SC2Mapster

w00t, they used my question! /flex

Vengeance by Blizzard

As I'm sure, most of you are aware, the lovely Kevin Johnson (Cloaken) was joined by Dustin Browder, Chris Metzen, and Jeff Chamberlain for the Vengeance event, earlier this afternoon, to showcase the Heart of the Swarm pre-release trailer, as well as show off a show match between Grubby and crazymovING (casted by Apollo and TotalBiscuit). Below is the Vengeance trailer, created by Blizzard's always impressive cinematics team.

Mercenaries in Space: Mining Company by maticpl

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Gameplay in Mercs is fairly straight forward. After picking your hero, you are being thrown to this place, called Mercs HUB. It is your main base of operations. You can refill your supplies here (stimpacks, first aid kits) and also buy new weapons and armor. But most important thing is in HUB Terminal. This is the big computer near the entrance. Be sure to check it out. You can save your hero there (to have your stats and items transferred to next episode, or just to make a break between missions).

After you become familiar with HUB, it is time to go on a mission. You can select mission using HUB Terminal. I suggest choosing missions having acceptable level requirements (you can check them by clicking "View Description" button). When all players agree on which mission they want to play, you can head to the exit. After boarding the dropship and clicking button "Go to mission" you will find yourselves on a real mercs mission.

SCU: Chronicles of Fate Prologue by Upheaval Arts

The first installment to StarCraft Universe has finally been released in the form of a single player mission, which allows you to begin the storyline and learn how the game functions. SCU has received quite a bit of publicity since it's inception, with Blizzard's Cease and Desist order, due to a simple misunderstanding. Regardless, that set the hype for the project years ago when it first began.

Update: Patch 2.0.4 is incoming! Artestru also posted a reminder to back up your mods and maps in case something goes wrong with the patching like last time. Get ready for a swarm of new editor updates :)

Mercenaries in Space by maticpl

Mercenaries in Space is a multiplayer action-RPG with mission-based gameplay. Players can select one of two different classes to play as, and outfit their character with various items and upgrades before launching into a mission.

Mercenaries in Space is an currently available on EU servers under the RPG section of the arcade. Be sure to check out the thread and leave your feedback here!

Queen of Blades campaign by Telenil, et al.

Telenil and his partners have released the last installment of the SC1 campaign, so you may now play the entire SC1/BW campaign within the SC2 engine. Enjoy the nostalgia, :).

Star Tools beta is live for those that opted in.

Music Galaxy by QueenGambit

Music Galaxy is a proof of concept map; it simulates a piano keyboard. When the map initializes, 53 Engineer Bays are spawned and arranged like keys on a piano, and clicking those bays will play the corresponding notes. All 53 piano sound clips were digitally recorded and imported onto the map.

The video below is a live demonstration of Music Galaxy- Can you guess each song played in the video?

Make sure to check out the thread here!

Street Empires Update by IggNight

Some of you might remember a map by the name of Street Empires by IggNight. He's recently release a major update to the map, including a new firing system, a vehicle system, a smart AI to fight against, and tons of custom-made models.

If you haven't seen the project yet, be sure to check it out here! It's currently available on US and EU servers.

Rebirth of the Swarm by CrainyCreations

The full-length feature of RotS has gone live today. The machinima video comes in at a whopping 60-minutes in length and initially began during the beta stages of Wings of Liberty (putting this at 2.5 years of blood, sweat, and tears!). Crainy suggests viewing this movie with headphones for the best experience possible. Go grab some popcorn, sit back, relax, and enjoy a [free] hour-long movie! If you enjoy it, don't forget to like the video.

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The movie will begin just before the events of Starcraft 2 and will focus on one of the first full scale attack from the zerg on a terran planet since their four year long disappearance.

Most of the movie will be set on the attacked planet, "Cron II", which is controlled by the Umoja Protectorate, the second biggest Terran faction next to the Dominion. Cron II poses as a tactically important planet for the Protectorate, seeing how the planet is rich with giant mineral fields. However, as a desert planet, Cron II only provides rough living conditions, which causes it beeing populated mainly be miners and the marines to defend them.

Overall, Cron II is not ready to hold off a full scale Zerg attack on their own, so in an desperate act of seeking help, they send out a distress call into space - which is received by the Protoss mothership Tasiis.

HotS Opening Cinematic

Blizzard has released the opening cinematic for Heart of the Swarm in full HD glory! Make sure you check it out below, or join the discussion here!

BlasterBots by DuckyTheDuck

Does anyone remember the old Bomberman game for SNES? I can't even begin to explain how many hours I spent playing the "campaign" of that game, let alone the amoutn of time I played multiplayer against my brothers and friends... Good times... This map project is pretty straightforward, it's a tribute to the Bomberman game I was speaking of; strategically lay bombs and kill your opponents [and blocks]! In addition, feel free to read the interview Blizzard conducted with him about this map.

-The Thing- [Revival] by Vicboy

What started as a soon-to-be-dead experimental map in Early 2011 suddenly turned into a Top 50 Played, extremely underdeveloped, map in the Late 2012. (Literally, I just woke up to find out my old map is being played by hundreds)

The game is inspired by two things: A WarCraft III map called Survive the Night by CreativeStrats and the 1982 film: John Carpenter's The Thing.

The game works like this: You start alone in a far away secluded station and one of your crew is a deadly monster disguised as a human. You need to group up to defeat it but you can only communicate to the ones you're near at. So, you have to look around for a team but how do you know the ones you meet are not it? How can you trust him? How can they trust you? There are items scattered around the station to aid you. Arm yourself and kill the Thing before it escapes to Earth.

The video is a fan-made guide to playing as The Thing.

Be sure to check out the final Rebirth of the Swarm trailer, a fan-made machinima. The full video is slated for release later this month and will be approximately 60 minutes in length!

Xultion by Vamppanik666

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The basic set-up of the map is complete the questing components are being implimented little by little more terrain has been added(not seen in video) and more quest features! also not seen in video! The video here is a newer look at what we are working on! We are looking for script writers.. we will be looking at working on the MERC Team soon so we need some writers for some ideas on the prologue!

Starcraft Machinima by PrettyAwesome

The Cinematic editor is a pretty powerful tool for making machinima, and PrettyAwesome is using it for just that. Check out the latest episode of HasuCraft below!

Make sure you leave your feedback at in the thread here!

War4craft : the Battle Realms by Sanguinax

Similar to SC2BW by MavercK, Sanguinax has set out to recreate the Warcraft III experience on the Starcraft II engine. Check out a sample gameplay video below:

Update: Happy New Years, everybody!

It's that time of year again! We here at sc2mapster wish you all happy holidays. Stay safe, have a lot of fun, and don't forget to enjoy the StarCrafts Christmas special. ;)

WDE Contest Winners

Triggering Contest Winners

We received tons of great submissions for our latest triggering contest. The task was to make something with triggers that was "awesome", and boy did we receive lots of awesome stuff. You can check out the winners here, or all of the submissions here. If you haven't won a beta key yet, don't fret! There's still more keys available, and Preordering HotS will now earn you a key.

Update: For those of you still anxious to get your hands on the HotS beta, DiabloFans is giving away keys for the next two weeks.

BarCraft by sc2modders

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a bunch of Blizzard Heroes walked in to a bar? Well now you can find out- sc2modder's BarCraft is a unique card game in which every player picks a unique hero to fight and has their own secret role. Check out the trailer below!

Make sure you check out the project thread here and leave your feedback!

Weekly Terraining Exercise #107 - Contest Winners

The first of our many HOTS Beta Key contests has just ended. The assigment of the WTE contest was to create terrain-based assets that others can use in their maps, and boy did we receive some good submissions. Take a look and see if you can use any. Three HOTS beta keys will be handed out there. If you want your own shot at winning a key, check out our Weekly Data Exercise Contest or our Monthy Triggering Exercise Contest where those who know their way around either coding or the data editor can turn in submissions.

Congratulations to the winners of the WTE contest, stay tuned for more!

Blizzard just opened up 12 new mapping forums on the Battle.net SC2 website, be sure to check them out! In addition, for those of you waiting for Blizzard All-Stars, looks like they're hiring for a Lead Designer!

Kobold Tribes by Qancakes

This is a little outdated but certainly worth a feature. Blizzard interview Qancakes about his map, Kobold Tribes, as seen here.

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Kobold Tribes is a team-based survival RPG in which two teams of up to five players each command a Kobold unit and work together to defeat the enemy tribe. At the start of each game, the Kobold players find themselves in a forested landscape that must be overcome before the enemy team can be dealt with. Kobolds can cut down trees, hunt wild animals, gather berries, and engage in quests, pooling their resources to build structures, cook food, and arm themselves for the inevitable battle. As time passes, day leads to night, at which point the tribe must stick together near a campfire or freeze.

Feel free to read through the interview (thanks for the shout out!) and/or check out his map! It's in the same format as the good ol' Island Troll Tribes maps that I personally loved.

StarTools Beta

Many of you might remember the so called "Star Tools" that were intended to be released alongside the new editor to help 3D modelers streamline and improve their work. The beta for the toolset has finally started! If you are experienced in modeling, make sure you apply in the official thread (US thread here, EU thread here), or join our discussion here!

3D City Defense by StRoNgFoE and Zarltok

StRoNgFoE and Zarltok have been working on a map by the name of 3D City Defense. Players fight in 3rd person to defend the city against the zerg threat. The map just launched today, so make sure to check it out if you're on the US servers! Make sure to leave your thoughts and feedback in the thread here!

For those of you who still need beta keys, participate in the Weekly Data Exercise, the Weekly Terraining Exercise, or the Monthly Triggering Exercise for a chance at earning one!

HotS- Now with talking AI's!

That's right- a recent update to Heart of the Swarm just added AI's that communicate with you when you're on the same team. You can set your AI's build order using an in-game build-order-picker to choose from a few different opening and late-game strategies. The higher the AI's difficulty setting, the more advanced build orders or strategies it can be ordered to use. And for those who are concerned, you can still let the AI do it's own thing without orders from you, if you'd like. You can also give the AI orders like Attack, defend, scout, get detection, and expand.

Perhaps the most interesting feature is that the AI's will now actually talk to you. You'll hear the AI's voice say "I'm going to expand here" and see it ping the map- you might here it say "I've spotted some enemy mutalisks here". The AI will also let you know what it's building and when.

You can check out the full post here or join the discussion here!

HotS Groups Feature

HotS recently added a clan and groups feature- you can read the full article here if you're interested. We've created a sc2mapster group for Heart of the Swarm- if you're in the beta, make sure to join! The groups feature will be coming to Wings of Liberty in the future, at which point we'll open the same group there. This should provide a quick and easy way to round up some fellow mappers to test out your new game, or just play the newest arcade releases.

Weekly Terraining Exercise #107 - Assets (HOTS beta keys inside!)

Hey folks! Do you remember those HOTS beta keys Sixen talked about 12 hours before this post? Well, the first of our many upcoming contests is out. Over the coming weeks we'll be throwing down multiple contests with beta keys as a reward, and the first one has now been posted in the form of Weekly Terraining Exercise #107. Since all these contests will be in the light of providing the community with assets and usable content, such is also the theme of this WTE - whether you provide us with custom tilesets, a basic map lay-out or a copy-pastable piece of background eyecandy, anything goes. Top submissions receive beta keys.

This contest ends in one week from now, on monday the 10th.

Show us what you've got, and happy terraining folks!

Lots of good news coming within the next few days/week(s). I haz Beta Keys and a cool sneak preview at the Custom Observer UI features for HotS, which I'll be highlighting soon enough. As far as how to get a Beta key, stay tuned, we'll have announcements soon.

Station Control by Soapninja

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My goal with this game was to create a MOBA that is easy to learn for new players and strategically satisfying for experts. I did away with things like items, shops, and XP and created something closer to what you'd find at a video arcade...if video arcades had MOBA games. Instead of a ridiculous amount of heroes and archetypes, I wanted to start this game with a handful of well-designed classes that feel valuable and unique. Instead of trying to destroy enemy towers, your goal is to capture them like you would in games like Arathi Basin, TF2, and Battlefield; the longer you control a tower, the more points you gain.

Don't let the simplicity fool you though, there's a lot of strategy to this game. In addition to the capture and control gameplay, there are also powerful Team Buffs that randomly spawn during the game. The power up locations are located away from the control points, but if a player grabs a power up, it will buff their entire team. This often creates a risk vs reward scenario: Do I leave my team to grab a powerup that will help us later, or do I stay with them now to help attack or defend? In addition, nydus worms frequently spawn around the map spewing out zerg units. If a team is not careful, they can be overwhelmed by the amount of units swarming the map. This creates a chaotic environment that requires excellent teamwork and decision making to succeed.

Station Control games also differ with most other MOBA titles in yet another way: The games last between 10-15 minutes. You can fit in a couple games during your lunch break, or play for hours on the weekend. Leavers are less of a problem because they don't have to wait for 30 minutes to start a new game. I also decided to make the game score only visible at the end of the match, so if players are tempted to leave but want to see how many kills, deaths, or captures they had; they need to wait a few minutes until the match is officially over.

I hope that you all give the game a chance and that you enjoy it. Personally, I think it's got a lot to offer.

StarCraft: Subjection by Gradius

Our good friend Gradius from SCLegacy has taken it upon himself to create a fully voice-acted, 8 mission singleplayer campaign. Subjection will have 4 difficulty levels (similar to the WoL Campaign) and has been released on the NA Server. As of current, the voice-acting is being completed, as is the final mission, but feel free to test the current series and give him some feedback! Below, you can see what looks like the introduction to the campaign...