John Richardson
Game Designer/Environment artist
GM_Ghosthunt 2 - 2011
Gm_Ghosthunt 2 was the second map I officially released. It has remained to be the most well-known of the trilogy.
This map was totally based off of feedback from the community and what I learnt about player behaviour in the first map.
It was a huge step up from its predecessor and pushed the limits of the Source engine.
Design Principles
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A large explorable map
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Multiplayer friendly
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Randomised events
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Unique gameplay function or gimmick
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Replay value
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Respond to community feedback
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Give players more incentive to explore
Production
Misc. images from editor during creation.
Moving Ghosts
I improved on every aspect of the previous map when creating Gm_Ghosthunt 2. I made some dramatic changes to the way I designed the events. Some of the events I designed to cut off or separate players from their friends. Other events would only fire if a player was alone or vice versa.
One of the more interesting and complicated systems I implemented was a moving ghost that would teleport around the map at random. The orange lines in the picture below show the paths the entity may choose to take when the map is running.
The many paths and spawn points for the mobile ghost entity.
Map gimmick - The Ghost Detector
The gimmick was no exception to my rule of improvment. The cameras however were working fine and I needed something new to bring to the table.
So, I designed the ghost detector. Here's a demonstration video and an explanation of how I did it:
In short, each event has a trigger volume attached to it. When the detector comes into contact with the volume it begins to make noises and light up. The trigger volumes are arranged so that the detector gets more intense the closer it is to the event.
The detector is on the plinth on the left and you can see the trigger volumes above the event on the right.
Players can use the detector to avoid dangerous ghosts and events in the map. I really enjoyed watching people lose the detector and then scramble to find it quickly before being annihilated by an invivsible foe.
The ghost detector was extremely well recieved and has become the staple of the Ghosthunt trilogy.
Ending Event
I included an ending event in this map as requested by the community to give players a goal and a sense of closure.
The event included collecting items that would lead them into the final chamber. The chamber included a panel with a binary code. This code when decrypted took players to a website; a site on which I announced the production of the modification titled 'The Hartley Asylum'.
Trailer
Release
After weeks of playtesting with friends, the map was finally released in 2012.
It has since been broadcast by famous Youtubers such as Pewdiepie and The Yogscast.
The map attained over 30,000 downloads whilst hosted at Garrysmod.org and has continued to be popular on Steam with over 10,000 downloads since September 2013.