Interviews with the Rune Mapping Contest Winners

By Tricia "Kazi Wren" Harris
March 18, 2001

It seems every game fan dreams of one day working in the gaming industry. For some, the dream is never realized. For others, opportunities crop up that allow them to show of their talent.

In January, Human Head Studios announced a contest that asked amateur mappers to create a map for the company's upcoming add-on pack, Rune: Halls of Valhalla. Seventy entries were received, and of those eight winners and runner ups, as well as several honorable mentions, were selected in February.

Seven of the mappers will have their work added to retail add-on pack from Human Head and publisher Gathering of Developers. Winners selected for Rune: Halls of Valhalla will receive full credit in the add-on CD and manual, an autographed copy of the original Rune and the add-on pack, and a special Rune T-shirt.

After the winners were announced, I sent e-mail to each asking them to respond to a few questions about the maps they created and how they did it. Everyone had a different idea of what made a map grab the attention of the Human Head judges. Read on to learn more about these creative people.

DM-Havlamahl by Eric "Swartz" Evans

DM-Gates by Heiko Dreyer

DM-Hudson by Jannis "Dr.Pest" Borgers

DM-Ingles by Hayden 'Salvation' Wilkinson

DM-LostCrypt by Mike 'Oriain' Ryan

DM-Valhalla by Josh "ReMoRsELeSs" Tyrell

DM-Zorn by Paul "TAZ" Mader

Runners-Up (maps free for public download)

DM-Glacier by Chris 'Plutonic' Blundell

DM-Warlock by Mike 'Oriain' Ryan

DM-Wendol by Mike 'Oriain' Ryan

RuneGame.com: How did you come up with the concept for your map?

Remorseless: I just sat down and tried to see what I could do with (the textures). That was it as far as looks. Now gameplay, which is my highest priority, I just try to get the most z-axis play I can. Period. It's always nice to me to be able to have the ability to drop down on your unsuspecting foe.

Plutonic: The concept for DM-Glacier started as the central feature of a large, outdoors CTF-style map for Rune. It occurred to me that the layout of the temple lent itself to a small DM map.

Oriain: DM-Wendol -- This one came out of an idea I had to recreate the bar scene in 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.' Basically, the young sword mistress takes on an entire bar full of warriors & beats them down, breaking all kinds of tables, railings, support beams, etc. in the process. It occurred to me that the Rune community needed a tavern map that incorporated this sort of mayhem.

DM-LostCrypt -- I actually started work on this map a few days before the contest was announced. I didn't really plan it out in advance, it all sprang from the weird, curvy support beam things I whipped up when I first started the map (believe it or not). I wanted to make a fairly simple, straightforward deathmatch map that had a very solid flow to it, plus a good balance of eye-candy architecture/lighting/texture use. LostCrypt was also the first map in which I seriously experimented with PolyObj's and secret areas. The crypt theme came into effect later, after I had completed 90% of the architecture! It was originally going to be a temple of some kind, but I simplified it a lot, changed most of the textures and dove headlong into the crypt idea.

DM-Warlock -- This one came out of sheer and utter desperation. I had a killer idea for a map based around a Dwarven forge, with weapons & powerups rising and falling on chain-operated "manufacturing trays" from lava pits. I even had a rudimentary hammer assembly line planned. But nothing -- and I do mean NOTHING -- I tried to implement was working as it should have and I scrapped the idea entirely. With something like 7 days left to go in the contest, I tried adapting the center room of my forge map by removing a big lava pit in the middle -- that became the central room with the 3 levels & from there the ideas for a wizard's study/vacation home (heh!) just sort of bubbled up from nowhere.

TAZ: The Concept for the map was in the beginning a sequel to my DM series "Vocant" for Unreal Tournament. The idea was a kind of "Winter Vocant".

Swartz: Hmm... ok, well I thought "Viking" which to me means somewhat dark and mixed with outdoor environmental "action". I also felt that rune being close combat action needed to have somewhat limited amounts of "outdoor" areas... It's not like you can snipe a guy with your hunting knife.

Heiko: Hmm, I didn´t really had a concept in mind as I started the map, I just opened the editor and built some rooms with these new cool textures (quite difficult to get used to the style, if you´ve never made a map for a Viking Game), the map became bigger and bigger and finally it was done. I tweaked it a bit (especially terrain and lightning) and added a trap to get away from the retail style. I did not have layout problems or something, though it was totally unplanned.

Dr. Pest: I first tried to rebuild "Dol Amroth" from the "Lord of The rings" (/me is an absolutely mad Tolkien fan!) I started drawing a floorplan for a coast with a secret temple in a cave in the back. But then I realized that this wouldn't be better than any other "run around" map. Yeah, then I saw a commercial spot on TV, and there was a scene in front of an old castle. I opened the editor, beginning with a lake surrounded by high cliffs, and then I built a castle in the middle...

Salvation: At first I wanted a one vs. one map, that put the players in Stonehenge, but Stonehenge seemed to boring when I looked at it. So I figured I would put it on top of a mountain,Throw in some water, and make it an Island in the middle of nowhere.

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