A CS:GO map making exercise [Part 2]

Hi! Welcome to week two of this project. Last week I did a brief study of existing maps from Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Today we will take a look at the progress I made over the last seven days.

2D Layouts

I started by doing some pen and paper layouts, trying out various setups for A and B sites. I would like the map to have two separate buildings split by a courtyard and connected by an overhead bridge. Each building will hold a bomb site each, and for the sake of understanding we shall call them Building A and Building B. the two teams will start from either ends of the middle lane (which is the central courtyard). The overhead bridge will connect the two bomb sites together. This was the general idea that I had when I started the project. Originally I wanted both sites to be on the first floor, the defending team to start from the roof and the attackers starting from the ground floor, creating a very vertical layout. However, I decided to let go of this idea, since anyone on an elevated position has an inherent advantage (Like ol' Ben Kenobi).

It was quite troublesome to add routes to the bomb sites. Whenever I added alternate paths it felt like I was giving one team an advantage over the other. Flanking is such a powerful maneuver. It divides the opponents attention to focus on two or more fronts, and if successful can overwhelm the opponent in seconds. I tried different options for both sites until I settled on something that seems fair. I have put A site on the first floor and put a staircase next to it to provide quick access from the defender spawn and the ground floor. I also added a staircase on the opposite side of the objective which will serve as the main entry point for the attackers. On the ground floor, there is a doorway leading to the attacker spawn. This will be a key area of contention since the defender will reach this place first and the attacker will have to defeat the opposition here to gain access to the CT side staircase.

In Building B the objective is located on the ground floor. A staircase from the bridge leads into this site. There is also a catwalk with a ladder on one corner of the site, which the attackers have access to. This will provide an alternate, elevated point of entry.

The bridge over the middle lane has glass walls allowing both teams to see through. This is because it will allow players to gather some intel on enemy movements and makes this route between the two objectives high risk but a fast one.

For some reason I was not sure how to lay down routes connecting the attacker spawn to the rest of the map. I knew I had to make it longer, but wasn't sure how. I put down placeholder routes from their spawn and I am hoping to figure it out as the map develops.

After the paper design was done, I took to Photoshop to make a measured layout using the guides and grids. Pretty sure this is not the final layout and things may change by a lot throughout the process. Seeing that I had some more time at hand I launched the Source SDK, opened the Hammer Editor and messed about for a bit. I started with building 'A bomb site', trying to get the feel of the 3D space. I can already feel that the smaller staircase might be a problem but cannot for sure.

That's all I have today! I guess with this, I can move forward with 3D implementation in full swing. I will still have to learn the Hammer Editor as I go along so that is going to be task. I will also have to figure out how to get this playing in the game. Of course, I don't think I am past 2D designs yet. I'm sure I will be coming back to it for whenever I need to redesign bits of the level.

Thank you so very much for reading today's post. I hope to see you next week! Take care.