GMod's Most Iconic Map

good evening do you recognize this place GM construct it's a map that millions of people have come to know and love this iconic place has provided comfort and laughter to Millions over the years and continues to regularly show up in memes videos and even fashion and the most unexpected of ways it's also more recently developed a reputation as a deeply unsettling and to some even terrifying realm of existential horror but what even is this place what's the secret behind its never-ending popularity and how did it come to be so iconic in Internet pop culture today I'm going to share with you all the unabridged story of GM constructs construct Story begins in the year of Our Lord 2004. it was then that a 22 year old British chap named Gary Newman fell madly in love with the physics engine scene in Half-Life 2. and got the brilliant idea to create his own game built entirely around it this was the birth of what we know as Gary's Mod though I think you'll find it's hardly recognizable in its earliest iteration the first two releases of the game dubbed Gmod 1 and 2 were posted online just three days apart in December 2004 but the only levels they came with were the stock ones from Half-Life 2. Gary eventually decided that he wanted his project to have its own map and that's when he created this this thing you're looking at this weird indiscernible white void this was the first iteration of GM construct debuting on December 30th 2004 alongside the release of Gmod 3. it was nothing but a small white Abyss with some props a panel on the wall to spawn character models and a hallway with buttons that load up levels from the Half-Life 2 campaign in case you somehow managed to get bored of this place thankfully construct didn't stay this boring looking for very long in fact the next patch of Gmod released later the same day transforming the level into a much more welcoming looking grassy enclosure and renaming this older version of the map to GM construct white and this is when things started really taking shape with a unique visual style finally decided on Gary's imagination went wild and the start of a new year brought rapid fire additions and tweaks to both the mod and to construct on January 5th 2005 the release of g-mod 4 scrapped a GM construct white altogether and brought a vehicle garage and a flat concrete area to the new version of the map and four days later on January 9th Gmod 5 introduced this raised walkway this pool of water and even a new primitive 3D Skybox two weeks later came GMod 6. and with this version construct finally starts looking like the map we know it as today it gives us this iconic Warehouse building complete with the first ever instance of the dark room and turns that pool into the pond we all know and love I also find it interesting that despite the player's spawn menu being introduced in Gmod 6. it's version of the construct still includes the manual prop spawning panel which you'll see survived for a surprisingly long time after the release of Gmod 6 updates became increasingly complicated on the technical end with longer and longer weights between them Gmod 7 took almost a whole month to release on February 12 2005 and it added some apartment buildings to the 3D Skybox as well as the white room and this black room yin and yang Gmod 8 came out two months after that on May 9 2005. finally sacrificing the Half-Life 2 hallway to make room for a bigger garage with two entrances it also added this side door to the warehouse and for some reason has completely busted lighting that brightens and dims when you look up and down I'm not really sure what that's all about anyway it took more than half a year for the next update to come and it was quite the big one November 27 2005 finally brought us Gmod 9. one of the most iconic versions of the game and with it a number of changes to construct it made the garage building even bigger and added Windows to it added these iconic apartment buildings right on the edge of the level's bounds and finally removed the in-level prop spawner Hallelujah this is easily one of the most beloved versions of the map due to how familiar yet different it is it's the last version of construct to have these grass Sprites everywhere it has a uniquely gloomy and foggy atmosphere and it really just carries the vibe like no other also since Gmod 9 was the last version of the game that was published for free a lot of people were stuck playing this version well after it had become outdated and there's actually still servers up for it today if you can believe that anyway after the release of Gmod 9 valve approached Gary and made a deal with him to produce a new commercial version of Gary's mod and as you might have guessed with this jump came yet another construct makeover on November 29 2006 Garry's Mod 10 released on valve's official storefront Steam for ten dollars and it brought possibly the strangest version of construct yet it expanded the size of the level by giving the garage building a rooftop it added this side entrance to the warehouse building leading to a new walkway above the dark room gave us this dock-like area next to the lake and it's also the first and only version of construct to include this peculiar room I'm pretty sure this is meant to demonstrate colored lighting but that Tech had existed since the 90s so I imagine the room was cut for not really being impressive enough for the Times its existence is always fascinated me though Gmod 10 continued to get patches and minor fixes for two entire years before we finally got Gmod 11 on January 16 2008 and not only did its version of construct change quite a lot it was also the last version of the map that Gary ever created Gmod 11 removed all the sand in the level in favor of a brighter green grass texture got rid of the island in the middle of the pond and brightened up the Skybox it also added stairs to access the roof of the garage building as well as the secret room beneath them remove the black room and got rid of the vehicles in the garage redesigned the white room to be much bigger and colorable and finally removed this weird Scaffolding in the warehouse building this was also around the time Gary built a map called GM construct 2 which was basically just a bizarre remake of the map with a bunch more strange structures to explore but it was never finished and I'm honestly surprised people don't talk about it more anyway when Gmod 12 released two years later on August 23 2010 the update brought for the first time ever absolutely no changes to construct at all it seemed that the map was in a state that Gary deemed satisfactory and he had shifted his Focus entirely onto improving the game itself the next update was set to be the biggest in the game's history and it's also where the story of construct finally comes to a head Gmod 13 was easily the most important update that Gary's Mod has ever received it brought interface changes Workshop support and tons of other new features that revolutionized the game in its modding scene for such a big update it would only seem right that it come with a fittingly radical and glamorous makeover for construct right well there was one problem Gary seemed not to have much interest in ever working on GM construct ever again Early Access footage shows that private builds of Gmod 13 still use the same map from Gmod 12 while into development and had Gary still been the sole developer of Gmod by this point we'd probably still be playing that version to this very day however face punch staff members high voltage Max vest 2D and cold and wraith I really that's such an unfortunate name man all agreed that there needed to be a new version of construct for this upcoming update and that it needed to be bigger and badder than all that came before it so with Gary's permission the three opened a public threat on the game's Forums on March 19 2012. so basically crowd Source a new version of construct for Gmod 13. the team whipped up a new much bigger version of the map turning those backdrop skyscrapers into explorable buildings and added a new mirror room and with input from the community as well as Gary tons of things were suggested added changed and removed over the course of eight months they experimented with tunnels elevators submarine building rooms ladders Vents and much more but what's kind of funny is that the final version of the map that they settled on in the end really wasn't much different from the one they started with when the Garry's Mod 13 public beta released on August 24 2012 it gave people for the first time in four years a new official version of construct to explore it was pretty much exactly the same as the one we have today but with a much denser Blue Fog and more forests and mountains in the Sky Box I actually really like this version I remember playing on it when it first came out and it really felt like the start of a new era for the game I think Gary knew this was the end of the line for construct as on October 22nd 2012 he uploaded a workshop add-on called GM construct history they collected together all the old versions of the map he still had it doesn't include everything and a lot of the maps have visual bugs when run on the modern version of the game but it's still pretty cool that he did this for the sake of preservation and finally 2 two days later on October 24 2012 the final release of Gmod 13 was Unleashed upon the public and it finally rolled out what is by far the most famous version of construct the gm13 version that we all know and love complete with the secret room immortalizing all of its contributors since then Gmod Gmod routine 15 and 6 and 16 have all come and gone in fact the lost track of what version we're on today and while the game still continues to get somewhat regular maintenance and Bug fixes it definitely seems like this version of construct we've all come to know and love over the last 11 years is here to stay and I can't complain I've come to love this map and I can't picture anything you could add to it that wouldn't feel alien or out of place at this point it's Picture Perfect most people haven't experienced any version of the map other than this one but I think that's fine since it's easily the most feature complete of all of them to me it really feels like this is the state that construct was meant to evolve into all along anyway now that we've wrapped all that up I do also want to dedicate just a little bit of time to analyzing what makes this map work because it's far from a traditional FPS game level Garry's mod maps have a tendency of being dreamlike and ethereal unreal locations that couldn't possibly exist or be constructed in the real world and if that's the way we characterize Gmod Maps I can't think of a better poster child than constructs what the hell is this place we've got a giant grassy field skyscrapers some kind of Warehouse building with a freaky mirror room this giant creepy pitch black storage and a big old pot all boxed into a single compound by these weird plaster walls with Empty Apartment blocks gazing down upon the player from out of bounds it's truly bizarre now it's not hard to find pictures of real world buildings that look like those you see in construct after all the map is pretty much completely built from the Bulgarian inspired assets valve made for Half-Life 2. but it is absolutely impossible to find pictures of real world locations or facilities that are even remotely similar to construct and layout or design the more you step back and try to rationalize this place the less sense it makes we've got 20th century Eastern European apartment blocks in a green grassy Wonderland and all of this apparently exists in or around California if this platywood sign means anything these buildings you can explore don't do anything they don't have stairs to Traverse between floors hell they're lit up by light sources that don't even exist and that's because their only function is to be unique locations for the player to mess around construct's main priority is simply to provide a large open environment with plenty of opportunities for creativity and physics-based sandbox Shenanigans and if nothing else it certainly succeeds in that it's funny though because while all these areas are designed with specific gameplay Encounters in mind I think most people who've played construct couldn't tell you what these buildings are for and if you're not familiar with gmod's history at all I could see this map being really trippy and confusing like sure everyone could easily assume that the big fields and the garage are for vehicles but what about that mirror room it was made specifically just to show off that Gmod 13 added working mirrors but if you didn't know that this big old bunker probably just seems like something out of a fever dream the dark room is probably the best example though it exists to test out lighting tools but since most people are removed from that context it's become an icon of confusion and Terror among younger players all of these quirks come together to create what I think is a truly Unforgettable level and that brings me to my conclusion it's pretty crazy to think that construct evolved from a random British guy's pet project in the mid-2000s to the face of a true cultural phenomenon that is propelled an internationally acclaimed game development Studio into existence it's a digital rags to Rich's tale unlike any other over the span of 18 years GM construct is blossomed into a beloved virtual home for millions of people when life gives you lemons it can be fun to load up this familiar level and start pelting them at Dr Kleiner to get all the anger out of your system on construct you can effortlessly project your own ideas of what Gmod is or should be the level can be a loving Embrace a war zone or even a terrifying liminal prison all depending on how you choose to experience the game and that versatility is what makes it so beautiful of course this just my interpretation and my opinions I've built over my time playing the game it would be amazing to know what the map's original Creator thought of it in its success if only there was a way that I could get in contact with the original Creator and Gary Newman is a busy guy who I always feel a little anxious about hitting up but I messaged messaged him on Discord and asked him if he'd be willing to answer a few questions for a video and he was super nice and Cooperative he also ended up sharing quite a bit of cool insight about the map's development is there anything that you recall influencing construct's initial design or style it was based on the Matrix the white room where they'd spawn a load of guns what about the style you developed afterward with the red and beige walls I just chose my favorite materials from Half-Life 2. it wasn't designed as much as this doesn't look like total [ __ ] so let's ship it what priorities did you have as you made changes in additions to the level it evolved with the game I was loading into the Half-Life 2 maps and it was taking two minutes every load so I wanted a simple map that would load as fast as possible originally it had buttons to spawn props when we got a spawn menu we didn't need that with Ragdoll posing we needed nice different areas to take screenshots inside outside white box and black box we needed water to make boats ramps to roll things down do you remember your scrapped GM construct 2 remember that at all you posted it on face punch back in 2010. here's some screenshots what a [ __ ] how has it felt to see GM constructs reach continually extend into pop culture through memes videos and even fashion it's cool I don't see it as a Gmod thing as much as a Half-Life 2 thing though all of the materials are Half-Life too what qualities do you think of made the map so enduringly popular I think it's only really popular because it's the default map if you had to actually select it it wouldn't have been as popular and finally your upcoming project sandbox right now includes a rendition of construct that turns the level into a Town based off Walsall England it adapts to dark room to a photography studio the warehouse building into a fully fleshed out facility with its own parking garage and is generally a pretty ambitious change from the one we know from Gary's Mod what do you hope for the future of construct to look like with this new version of the map we actually still need a construct map in sandbox the one we started building has ended up compromised in terms of performance and scope we're working on something else to be the default map that will hopefully tick the boxes in being fast to load and perform well with that he'd more or less address pretty much every question I had so I thanked him and sent him on his way only time will tell if making the map British is the right way forward but one thing remains certain construct is eternal and it'll surely continue to Captivate people for years to come as gmod's most iconic map this bit of a pain to put together since construct's history is nearly two decades long and isn't documented very well online but if it taught you at least at least something about this legendary level and its many versions then I'd say it was worth it a special shout out goes to my friend figardo for helping me put all this together thank you for watching subscribe to Ricky blober for more videos like this one and have a good day [Music] here oh yeah that's you so fear sometimes I think I see a window oh no it's you sometimes I think I see

Channel: Richter Overtime

Views: 581,022

Keywords: gaming, source, valve, tf2, gmod, hl2, half-life, team fortress 2, garry's mod, counter strike, dead games, exploring dead games, garrys mod, creepy maps, creepy gmod maps, creepy gmod, gmod arg, gmod roblox

Id: 45HGRzTH2ig

Length: 15min 2sec (902 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 08 2023