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Blossom

Blossom (de_blossom) is a community-made map for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It was released on the Steam Workshop in March 2020.

The map is primarily designed for the Wingman game mode, which is a 2v2 version of the classic game mode. In addition, the map can be played in both casual and competitive game modes, as each site features five spawn points.

Plot: A group of unauthorized armed persons made their way to a billion dollar research project for life on anti-human planets that had been abandoned by the state. A government task force must crush their plans as soon as possible.

Making Of

After working on several unreleased maps, I decided that I wanted to make a map and release it to the public. To make it more interesting, I hosted a mapping contest between me and my best friend. For a reasonable scope, we set out to make a map for the Wingman game mode.

As a starting point, I built a greybox map in a couple of hours which would serve as a base for both of us to work on. We had a week to work on our maps, and at the end of the week, we would compare our outcomes and decide which one was better. Despite its simple layout and compact size, the greybox was immediately fun to play on, and I was excited to see how it would develop over the course of the week.

Since the greybox had already proven to be fun while playtesting, I could focus my efforts on the art pass. As potential themes, I proposed five options: a zoo, a library, a swamp, a glasshouse, and a thermal spring. The only rule was that the map’s layout should not be altered substantially. While browsing the asset library, I found some foliage assets that I really liked, and I decided to build a map around them.

I focused on good visibility and readability of the map, which is crucial for competitive play. I made sure that players could easily identify where they were and where the site was located through the use of landmarks. I also paid attention to the lighting and used complementary colors to create contrast and make player models stand out against the environment. With only a few exceptions, I deliberately placed foliage above player height or in otherwise inaccessible areas to prevent it from obstructing players’ visibility.

I studied other maps I played at the time, such as Shipped by level designer catfood, to understand how scattered ground objects are used for environmental storytelling and set dressing.

From there the map quickly took shape and the props started to tell a story. Already one day before the deadline, I had put everything I wanted into the map and was satisfied with the result.

The map of my friend featured a roman bathhouse theme. While both maps were built on the same foundation, it had evolved so much by the end that it was barely recognizable, and the maps felt like completely independent creations.

From there, I spent the rest of the day polishing the map, fixing bugs, and improving the clipping. Once I had run the final build, generated cubemaps for reflections, and a navmesh for bots, I was finally ready to release the map on the Steam Workshop—after just 6 days.

Launch

The amount of positive feedback and support I had received through the Steam Workshop exceeded my expectations by far. Within the first day, the map climbed to the top of the most popular maps on the Steam Workshop, and was featured on the front page for several days.

I am extremely happy with how the launch went, especially considering that this was the first map I have ever released. I never expected such an overwhelmingly positive response.

Beyond the Launch

But that wasn’t the end of the story. The massive popularity on the Steam Workshop soon sparked broader interest across the community, ultimately reaching the esport organization ALTERNATE aTTaX’s community manager. Independently of this, the project also attracted interest from Red Bull.

Red Bull was looking for a fifth map for their upcoming Red Bull Flick 2020, a global 2v2 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament where amateurs could face off against esports professionals, featuring specially designed custom maps and the “Hold the Flag Spot” game mode. The tournament was organized in cooperation with FACEIT.

A separate version of Blossom, tailored specifically to the tournament’s custom game mode and titled Red Bull Flick [Himalaya], was licensed by Red Bull as the fifth and final map.

Screenshots

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