A Portfolio of my unfinished/unreleased Halo 4 maps

[Elliot]

You may have noticed that for someone who has been forging since the day Halo 4 was released, I haven't released many maps. My map count is currently standing at a grand total of 2 (Our Daily Bread and To The Stars) here on Halo Customs, with the total stretching to 4 when I include Citrus and Apollo, two 2v2 maps built and released during the Forge Hub 2v2 Dust Up tournament way back when, one of which I probably shouldn't have released.

The reason for this rarity is due to one or more of the following holding me back; procrastination, loss of interest, poor time management or simply forgetfulness. Trust me, I have started many maps, some of which I am pretty proud of, but just never got to a release kind of polish, either stopping half way through the build, not making it to testing, even a few that could potentially be released today.

So, since the MCC collection is round the corner I thought I would share with you all what I made and is worth showing which has been hiding away all this time. Not just Flood maps lie ahead, I have always been interested in forging small team and big team competitive maps too. Enjoy!

Lets start with the first map I created on Halo 4 which was of course, a Flood map called Floodlight (get it?). Although the centre piece serves no purpose realistically, I took advantage of something new and it looks fairly cool. I am still proud of it considering when it was built. Many games were played on here during early Halo 4 BIOC lobbies, but I never saw it fit for release since I was rapidly getting more accustomed to the new textures.

Plot twist! I found a map that I actually made before this, I forgot all about it. This is a linear creation that I started close to day one which eventually developed into Our Daily Bread, released about 7 months later. It isn't the best map ever seen and it never got tested, but it was the start of something special. The eventual map has come a long way since then...

Now onto something I'm a little less proud of, and one I spent way too long on. It is saved as "small map 0.3", created on 13th December 2012 and its kinda poor. However, three weeks on from the previous map my use of textures was clearly getting better. I suppose I like the contrast in colours, but there is just no structure or segregation; I'm glad I dropped this one.

Next up is a start to a Dominion map which is far from complete. After creating a few Invasion maps in Halo Reach, I was eager to work on Dominion leading up to Halo 4's release. But, I never really got round to it, with this as the closest I got to a finished map after inspiration from custom games and Forge sessions with AbleSir Thomas who advised me on my Invasion creations. I managed to create the majority of B base, before moving onto other things.

Back to Flood now. This project had the simple aim of being a successor to Pandora's Fear; my pretty popular Infection map from Halo Reach. After a couple of iterations that have since been deleted, this one reached testing, but I wasn't happy with the gameplay. After a few more weeks of toying with it, I lost interest. Still, it looks hella fine for an Erosion map.

Next is another Linear map that I started on 24th February 2013 saved as "Resident Halo". As the name suggests, it is inspired by the linear campaigns of the Resident Evil series, which I was playing with my house mate at the time. My forging juices were flowing while playing these games, I couldn't wait to put the design ideas I cooked up while playing into a map. Hopefully you can see the resemblance! I didn't have the courage to reveal the god awful helicopter at the end... be thankful.

This map nearly made it to testing, but I wasn't happy with the lighting change as you can see in the images, and I really couldn't be bothered to reforge it. Where could I anyway? Its a pretty unique place to forge. Ahh well, on to the next map!

Big Team Battle now, nothing brilliant, but something worth throwing in here. One of many maps that I've built, enjoyed building, but never got round to testing.

Wow, I completely forgot about this one. Its a 2v2 map, with some rad aesthetics. Why didn't I finish it!? I remember being super stoked about it mid-build, which unfortunately faded. Its great looking back at things with a fresh eye, now its tempting to implement it into something in the MCC.

 

[Elliot]

Oooooo this one is a biggie, I even released a preview for it! It's called New Life, a quasi-inverse-symmetrical 6v6 map. My main goal with this one was to implement a well defined, easy to traverse vehicle track for Warthog gameplay. What I came up with was a cool doughnut shaped inverse symmetrical arena. What made it more interesting was the asymmetrical aesthetics; one side was man-made, while the other was natural, which led to the tag-line; "The UNSC utilised these rocky structures to create a symmetrical War Games arena". I tested New Life a good few times in some TCOJ lobbies back on Forge Hub and got some great feedback. But when those lobbies and my free time started to break down, testing halted, and so did the release of this beauty.

Something a little less serious now; I challenged myself to try and recreate Spire. The map turned out to be quite different to the original for obvious reasons but I think I managed to get the basic concept down. Looking back, the bases look pretty cruddy though. Regardless, no one would want to play this... would they?

This next project spawned from a cool little competition from Forge Hub. Instead of a simple forge contest, it was a contest to design the best map, whether it be on paper or digitally. I actually managed to get 3rd place with my hand drawn design! Check it out.

I first tried forging the design on Impact before the release of Forge Island, but that proved impossible. So I tried again once FI was released, minus the sewer. It was the perfect canvas with the flat grassland, really. Unfortunately yet again, things got the better of me and I never finished it. I'm bad, aren't I.

Another map I released a preview of! Conspiracy, a linear. I felt really good about this one at first. I had some solid design theory down for the starting area, full of original ideas. I was excited about the prospect of a breakable bridge right at the start, and I had a vision of it playing out. But, I kinda fizzled out after many redesigns of the third area and budget problems again. It wasn't too long ago that I last looked at it, but it had been too long, I lost touch with the map.

The path to the final holdout was as far as I got.

Another day another linear. You may remember Long Way Round. It was my first proper attempt at a linear Infection map back in Reach. It went through a hell of a lot of testing in a short space of time to be entered into Hub of the Dead III on Forge Hub. Stupidly (very stupidly) I thought the deadline was on Halloween, when in fact it was much earlier. I was distraught. I never ended up releasing that version (shock horror) as Reach was on it last legs, and with Halo 4 getting very close. So! With Forge Island at our disposal, I decided to remake it.

It looks awesome, but it didn't have the gameplay to match like it did in Reach, most likely due to the much longer lunge distance of the Flood in Halo 4; the map was too small to accommodate the gametype. Our Daily Bread proves this concept; the map is much more open and plays fantastically.

 

[Elliot]

Island Run was my first experience with a modded canvas. The plan was to build a huge island (or two as it turned out) out of rocks with a winding vehicle track cut into it for gameplay pioneered in REMkings' map, When Running Fails. But damn, that thing took effort to forge with all the rocks packed together! I eventually just stopped working on it. What can be seen looks so cool, and would have been so fun to play along with WRF in BIOC lobbies.

As you may know, I have forged closely with REMkings, and at one time we wanted to release a map pack with the focus of public transportation. This was one of those maps, with the theme of an interchange. I love the theme, but I wasn't sure how gameplay would have panned out. I think I was working on a load of maps at this point, so it kinda got lost in the crowd.

At the time of Halo Customs' huge 1v1 tournament, I was inspired to attempt to create one fit for a round. Of course it never made it there, the gameplay didn't turn out great. But, it looks decent and could probably be worked into a good all-round map.

What I set out to do with this project was to create a map fit for Matchmaking with the Hivemind gametype, while satisfying three goals; extreme hight variation, well defined holdouts and a strong theme. I ended up with Refinery, a map that wouldn't exist without its theme, and a theme that wouldn't exist without hight variation.

The challenge was making the holdouts defined. Because of the theme, I couldn't build generic rooms/buildings that are obvious to a player as a safe place to go in a match. Instead, I had to work with pipes, disconnected walls and platforms. Another factor was balancing the lower level holdouts with the higher level ones. Players naturally tend to head upwards; for a natural sense of safety. To combat this, what I call Power through Population, the holdouts on the upper levels of the map had more entrances and less weapons than the ones on the ground.

Eventually, the map was short listed by a few players helping with the implementation of Hivemind into matchmaking, but unfortunately was not selected to be included.

Still, it is a map I am very proud of, and one that was well worth the effort I put into. Check out the preview!

Anyone know of xAudienceofone? I do, he's a great guy, and I built a map with him right before he left the scene. Code named Split Linear, it was quite ambitious. The premise was a linear Flood map making use of the Mantis, and a choice of two separate routes through a phase.

The split route was thoroughly thought through (lol). Should a player choose to take the right route around the outside of the bend, they have much more distance to cover, but are granted with more safety and more weapons in exchange. The left route on the inside of the bend is considerably shorter, but also much more dangerous, with the Flood being able to drop right on top of you. What eventually stopped me working on this map was very frustrating; one of the door mechanisms simply wouldn't work. It was the very same set up as the others, but the land mine just would not destroy the dominion shield like the others. I tried for hours at a time, but to no avail. Everything else was ready for testing, but I had already moved onto other things.

 

[Elliot]

Now onto a few smaller things that didn't get quite as far. This is the start to a Conversion map. I was super intrigued by the design theory behind the gametype, and after watching many of Psychoduck's videos on it, I felt like starting one myself, which clearly didn't last long. I built one of the capture areas which looks decent.

Another 2v2 design now with a three base structure, kinda like a symmetrical Guardian or something I suppose. I hit major piece usage problems on this one, something I have struggled with a few times.

We're skipping ahead a long time now, I hadn't played Halo at all for months due to my university course. This one was a proposed sequel to my 2nd released Flood map, To the Stars. I called it Beyond the Stars. I like the design, but I think the vehicle track isn't quite as well defined which would have probably made vehicular gameplay not as fun as on the original.

Skip ahead another six months, and I am working on another two maps which I may release previews of in the near future. But, with the MCC round the corner I might refrain and not bother releasing them. Maybe I'll reforge them on the MCC, but if I don't I don't mind too much, they're fun to forge. I guess you'll just need to watch this space!

Anyhow, that's everything! I hope it wasn't too boring and maybe you gained some inspiration from something down the line. You have my permission to use anything

So, I guess I'll see you on Halo 2 Anniversary!

 

[Auburn]

Duuuude, I remember seeing the preview for Conspiracy on FH. You should unlose touch and finish that beauty for me.

 

[REMkings]

heya! You also released Percy, with me!

And please bring out Refinery. The world deserves it and you deserve it.

Anyway, it's a sad thing that lots of forgers in the end don't get around to finishing some of the shrines they had been working on for so long. I myself have happened to let go of a lot of promising projects too for various reasons. Good thing is you can always get back to their designs in later titles if you still feel like it.

Ell, you've always been one of my top favourite forgers as you know. It's a damn shame that you've been so unlucky not being able to release so many of these babies. But know that what you did release, definitely granted me a fuckton of fun and eternal thankfulness. Our Daily Bread and To The Stars are to date still amongst my very favourite Halo 4 maps!

 

[Elliot]

heya! You also released Percy, with me!

And please bring out Refinery. The world deserves it and you deserve it.

Anyway, it's a sad thing that lots of forgers in the end don't get around to finishing some of the shrines they had been working on for so long. I myself have happened to let go of a lot of promising projects too for various reasons. Good thing is you can always get back to their designs in later titles if you still feel like it.

Ell, you've always been one of my top favourite forgers as you know. It's a damn shame that you've been so unlucky not being able to release so many of these babies. But know that what you did release, definitely granted me a fuckton of fun and eternal thankfulness. Our Daily Bread and To The Stars are to date still amongst my very favourite Halo 4 maps!

These are just unfinished and unreleased maps Rem! Percy was released right?

I'll get round to it soon. I was kinda waiting for some gameplay so I could take in game screenshots. Know of any lobbies going where I can get some?

I'll hopefully do better in the future Thanks for the kind words!

 

[Elliot]

Duuuude, I remember seeing the preview for Conspiracy on FH. You should unlose touch and finish that beauty for me.

If anything I will use the spawn area in a remake on the MCC

 

[REMkings]

These are just unfinished and unreleased maps Rem! Percy was released right?

Yeah, but I mean you only mentioned ODB and TTS.

I'll get round to it soon. I was kinda waiting for some gameplay so I could take in game screenshots. Know of any lobbies going where I can get some?

I'll hopefully do better in the future Thanks for the kind words!

Not sure man, haven't been too active myself as of late. Been busy with that girl and all. (a)

But thanks Bro! I meant every word.

 

[Elliot]

Yeah, but I mean you only mentioned ODB and TTS.



Not sure man, haven't been too active myself as of late. Been busy with that girl and all. (a)

But thanks Bro! I meant every word.

Oh of course! I guess I just see that as way more your map than mine.

Ahh fair enough man

 

[Sgt x Slaphead]

This was really awesome to look through. It always amazes me how the vast majority of our maps go unfinished or just simply forgotten about but it's good to see these old maps revisited. I am sure you can pull some ideas from these for your future projects.

 

[Elliot]

This was really awesome to look through. It always amazes me how the vast majority of our maps go unfinished or just simply forgotten about but it's good to see these old maps revisited. I am sure you can pull some ideas from these for your future projects.

That's great! Yeah, its true. I'd love to see other people do this. There is so much that goes unseen. Gooood, my intention was to actually give something to the community despite them not being finished/released so I'm glad your looking at them in that way

 

[Sgt x Slaphead]

That's great! Yeah, its true. I'd love to see other people do this. There is so much that goes unseen. Gooood, my intention was to actually give something to the community despite them not being finished/released so I'm glad your looking at them in that way

I appreciate you taking the time to show all that work. Most people throw too much away without looking back. It's always cool to see how people develop their ideas over time and get an insight on what goes on behind the scenes before the finished map. I often find this more interesting than just seeing a few pictures of an already completed map. Good article!