has tons of custom content and meets the rest of our criteria for a winning entry. However, if you use custom content which you do not own, be sure that you have permission to use it in your map and that you give the original creator credit for their work. Here is a list of possible custom content which we highly encourage you to use in your map:
Models (NPCs, furniture, weapons, ammo and items)
Textures
Detail textures
Sprites (Smoke, explosions, teleport- and beam-effects)
Environment maps (also referred to as skies)
Sounds (voice acting and non-HL ambient sounds, for instance)
Music
2. Re-playability - The ability to replay the map multiple times without becoming bored. How you go about accomplishing this is up to you. Usage of trigger_random and trigger_random_time entities, random paths, or random monster spawns or music are just a few possible ideas.
3. Usage of New Features and Sven Co-op-Native Entities - Showing off Sven Co-op's possibilities will also greatly increase your chance of winning the contest. Take a look at Sven Co-op's Entity Guide for a list of SC's entities from v3.0 and past, as well as the "New Entities, Parameters, Flags, and Mapping-Specific Features in Sven Co-op 4.0" Thread for a list of the latest features and entities in SC and descriptions of how to use them.
4. Interesting Gameplay - Again, standard walkthrough maps are highly discouraged. Since the dawn of Sven Co-op there have been hundreds of them. We're looking for unique maps, and avoiding the normal walkthrough style will be the best way of making your map stand out. Here are a few recommendations for gameplay types, all of which are entirely possible to create:
Multi-directional (Players have multiple paths which they may choose from, or player's paths are chosen depending on how well they perform throughout the map.)
Invasion (Players spawn at one side of the map, and enemy monsters spawn at the other. Monsters and Players proceed to secure all command points on the map in order to win the game.)
Rush (Players have a given time limit in which they must succeed)
Defence (Defend an object or NPC to succeed)
Assault (Players attack an objective or objectives to succeed)
5. Team work – Remember: this is Sven Co-op. Try and include reasonable situations which require inventive player-to-player cooperation. Most maps lack combative strategy (e.g. players have to distract a Gargantua who acts as a guard for a mission objective while another player runs around it to accomplish the objective), and just about every map which tries to encourage player co-operation simply uses 2-button-systems. Be a little more creative than this and invent a more unique co-op situation.
Rules for all Entries: In order to be considered as a valid contest entry, the following rules must be observed:
When including custom content which you did not create, seek permission where possible, and give credit where applicable.
To Sign Up For The Contest: Send an email to mappingcontest@svencoop.com with your name, forum username, Steam username, and any other methods of contact. Information on submission of entries will be given upon entry to the contest. Also check the Mapping Contest forum for discussion of the contest.
Happy mapping!
Fine print: Judges' decisions are final, and no discussion into the judges' decisions will be entered into. Judges are barred from entering the contest. Any cash prizes to be given via PayPal payments. Noesis Interactive training modules to be provided as electronic downloads. By entering, you give us free permission to distribute your submitted map/s and associated files in any form and by any method. You also warrant that you own or have obtained necessary permissions for all files, that all files comply with all of these Official Rules, and that all files do not infringe any third-party rights or violate any laws or regulations.
Sven Co-op 4.07 Released! 15 May, 2009 | by Sven Viking
Sven Co-op 4.07 is here! Note that this update also includes all changes from last week's hotfix releases.
Changelog:
4.07 ---- - Numerous improvements to Half-Life SP storyline support - Added a work-around for a trigger_teleport crash bug - Reduced default model precache usage - Revived allies retain the correct head and skin colour - Fixed a rare Gargbite issue where player could become stuck - Dropammo support added/fixed for some weapons - Melee weapons make correct sounds when hitting metal allies - Fixed a skill.cfg issue - Skill.cfg settings added for: Stukabat, Osprey, Black Ops Osprey, Tentacle - Updated the Sven Co-op FGD file (for mappers) - Player model options added to the Commandmenu - Updates to manual and *server_example.cfg files - Minor fix to server options - Minor model fixes for Uzis and sc_royals - Fixed an issue on escape_series.bsp (portal map) - Solved Ripent missing dll errors on some systems(?) - Included latest donation bonus Steam ID list
4.06 ---- - Added monster_op4loader. - Added opengl mode for env_fog to support Steam Half-Life. - Added new command: cl_stopsound -- Works just like the stopsound command from Half-Life, but for the Sven Co-op sound engine. - Updated FMOD Ex to v4.24 for the new sound engine. - Flesh Gibs now properly float. - Gargantuas no longer eat turrets or snarks. - Removed console command that crashed servers. - Some potential crash bugs were fixed for animation code w/ controllers, and the multisource entity's use function. - Fixed Babygarg crash bug when being killed by a Gargantua's explosion. - Minor tweak for minigun, fixed crash bug with rendering code. - Crash fix for world-lit particle system objects. - Fixed minor issue with the new donor feature spawning in walls. - Specified shocktrooper's eye position to a static value to fix some model issues. - Minor sound engine fixes for sound output. - Minor tweak to Tor's speaking function. - Minor client-side reloading tweak.
Sven Co-op v4.07 Update Install - File Download Mirrors:
Note: This is an update, not a full installer. You must already have Sven Co-op version 4.x installed (e.g. 4.0B or 4.06).
Next up is Sven Co-op v4.1, which is set to solve reconnection issues and add some new content. Stay tuned for progress updates (assuming we have time for them). Some team members were also discussing a possible SC mapping contest, so keep an eye out for that as well.
I'm selling these fine leather jackets... 14 May, 2009 | by Sven Viking
Barring a disaster, 4.07 should be out within 24 hours. In the meantime:
Telltale Games is having a sale on Steam. If you're a fan of point-and-click adventure games you probably already know, but Telltale is probably the best hope for the genre at the moment, so just thought I'd mention. (Alternately, Wallace & Gromit etc. from their site at $5/episode with coupon: SGP-ER4-WJF-XYM )
I guess everyone's already seen this and this? Probably not this, though... it's super weird. Sort of reminds me of Adventure Time. Mathematical!
Spelunky -- sort of a cross between Rick Dangerous and Nethack? -- is excellent. It's also merciless, frustrating and addictive. You have been warned.
SC Update Coming Soon! 4.0's Secret Bonus Feature Revealed! 10 May, 2009 | by Sven Viking
In breach of various natural laws, yet another Sven Co-op update -- 4.07 -- is coming in just a few days' time! Planned for release on Friday, the 15th, this patch will include fixes for a couple of issues from 4.06, some general tweaks/improvements, and also the latest donor list (recent donors will receive their bonus features in this update).
Since a fair amount of time has passed since the release, this seems like a good time to publicly reveal the secret donor reward that was added in SC4.0B! Remember to hit the HQ button for higher video quality. Once 'summoned' (you should be able to figure out how from the video), your personally-named Chumtoad will follow you about and attack enemies by expelling a poisonous cloud of gas. While the cloud is active, it also obstructs enemies' vision, reducing the accuracy of their ranged attacks. Chumtoads normally start with 100 health, and are particularly effective against zombies.
There are still about seven recent donors who we don't have valid Steam IDs for, by the way. If you donated after the Sven Co-op 4.0B release and have not received an e-mail specifically saying your Steam ID has been added, please go to this page and follow the instructions.
Anyone donating now should include their Steam ID with the donation for the best chance of getting the bonus features in 4.07. Anything after Wednesday night can't be guaranteed (until 4.1). IMPORTANT: Steam IDs are different from your Steam username, they look like this: "STEAM_0:1:23456". See this page for details.
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