The Making of a Map

[CSN NewsBot]

The much renowned Dave Johnston (known to the Counter-Strike community as the sinister codename "DaveJ") has written a very interesting look at the making of a map (in this case, CS:CZ's 'Sienna'), from concept to fruition.

So, with my version of the map complete, the files went off to Valve for final touching up. And for this they got artist extraordinaire MacMan - Chris Ashton - to tidy up my mess of texture work and help give the map a more polished feel. The main problem was that I'm not an artist and I limited Sienna's textures to a very basic set. Chris is an artist and could help expand the set, apply them, and add a whole lot more variety to the map. This helped give each 'area' it's own identity and make them more instantly recognisable from a glance.

This is a unique look at the creative process of one of the best mappers in gaming today, and I encourage anyone who is interested in mapping in the least to check it out. Yes, it's long - don't let that scare you. Your attention will be rewarded.

[peagle]

Sienna has a great layout, hope it gets a cs-s release.

[Pharlap]

"creative process of one of the best mappers in gaming today"



davej is hardly what iu would call one of the best mappers around today. he got lucky with dust, there are better mappers out there. davej as is narby/barney/whatever is grossly overrated.

[David Johnston]

Cached version of the same article:

http://www.johnsto.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/...making_sienna

Pharlap wrote..

he got lucky with dust

That's what I keep saying.

[asspennies]

Dave, I wanted to use the cached version for the article (to save you $$$) but couldn't (and still can't) connect to the server.

[N*-DAnk]

peagle wrote..

Sienna has a great layout, hope it gets a cs-s release.

sienna is fun .. i just think that one bomb site to eazy for T to get to

[fsjk85]

now if we can only get aztec2

[dominic06]

Seeing how levels evolve always answers so many questions. It's neat to see the thought processes, collaborations, and errors that arrive as example of such work. I commend the efforts and love the final outcome!

[Mr Bond]

Pharlap wrote..

"creative process of one of the best mappers in gaming today"



davej is hardly what iu would call one of the best mappers around today. he got lucky with dust, there are better mappers out there. davej as is narby/barney/whatever is grossly overrated.

Yeah, I mean it's not like they've made the first, second and third most played maps of any first person shooter ever.

[Rifkinn]

Now I feel that I have seen some extras for map making like I see in those behind the scene looks on dvds for movies...

[Deletable_Man]

I love reading DaveJ's articles. I liked the simple layout of sienna. It was the first thing I noticed when I played the map. I had the basics figured out quite fast. I didn't really see much in the way of landmarks, however. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough but looking around, I became lost among the bricks you might say when looking to name a certain area. I hope it gets a CS:S release too with those extra things DaveJ had to leave out. The bombsites seem more cramped then they really are. I'm not sure but I think it may have something to do with the placement of the bullseye decal. Those do a lot for bombsites as most new players or players new to the map will plant on them.



At least it wasn't another tides!

[Maxey]

The site is overloaded O_o

[narby]

I touched DaveJ once

[Buddah]

Pharlap wrote..

"creative process of one of the best mappers in gaming today"



davej is hardly what iu would call one of the best mappers around today. he got lucky with dust, there are better mappers out there. davej as is narby/barney/whatever is grossly overrated.

Well I've given Dave J. a share of crap over the past couple years for dust and dust2. I still can't stand them, but on the flip side I enjoy cbble.... go figure.



As for best mappers, people quickly forget one of the best, n0thing. R.I.P. I still swear cs_docks is among the best maps for pub play (barring the hostage changes).

[David Johnston]

narby wrote..

I touched DaveJ once

ssshhh

Deletable_Man wrote..

At least it wasn't another tides!

omg!