You can also watch my walkthrough of the final version of the map below:
"Within the grounds of a once-great castle, an excavation unearthed an ancient object said to corrupt the minds of men. As those that discovered the relic fought amongst themselves, the fortress fell into ruin. Now, with derelict towers and crumbling walls, the castle plays host to a new group of warriors that will once again fall victim to the chaos that the dark artifact manifests around itself."
Sunken Fortress is the first level I created for Quake, intended to be used as a deathmatch map for 4+ players. Beginning with just an idea for theme and setting of the map, I worked my way through several steps over the course of developing this level. I created 2D layouts to visualize the space and use as guidelines:
Based on the original 2D layouts I created, I began working on a greybox/blockout for my map within Trenchbroom, a Quake level editor. Thanks to valuable feedback from some volunteers playtesters, I continued to iterate on the greybox and fine-tune the gameplay. One thing in particular that changed drastically was the scale of the map, which I cut by more than half to make sure combat was as fast-paced as is expected from a game like Quake.
After a couple playtests and greybox iterations, I was comfortable with the level's current state and began adding textures and lighting to the space. This part of the process was huge for making sure the map conveyed the overall theme and atmosphere I wanted. While I did need to cut some features, like the underground caves, I believe the final product turned out well.
