Counter-Strike

Engine: Source
Editor: Hammer

Back when I was completely green to Level Design, I had a dream I was playing a map inspired by the opening location in 1995’s Goldeneye (007 James Bond). You know that scene, when he drives off the cliff on the motorcycle to catch the falling plane? THAT Location! The snowy facility with the long airplane runway that dropped into the mountains. An old airbase with a secret underground missile warhead construction and launching site.

With Counter-Strike being my main FPS gaming growing up, and Hammer being readily available to mess around, I figured it was the best place to get my feet wet in Level Design experience.

References & early planning:

Montruse – a prototype map

de_montruse – an unfinished prototype CS:GO map.
Album on Imgur of Montruse shots.

Gambit (beta)

I knew Montruse was too big for a competitive CS map – so I took the best parts of it and re-built the map from scratch using a competitive formula. DE_Gambit was the result. I learned a ton making my first couple maps in CS, more importantly – I learned how to quickly iterate on layouts and focus on the core block-out before diving into the art, a skill which would lead to hiring me on as a Junior Level Designer with Ubisoft Toronto.

de_gambit (beta)

DE_Gambit Screengrabs

REFERENCES:

A blockade of concrete barriers placed at the entrance to Offutt Air Base, Nebraska, in response to a real world Threat Con Delta after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
US Air Force (USAF) C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft assigned to Ramstein Air Base (AB), Germany, flies over the Ramstein AB tower, before retiring to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) or “bone yard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (AFB), Arizona.
gbs040210j/ASEC/Greg Sorber — The Wyoming Gate to the Kirtland Air Force Base on Friday, April 2, 2010.
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ÊLGM -118A Peacekeeper ICBM The Peacekeeper missile is America’s newest intercontinental ballistic missile. Its deployment fulfilled a key goal of the strategic modernization program and increased strength and credibility to the ground-based leg of the U.S. strategic triad. With the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has begun to revise its strategic policy and has agreed to eliminate the multiple re-entry vehicle Peacekeeper ICBMs by the year 2003 as part of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty II. (U.S. Air Force photo)
A close-up view of the main gate.