SC2Mapster

all gone due to bnet's popularity system. dont worry i wont start ranting again.

Speaking for myself, I have been making solo/campaign maps since WC2 and always been fascinated by Blizzard lore, so I want to expand upon it. Except for a few melee maps I have never created a serious multiplayer map. With my campaign Shadow of the Xel'Naga  I tried to create a bridge: Build a campaign that can be played co-operatively using Arcade.

Looking at other people's campaigns: Blizzard will always set the tone. WC3 had around 30 maps. Frozen Throne was released about 12 months later, and added another 25 maps with a few updates to the Orc campaign in the following months.... People soon forgot about campaign style maps.... SC2 was released over 6 years ago, we've had 2 addons and now have the Mission Packs, which total to about 90 maps. People are inspired by this. There are a lot of assets, but most importantly, there are a lot of units with many of abilities to choose from. Usually when you create a campaign you want to add an X-element, that makes it unique to other campaigns, but Blizzard as already provided so many great units/abilities that there is almost no need to deviate from that. It's very easy to be creative within a campaign environment, as long as you are willing to put time into it.

In addition to being inspired by Blizzard campaign makers inspire each other. The community has created a Custom Campaign Initiative (CCI), where all campaign projects (regardless of actual quality or project status) are listed. People look at that and get motivated to create something of their own.

Blizzard should have done more to promote Arcade stuff outside of the Arcade. They haven't, so the campaign makers took it upon themselves.

....

The funny thing is, rumor has it they actually don't like to see campaign style maps, as they might be seen as competition to their own (if a Blizzard employee/designer sees this: Yeah, I know you are a gamer and Starcraft fan, and you like fan campaigns as well, but there is also the business side, ... so maybe you hate us a little too^^).

my map is a campaign in itself :D hidden in a multiplayer game

It may be due to gameplay idea crisis. Wide variety of arcade maps has covered the most obvious genre/gameplay areas. So, people can't come up with something fresh, original, interesting. Campaigns, on the other hand, are interesting not because of gameplay mechanics, but because of stories, while gameplay is trivial usually. It's easier to devise an interesting story, because plot space is infinite.

Why did this gameplay idea crisis happened? Why is it hard to create a new, unexpectedly intriguing arcade map? Because blizzard are conservative about what the engine can let us do. For example, I and that guy with tratatata or whatever nickname have been trying hard to invent terrain deformation based games, but failed, because current implementation doesn't support important features. My attempts to convince blizz employees to have these things improved failed too. Same happend to my other ideas, like physics based gameplay or territory based gameplay. Other people report engine ruins their ideas too, like platformers or shmups - latency is too low for reaction based games and true arcades. Let's not forget how slow galaxy is. ANy complex algorithm would slow the whole thing down even if you are an optimization genius.

So, engine only supports a limited space of game mechanics, most of which are already occupied. Low arcade popularity also plays a role. But for me popularity wasn't the reason I moved to other platform. I only wanted to have fun creating cool new stuff. But I was limited by the engine like a penis in tight pants. Unity pulled me out and sucked inside. But not everyone has hard enough coding skills to easily move somwhere else, so they are stuck with sc2 engine, but they chose to create new stuff, and therefore campaigns are a sanctuary, where engine can't control their imagination.

The reason why most projects are campaigns is pretty simple: Because they're easier to devise, challenging to make, and they last longer.

Let me elaborate: What is more fun in making a SCII project? Devising an universe and it's characters, work these to be identifable and easy to relate with, and put up a simple, straight adventure which ultimately alters their status quo. It can be a spoof/comedy like 'Bob the Cerebrate' or something epic like 'Flame Knives', but it's no less engaging to see fresh new faces, concepts, ideas and/or places other than those we're already so used to and tired of. And all those notes produced in Notepad, MS Word and others somewhat do feel like some progress was achieved, because we think about them, we reason, we balance the inifinite number of variables related to about everything.

But it's no less challenging to make, and that often depends on the person's personal aims: How far is he willing to go, to make this story? How much can he do and what does he want? And above all, the ultimate question: Will I ever be able to finish it? This is quite common, especially in StarCraft campaigns, just look at all the EDAST series and you'll see what I mean. Often it's just too much work, or there are limitations, or even the worst-case scenario, constant, unrewarding frustration. That's why devising is fun, but often must be done VERY carefully, considering not only the potential, but especially limitations.

Finally, the reason why they last longer, besides story, mechanics or characters is because they often offer a much more stronger experience than Arcade maps do. Arcade maps, true, are much more quicker and easier to make, but it's also a part of problem, because they're just minigames, they're just something for you to waste some time, and unless they happen to be very good or very interesting, they don't last long with audiences and aren't as inspiring as the idea of 'telling a story' or introducing something relatively new. Campaigns, on the other hand, have a greater ton of work, but feel ultimately rewarding for both the audience and the developer himself when it's finished.

I would say accessibility would be the main reason for both the creators and players. As others have said it doesn't require extensive knowledge of the editor and for the most part the core gameplay is extremely similar to the original starcraft 2 campaigns. Players won't be overwhelmed with information with new mechanics, controls, and abilities. And you only need 1 player to play so there isn't any waiting in the arcade lobby for people to join the game who may or may not like custom you are hosting.

because you have a good learning material in a form of Blizzard's campaign maps shipped with game and most (not all, i saw few campaigns with edited data) campaigns require only basic triggering (army management) and terraining.

The terraining is the most creative process i think if i'd have to choose between it, data routine and triggering (cuz i'm not programmer that's an alien world for me). So it's the best way to express yourself and produce your own unique content. People are not tend to get excited to work in Excell after working in Excell at their actual job or university.

Quote from Zolden: Go

It may be due to gameplay idea crisis.

The problem is realy only Data editor in most cases. HiveWorkshop got a tons of repetitive hero defences or rpg maps that have same ideas for abilities, gameplay, system and such. And still every 2nd schoolboy want to create his own abomination/variation of that just because it's ton of fun, it's something of your own, even if you just renamed Tauren Chieftain's default Shock Wave to something that doesn't make a slightest sense. It's just cool ya know. (I like such stuff myself too, saying that without sarcasm)

I enjoy playing new warcraft hero survivals even though i already completed tons of them before. Such genres are classic in custom map scene. For me it's fine if new map has at least few unique features. It's not a separate AAA-game title so it doesn't have to be so innovative or fundamental in my opinion.

The real thing stop people from creative process is a SUM of time needed to 1) Learn how to do things in Data (It's realy hard to jump in cuz of actor system and Missile Movers) + 2) actual implementation of your ideas when you have required knowledge. And to produce some quality content instead of garbage you realy need to know a lot.

Because as i saw there are lot of maps in arcade in which beams shoot from the legs

@GlornII: Go

I personally am drawn to campaign making because it's undeniably the most "epic" type of project. I am very well-versed in triggers as well as data so it's not so much an "easy way out" of creating captivating content as much as it is the ability to really immerse the player. I try to intertwine strategy and story by creating an entirely new tech tree and then building missions around the adventures the crew goes on. I could crank out an arcade map as in-depth as any non-RPG map in somewhere between a week and a month, but I've been working on my project about a year and a half.

Quote from abvdzh: Go

The real thing stop people from creative process is a SUM of time needed to 1) Learn how to do things in Data (It's realy hard to jump in cuz of actor system and Missile Movers) + 2) actual implementation of your ideas when you have required knowledge. And to produce some quality content instead of garbage you realy need to know a lot.

Campaigns require same amount of learning as TD clones, anything needs a good data. But campaigns require more time to implement everything - there's too much terraining and triggering, that consumes lots of time. So, if time was the reason, people would prefer creating TD's.

So, maybe the "all projects are campaigns" situation exists because campaigns take more time, so only their creators remain active at mapmaking lore, because it takes more time for them to finally understand that their product may not attract as much attention as they hoped it will.

Quote from Zolden: Go

Campaigns require same amount of learning as TD clones, anything needs a good data

Not entirely agree on that one. Campaigns are all different ofcourse. You can take a challenge and create some freaking epic masterpiece with Blizzard-quality custom-everything-from-scratch content. But that is not what happening in sc2 custom campaign scene because most likely impossible task for one person.

If you played Perfect Soldiers which is considered as one of the best campaigns you'll see that most of editing was done in terrain module. EivindL managed to utilise default sc2 abilities to produce some pretty creative gameplay in his maps but the fact stays the same: the data module was barely used for that campaign and it saved A TON of working time.

Story, character, drama.

Born in the 80's, this is what I grew up with, and enjoyed.

As for having most projects here to be Campaigns, I think there was a time when arcade maps (mostly TD types I guess) dominated mapster. So, maybe it's just the times.

Personally, I love campaigns more than arcade MPs. The story people create, the scenarios they present as challenge. It has more meaning and impact.

As far as I can tell, the custom campaign community has just been really good a inspiring others to join. With Jayborino and Deltron posting videos of custom campaigns and bringing a lot of attention to the community, it is not surprising to see more and more people getting involved with it.

The seeds for it probably started with mass recall, then perfect soldiers and the remake of antioch chronicles probably did a lot to push custom campaigns. Basically some good ones were made, then people tried to share them, now lots of people are inspired to make their own.

Hm, I think like others said it's because:

1) Getting started with making campaign is the easiest of mapping undertakings there are. You have good examples by blizz and when you're starting you're basically making a melee with restricted tech and preplaced units. Sure, it can get more complex, but not all of campaigns on mapster are blizzard-rivaling gems.

2) Scale and mapmaking progress. I remember in early days of mapster many treads with various announced projects. 90% of them never got finished, I imagine the sheer amout of things people had to do and to learn was too time-consuming/overwheming. I can't even begin to guess what % of campaigns never get finished. In theory releasing a mission/map gives mapmaker another burst of enthusiasm to work on the project. Having map 1 of 10 complete and ready for showoff must be quite a different feeling from having worked on your arcade map for a month and having only 10% of it complete, realizing that you're still months of your life away from having any decent playability. You want to play but it's impossible before a % of systems are implemented. While campaigns are a much more segmented packets of experience that are relatively fine when presented in isolation.

But, out of great campaigns I've only played odyssey. Should probably allocate time to some other great creations to be more informed.. :/

Blizzard's campaigns are what made me a Starcraft fan. My whole SC1/BW experience was playing the campaigns and wasting my time playing free for all maps vs the AI, the exception being one or two lan parties to play free for all with friends. Again, with the release of SC2 I wanted the campaigns, but my online experience started. So when I want to play Starcraft I want things that bring an immersion in SC universe, the characters and so on. We have a few more options now, like the coop mode, but campaigns are the main source of SC lore.

I haven't released a campaign or even a single mission by myself (I do have a few ideas that I doubt I will manage to finish by myself) but I try to help some campaign projects. That being said I should probably join more campaign projects helping with things I know I can do, instead of trying to do things I'm terrible at, like terraining.