thought episode 1 and 2 were a bit too polished, too slick, and end up being a bit bland as a result

For some reason I got that feeling with Half-Life 2 the first time I played it (although replaying recently the game has grown on me a lot), but not with the Episodes, it’s like, for me, HL2’s gameplay seemed to sit in some awkward place between “designers vision” and “designed by committee”, whereas the Episodes seemed to have a more “refined” polish that felt more subtle despite being more present than ever.

I have had ideas for huge long sections without any fighting at all – which could really annoy some gamers

And captivate plenty of others ;) . While some designers can make gameplay so good they avoid this issue the “lets throw in a bunch of enemies because we need action whether it’s good or not” syndrome is a big problem with a lot of the HL2 SP maps right now (and many retail games, for that matter), as it seems most designers can’t consistently maintain action of that quality. On the other hand I don’t think Minerva suffers from this (though I think the “quiet moments” are some of the best parts of Minerva, which is another reason I’d be interested in a more extreme version of it in a future installment).

If you’re more cagey with encounters and build up atmosphere and tension before letting loose even a mediocre encounter can be very exciting (or terrifying).

Actually an amusing thing about the “maybe too much action” quote here is that a PC Gamer article on Minerva (that was posted on Adam’s blog) said that there was “too little” action in the first areas. Then again, that same review implied that Minerva was by a team and that it was released in “frequent installments” so… Meh.

Minerva is definitely one of the better SP mods I’ve played, and easily the best HL2 SP mod right now.

thought episode 1 and 2 were a bit too polished, too slick, and end up being a bit bland as a result.

Yes! Constant playtesting removes something I can’t quite put my finger on that makes most other games more interesting. I thought I was the only one who had that feeling. :)

the other sp mod that really sticks out in my mind is mistake of pythagoras, but that’s because it’s completely crazy.

Compare this to Valve games, with their endless playtesting, and the differences are stark.

I think this ‘endless playtesting’ method has some drawbacks. It does result in a product that is acceptable to the largest number of people, but isn’t necessarily always ‘best’, for whatever that means. Compare, say, Justin Timberlake to -insert your favorite obscure musician here-. It’s not a perfect analogy I know, but I think there’s something to it. I thought episode 1 and 2 were a bit too polished, too slick, and end up being a bit bland as a result. (in fact if I had one suggestion for Adam, it would be to know when to ignore criticism, you seem to know best anyway!)

In the third part her changes of mind don’t really make sense.

They make perfect sense if you’re paying attention!

(Also, don’t forget this is just the nomination round – the voting proper starts around the 20th. Or something. Distorting democracy for fun and profit?)

However, I do think I’m finally getting the hang of this puzzles malarkey, so I shouldn’t have to rely too much on otherwise non-stop combat in future. The first MINERVA map was my first map for both Half-Life 2 and the Source engine overall, so I think I’m doing okay. I’m still learning…

(I have had ideas for huge long sections without any fighting at all – which could really annoy some gamers. But I quite like the visceral charge I’ve managed to give Half-Life 2’s otherwise sedate, forgiving combat – for the true experience, play MINERVA on the Hard skill level…)

Oh, and subtly blatant plug – my new, currently-devoid-of-content ModMatic blog, which should eventually revel in and review the release of single-player maps and mods created by other people. MINERVA still hasn’t convinced modders that you don’t need a gigantic team of character artists, voice actors, programmers, animators, public relations personnel and webmasters to make a mod. Which makes me decidedly annoyed – I want to play more maps!