Building levels is much more on the creative side of design than the analytic parts that I've done before. It's something that I've spent time doing as a way to learn game engines, and anything analytical that I do build needs an engine to mess around in to interact with. Rumors of a bigger release of the source 2 engine coming out soon makes me want to get used to source 2 tools that are available and learn what can and can't be done.
Counter strike mainly offers a 5v5 attack defend gamemode, but to start off small I decided to try out a 2v2 attack defend map to keep the map smaller. looking at current popular maps the others enjoy, there tend to be some ideas that work really well that I tried to model. There tends to be three directions to attack the objective, meaning defenders need to stretch thin to cover all positions. The objective should relatively centered between attackers and defenders to keep games faster and prevent defenders from fully turning the objective into a fortress.
A friend offered the idea of conveyor belts and boosters, something that hasn't been really done yet. These different movement options break normal timings people are used to and allows for a unique challenge of engaging the enemy while moving (something not normally advantageous)
I drew up some quick ideas that I had for how conveyor belts could be used and then combined them into one play area. With the main layout done I needed to begine the process of making the level intoa 3d place.
With a place to run around in the level can be tested. And initial tests on the map showed that it was fun to play. The testing was able to show some flaws and fixes that could be patched andideas for what could be added to make the map better.
boxes were added to fix sightlines, boosters were added to make the map more fun to move around on, and playtests showed that at this point the level flowed smoothly and it was time for detail work.
I've already known that I don't like art. There's always far too many options and I get stuck on choices for far too long. To progress further, a general style and theme for the rest of the art needed to be locked down to something that I could make and fit the theme of having conveyor belts around. And if you spend hours looking at the problem, eventually something will get done.
Generic warehouse was nice for having a lot of materials and resources already available and fitting the theme of the belts enough that I was satisfied with the detail work I was doing. The rest would be filling the entire map with enough polish that these maps are expected to have.
Development is still in progress. A lot of detail and clutter needs to be added and some meshes need to be smoothed out. But the maps fun and unique, I dont see much else stopping me besides a lot of time needed to add detail.
Link to level found here.