Mappers Interviews: Exoduss

[ExodusS]

Exoduss, how do you actually make maps? I mean: do you start with a lay-out, a room, a drawing?

I already started to answer to this question at the end of the 5th question in the interview.

I'd say my ideas are an average of all this, but most of them are from other video games I am playing, all the time when I find something nice or geniously made, I try to reproduce it in my head, to make it fit with the limited cube engine, and when there is a way to reproduce something good, well it's time to complete a map or to create something new, something the community never saw yet.

To complete it, most of my maps started from an idea I saw somewhere in another video game or a movie or IRL or something that will give me a challenge if I want to reproduce it on the AC limited engine.

I will take the exemple of ac_swamp wich is, I think perfect, then I will take another exemple to show how random a starting map can be for a mapper.

When I started ac_swamp, it was not supposed to be a map, I just had the idea to make a special door like this one with a platform, so I tried it on a "newmap 6" and it was fine, I also wanted to cross it with another idea, this idea was to use two similar textures (the grey/green combo) and the result was really good, so I tested some variations with this garage door and it was also fine. I was here with an original map theme to exploit so I finished the room with 3 doors (the garage was supposed to be closed, Undead decided after to open it and make a room in it, then a team base and spawn point). I wanted 3 doors because I could adapt almost any map gameplay on it. Here is a good exemple of a starting map, IMO, it's all about the first room and the theme, the gameplay is secondary but must always be kept in mind.
No plan, no drawing, no layout.

The start of ac_cavern is completelly different, IIRC we started it together in coop with Undead but the coop's objective was not to start a new map at all. I don't remember excactly how but we started to make a rock/cavern effect and so we started by a corner wall, then another corner and we came out with a good cavern effect. After like 20 light tests to find the perfect colour, radius etc, we decided to keep one. Because we though the result was amazing, we decided to give a chance to this theme and we completed a few more rooms around the first one. At this point, Undead already had an idea of the layout and traced it with "F" walls (solid walls) too keep an eye of the gameplay and the path in each rooms.
EDIT: And I just remember I took this screenshot, it gives you a perfect exemple of the mapping process!

Spoiler

I hope it answered to your question.