Making levels with a team.... or flying solo?

[Black Void]

Hopefully this is not a redundant question, I'm just curious - how do you do with building levels? Do you map better going solo, or do you map better with a team?
For me, the 'team' aspect brings out more creativity in me - and since I'm here (and have not made in a map in some time), anyone want to fire up a few levels? (Say... on the boom side of things.)

[Memfis]

Team? You mean like when a few mappers work on the same level? I personally find it more frustrating than fun because tastes always differ and it's impossible to reach a consensus. I can pretend that I'm satisfied with my collaboration maps, but actually there are many things in them that annoy me. (Interception map27 is an exception because without purist that map would never be finished at all, so I'm grateful to him)

[BaronOfStuff]

Depends. Collaborating with other authors to create a full mapset I have no issue with, but when it comes to a map-by-map system, I much prefer having total control over proceedings and would rather go solo.

That's not to say I'm completely stubborn; I still send things out for testing and take ideas/suggestions for tweaks/additions/alterations on board, but having various authors working on one map isn't something I'd be comfortable with. Firstly, efforts to maintain a consistent balance/flow/style would have to be increased, and you risk ending up with a horrible mess and awful thematic clashes caused by creative differences. Second, there's that possible issue with unwanted tweaks being inflicted on your segment to balance someone else's, and all that other shit.

Nah, fuck that, I can't be bothered. To me it'd be like having someone come round and start re-arranging the furniture to suit them, despite it being my fucking furniture. It can be made to work, but you'd really need to find another author that you 'click' with.

[Black Void]

BaronOfStuff said:

Nah, fuck that, I can't be bothered. To me it'd be like having someone come round and start re-arranging the furniture to suit them, despite it being my fucking furniture. It can be made to work, but you'd really need to find another author that you 'click' with.

Three years ago, I made some amazing stuff by myself; in fact... I actually had somewhat of a 'Zdoom hub' going on, but I lost it all when my hard drive got wiped. Working with another person or two (big teams DO get confusing) means that, hopefully, nothing will happen with your work, since others will have it too. And I agree, I DO hate it when people begin re-arranging the furniture (my .wad). =)

[BaronOfStuff]

I lost a lot of old and generally unfinished projects back in 2007. I was never planning on releasing any of them (because they were SHIT), but having the working directories there on my desktop served as both a warning and motivation to double my efforts with any future projects.

Of course I always carried any half-decent projects around on various USB devices (including my phone!) in order to work on them when on other machines, so when my HDD suddenly transformed into a complex paperweight I hadn't really lost anything of value... just a couple of hundred hours and early learning experiences. I did lose one map I was quite fond of though; I'd recreated the mansion from Resident Evil with 3D floors. It looked like shit, but finally being able to run around a map like that which I'd managed without having to rely on silent teleports and other stuff (methods I just cannot find a liking for) was an accomplishment for myself. *Sniff*

[Antroid]

There's many sides to this stuff. My first big Serious Sam thing was made with another guy - in fact, it was based entirely on his idea - and the experience has been interesting. I think we had our fair share of arguing, and we were both acting like control freaks, and even though we respected each other as mappers (at least I did him), neither of us trusted the other one to be "up to my standards". I ended up "fixing" his levels after him, not without making a few mistakes in the process, and our levels were strikingly different in style, gameplay and everything.

For Doom I've made a map for Memfis' project ("Bedlam"), we had a few disagreements but it was of course not my place to dictate what a map for his project should really be like. In the end he changed a few aesthetic things in it, and perhaps the map ended up better for it, better fitting the project at least, that's for sure.
I'm also preparing my second map for a project here - Doom in Name Only (any day now! honest), and so far it hasn't been quite as strict, but thanks to people's input my first map for it was improved a bit visually.

It's quite a feeling to have contributed to a team project, perhaps it's the novelty that does it for me, but it's pretty exciting (now if only either of these projects could actually get released sometime in the future...). Although I'm not sure I would trade the creative freedom I have when mapping alone for it. Of course, when I'm working by myself, I make a lot more misjudgements in design, because it's my thing dammit and hell if I'm gonna let people dictate how to do my thing. The final project may end up of more questionable quality, but I'll have learned from mistakes which is a lot more effective than just remembering what you're told without agreeing with it.

[darkreaver]

Solo. That is, I can work with others as long as I can do whatever I like with MY maps(s).

[gemini09]

I would love to make a multi-mapper map, but provided that I would get to coordinate it. I've been thinking about this before and I even requested some mapper-contributions to a project (Xmas Doom).

I'm currently working on another project, and what I primarily have in mind is the end result, and not necessarily so much of the bits and pieces that actually make up the end result, and so I would find it pretty ideal if I could have contributions from other mappers, who were to create requested structures - say that I were to make a base complex, and another mapper contributed with a power plant, and another contributed with some other structure; the map would be well populated, coordinated by one "design direction", and benefited from several mappers' fresh inputs.

(PM me to participate in BRINK OF DOOM: Venus Command)