Wanna learn mapping?

--Where to start--

If you're completely new to hammer I'd suggest watching this great tutorial by Earthcastle to familiarize yourself with the basics. Once you've done that learn some basic optimization and then just start creating whatever comes to mind. You could, for example, make your room or environments from your favourite videogames or movies. Whenever you're stuck on something you haven't learned yet, just look it up online. Check out the "Resources" section below for helpful sites and youtube playlists. And remember, practice makes perfect! If you don't stop making maps you will 100% get better. You can leave me questions on my guestbook btw. Hope this helps :)

--Resources--

Wikipedia for the Source Engine: Valve Developer Community

probably the largest active mapping community (4.5 K+ members): Hammer Editor Development Group

mapping related forums and tutorials: Interlopers.net

another active mapping community: Hammer Editor Subreddit

Tutorials by Earthcastle

Turorials by TopHATTwaffle

Turorials by 3kliksphilip

Tutorials by RedstoneCo

the improved community made version of Hammer: Hammer++

Hammer (compatible with H++) quality of life improvements and other additions: TeamSpen's Hammer Addons

texture editor for custom textures and more: VTF Edit Reloaded

programm for uploading and updating gmod workshop maps: gmpublisher

programm for packing custom assets into the map bsp file: VIDE

Blender addon to make Source Engine models: Blender Source Tools

programm to compile/decompile Source Engine models: Crowbar

great custom skyboxes: Jacob Robbins' Skybox Library

textures, skyboxes and aditional tools: TopHATTwaffle's downloads

--Note--

I am in no way a professional or a long time map maker. I've only been making maps since August of 2025, these are just some of the things that helped me personally, so they might not be all that useful for you. Also make sure that the linked Tools dowloads are still safe to use before installing any programms. Thank you! :]