Favelinha
Favelinha is a work in progress Counter Strike 2 map for the 5v5 Defuse game mode. I started this as my final year project at university, which I've stuck to working on past the initial blockout with continued playtesting and iterations.
With this project I aimed to emulate industry Level Design work; challening myself with Source 2 Hammer and Counter Strike 2 a game and editor I wasn't super familiar with, learning and adapting my skills as I worked.
The map also aiming to bring favela style verticality and BOPE style agression into Counter Strike through map design.
Above you can see the latest playtest video and below a link to the project which is still actively being worked on.
Steam Workshop Link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3663161587
Also a link to the Level Design Documentation here: Google Drive Link
Design & Balance:
Favelinha's core design idea was to see how I could bring the tactics employed by Rio's BOPE into Counter Strike, wanting to push the defending team into a more aggressive playstyles not often seen in other maps. Bombsites are difficult to hold, forcing defending teams into more frequent retake scenarios; the challenge, making this fun and balanced within Counter Strike's pre-existing gameplay systems.
C Shaped
Favelinha uses a C shaped layout on the CT side, allowing faster rotations between sites for the defending team, whilst the attackers have to commit more decisively to a push.
The map still has elements of a three lane structure, with mid providing a lot of map control and options for both the attacking and defending team, making it worth contesting.
Chokepoints
Chokepoints are core to a good Counter Strike Layout, Favelinha's are intentionally tight requiring: equipment, coordinated pushes or flanks to break through.
As Terrorists start to gain control of either site, secondary chokepoints emerge, giving the defending team positions to fall back to and start contesting from.
Retakes
Favelinha's pathing gives the defending team multiple routes for repositioning as they react to the pushes from the attacking team.
With the bombsites being difficult to play within, fights often shift to contesting high ground and other power positions nearby, allowing the defenders who arrive late to have viable angles to push from.
Iterations:
A Bomb Site
A site's verticality is something not often seen in other Counter Strike maps. The core challenge was ensuring the high ground was worth contesting, whilst not so strong that retaking site would be an impossible task for the defending team.
B Bomb Site
B site saw the most iteration, the main complaint during playtests was how open the site was with too many entries. Each pass focused on tightening these entry points, creating interesting paths towards B site that take the fight away from the site itself.
Mid
Mid remained largely unchanged initially, allowing bombsites and their layouts to take priority. Only after major changes to B did I make a full rework to Mid, providing far more options for pushes to both A and B, making Mid a far more favourable position to contest.
Preproduction
- Having visited Brazil that summer and seeing the Favelas (from a distance) as well as being a big fan of Tropa De Elite (Elite Squad 2007), when given free reign to do whatever I wanted for my final year project I felt a Favela themed map would be great, and what better game then Counter Strike to try this out with.
- To get over the blank canvas I started with isolated ideas of what certain sections of the map could look like, drawing inspiration from films, documentaries and more.
- Then taking these ideas made in a vacumm and starting to see how I could piece them together.
What's Next for favelinha?
The current focuses following the latest playtest:
- Fixing unintended angles below mid, overall reworking the bridge to have more intentional flow
- Changes to Pit on B site, allowing for the whole area to be more isolated from the rest of the bombsite
- Reworking heaven on A site to deliver more engaging interactions on the drop as well as improving pathing towards A for the terrorist team