I'll start this blog with some introduction. For those of you who know who I am, you know that I am a mapmaker famous for maps like Fighting Spirit in the beta, Neo Enigma in the ESL cups and Ithaca in the ESV Korean Weeklies amongst other things. About six months ago I was getting very burned out. Making maps, commentating, watching the same shit play on the same shit maps, etc. I was frustrated and becoming increasingly strapped for time and my priorities needed changing. After awhile I came to the conclusion to retire from mapmaking, take a break from SC2 as a whole and maybe try commentating again a little later.

Fast forward to about two months ago. OverKlocked is a LAN center in Edmonton that had finally opened up and it's first event was (you guessed it) a StarCraft 2 tournament that I was invited to commentate. The day went very well, I became acquainted with a lot of people and had a great time. As the weeks passed, more and more SC2 events happened in the community. MLG viewings at Overklocked, tournaments, group practice sessions, barcraft, etc - my love for the game and that spark for lack of a less cheesy term was starting to come back.

One of the people I met in the community is Jacqueline "Versailles" Geller. You might recognize the name from one of the billions of eSports pieces she writes. She had asked me to teach her how to make maps and I can't say no to a pretty face~ Every time her and I met she would ask me the same thing - teach me how to make maps. This proceeded for a few weeks and during that period I found myself spending more and more time looking at and analyzing maps and becoming more and more inspired.

Eventually, I caved (hence why I'm writing this TL blog now) - I agreed to teach Jacq how to make maps which we turned into an educational show for not only her but the viewers as well called "MapCraft - State of the Terrain" (4th episode this sunday! :D) and I began working on my first original design since my retirement (not counting the 2v2 maps I was contracted to make for the Prodigy Team Starleague).

I spent at least a dozen hours trying to find the right way to execute the concept I had in mind - a map with a relatively ambiguous expansion path and a backdoor leading to the main base that is somewhat out of the way, similar to Crossfire/Peaks of Beakdu. I axed design after design, sketch after sketch and I recently finally hit a personal milestone: I'm finally content with the design and started working on aesthetics. (Huge shoutout to Monitor and the rest of the ESV Mapmaking team for helping me out a TON with this - mapmaking without more than one brain is not possible IMO as well as Lokgar for the man cuddling and emotional support)

I wanted to share with everyone the progress I made. Unfortunately I don't have screenshots of every single design I made between then and now but I'll post everything I do have. I hope you enjoy and maybe even learn something

I know I did

Sketches (Original Sketch is on the right)
+ Show Spoiler [Sketches] +

First Attempt in editor (ugh, can you say rusty?
+ Show Spoiler [First Attempt] +

~5th attempt (Many slight alterations were made to this design before it got this far
+ Show Spoiler [5th attempt] +

~10th attempt (again, many alterations made before it got this far)
+ Show Spoiler [10th attempt] +

11th attempt (some more alterations, more coherent, zeroing in on a good design
+ Show Spoiler [11th attempt] +

12th attempt (rocks, paths, expanding on the design)
+ Show Spoiler [12 attempt] +

13th attempt (Adding in more suggestions/changes form the map team & base to test for blink stalkers getting over the gaps)
+ Show Spoiler [13th attempt] +

14th attempt (Monitor cracked the map open and made some changes, huge props to him for helping me out a ton)
+ Show Spoiler [14th attempt] +

I was finally happy with that design. The team and I discussed some potential changes but ultimately decided on leaving it as is. Time to texture stuff~

The main and outside of the natural
+ Show Spoiler [Main & Stuff] +

Playing with cool doodads (my favorite part, lol)
+ Show Spoiler [Cool Doodads] +

And finally, the map as it stands now (Really high res pics)

Top-Down (Click to enlarge)

Angled (Click to enlarge)

darthcaesar

United States475 Posts

October 19 2011 04:58 GMT

Wow, I had no idea how many iterations you guys go through :S

good job yo, I hope y'alls maps finally start getting used in more tourneys :D

Darthozzan

Sweden136 Posts

October 19 2011 05:03 GMT

Looks really nice!

Urth

United States1249 Posts

October 19 2011 05:05 GMT

The map looks really nice =]

prodiG

Canada2016 Posts

October 19 2011 05:06 GMT

I should note that although this thread isn't really for feedback, the map is published on NA as "Edge of Oblivion - prodiG" if you want to check it out further

It's named after this song 8)

Lokgar

United States147 Posts

October 19 2011 05:11 GMT

Prodig, I thought we went over this already... your comeback map has to be ESVTV Jaedong's Face.

P.S. Pizza?

Phtes

United States370 Posts

October 19 2011 05:18 GMT

This blog brought me back to my days as a WC3 map maker, remembering how many versions of some of the custom games I made was unbelievable.

A lot of work goes into map making, and peopel that do it derserve mad props. Even to those of you think a melee map isnt as work intensive as a custom game. The amount of scaling to make sure things are even for both players is unfathomable at times..

SigmaoctanusIV

United States3313 Posts

October 19 2011 05:25 GMT

This is a wonderful map I would love to play it. Seems like it would be very fun make sure you submit this 100x to the Teamliquid contest.

wtchuwahmon

Australia63 Posts

October 19 2011 05:36 GMT

Wow this map looks unreal. Great work mate! I hope your inspiration contiunes on and we see many more quality maps like this! Big ups :D

Triss_Teh

United States32 Posts

October 19 2011 05:37 GMT

#10

Tanks on that high ground over looking the bridge. Or should there be rocks like on the other high grounds?

Backdoor pathway for quick third gold is interesting. Multiple attack paths.

It seems like three base Terran can turtle really well. There is the natural high ground and some terrain to put Seige Tanks behind.

There is space around the map for hiding dropships and overlords.

N3rV[Green]

United States1935 Posts

October 19 2011 05:46 GMT

#11

That looks like a map with some potential behind it.

Amazing work sir.

Versailles

Canada108 Posts

October 19 2011 05:48 GMT

#12

Let's be honest: it's no fire and ice map.

prodiG

Canada2016 Posts

October 19 2011 06:03 GMT

#13

On October 19 2011 14:48 Versailles wrote:
Let's be honest: it's no fire and ice map.

Let's be honest: it's neo fucking enigma in fucking SPACE

Froadac

United States6733 Posts

October 19 2011 06:04 GMT

#14

Wow, quite impressive :D

Zlasher

United States9129 Posts

October 19 2011 08:06 GMT

#15

Glad to see you back man, you were always the best at this, was nice to see other people in SC see the wonders that is the FGC though, but definitely hope to see maps like these set into map pools and stuff.

Nanai

15 Posts

October 19 2011 08:08 GMT

#16

Amazing, great work! Will for sure test it out once it hits Europe.

vienna_k

Austria12 Posts

October 19 2011 08:50 GMT

#17

Can't wait to see this on the EU server!

shackes

Germany148 Posts

October 19 2011 09:14 GMT

#18

Do you really start from scratch in each attempt?

Bswhunter

Australia954 Posts

October 19 2011 09:40 GMT

#19

Damn. That backdoor entrance into the main is such a goddamn intresting idea. Look to see how it works out.
EDIT: Also like the visuals, with water in space and all.