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Level Designer
THE CREATION OF INVADE
After I created the map Armory I felt like I wanted to experiment some more on the Environment Art. I liked the existing layout and it had proven to be working/fun. However, the classic art style I used wasn't good enough to attract many players to come and visit the workshop. This made my decision to work on something new and use the existing layout as a reference for my new project. Invade is fully different in style and theme since its located at an overgrown castle on a sunny day. The first and second picture represents the same bombsite, but look totally different.
Same bombsite, but a new art direction giving a different feeling to the map and the possibility to tweak the layout.
I wasn't fully happy with the layout of Armory. For example, I thought bombsite B (the right one) was too small, some areas were pretty cramped and there was one path to many to the sites. I used this feedback to iterate the layout and using the new architectural design to reshape the layout for a bit.
What I decided to do is create one main path to bombsite A (left) extending to a second path which is closely connected to the middle. It won't give too many entrances to bombsite A, but it does create some more dynamic to the area and more rotation possibilities for both teams. I feel on Armory it was pretty hard for CT's to retake the bombsites, that's why I gave them more options to rotate from one bombsite to another. For bombsite B (right) I repositioned the bombsite, gave more possibilities for T's to plant/play around and even created a very safe plant spot with a drop-down path leading directly to it. It's a high risk, but also high reward to plant the bomb. The downside is the after plant for T's when they plant on their safe spot. CT knows they are either at the drop room or main entrances to defend the bomb because other angles will give CT a safely defuse opportunity. Overall I feel that CT had to much space on Armory to play aggressively and backstab T's so I changed this to create a longer rotation time between A & B main trough T spawn. Rotations are now more supported trough CT spawn and middle.
My focus on this map was the environment art mostly. I haven't created any of the assets (in all my projects) but did everything else by myself. My goal was to make a highly detailed map remaining a consistent and clean look for some great competitive play. While being consistent I wanted to give identity to each individual area so there is some easy navigation around the map. The tower in the middle is not only there for the aesthetics, but also as a navigation point which can be seen throughout the whole map. It was a great learning experience that made me appreciate Environment Art some more besides Level Design. But if you will ask me now, I still get more excited over a nice detailed greybox then a fully polished map.
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