Marathon: Istoria - Mapping Time-lapse [Map 5: Central Command]

This is a time-lapse video of the level Central Command being created for Marathon: Istoria. Over the years, a few people have suggested I try streaming my mapping process. While I didn't think that would be particularly interesting given how slowly I draw and redraw things, it got me thinking about making a video like this. I periodically took screenshots as I drew the outline of this level -- a process I repeated for most Istoria maps, as well as many of my newer multiplayer maps.
ISTORIA SPOILERS BELOW
Central Command is intended to be the "hub" map of Istoria, as it connects to four other levels. With that in mind, I wanted to make it the most expansive level in the game, featuring streets surrounded by explorable buildings, and a massive tower in the middle. Anyone who knows me knows I love a good tower gauntlet. However, I also wanted to have a large subterranean cavern that the player discovers later on in the game, after they've completed several other levels. Because of the polygon limitation in Aleph One, I had to plan out the level carefully.
I began by creating a rough draft of the street area and tower footprint, to give myself an idea of how the space would look, but also to see if spells like lightning would even work on enemies with ceiling heights nearing 30 world units tall. Once I was satisfied with the size and height of the tower, I began outlining the facade of the tower, as well as the streets and surrounding buildings.
Once the streets and buildings were filled in, I began drawing the tower floor by floor. I tried to make each floor as unique as possible, given how the automap was going to be completely useless (this was before Irons created the automap filtering feature first seen in Istoria). I also kept space free for an elevator shaft that connects the top floor to the lobby down below.
Once it was time to create the underground cavern, I only had about 400 polygons or so to work with before I exceeded my self-imposed polygon limitation for the map, which was between 1800-1900 polygons. As such, the cavern features simpler rock formations and large pools of lava, a trend that continues into the next map of the sequence, Born Under Punches.
Work on Central Command began after completion of the second map, Upstream. Development of the above-ground area took place from July-September, 2021, and the below-ground cavern was developed from March-April, 2022, after the completion of Lockdown, Trimmed and Burning, Snake River, and The Hot Gates.
Marathon: Istoria is available now:
On ModDB: [www.moddb.com/mods/marathon-i...]
On Lochnits: [lochnits.com/marathon/istoria/]
Simplici7y page: [simplici7y.com/items/marathon...]
Download Aleph One to play: [alephone.lhowon.org/download....]
Featured song: "Map All Arrivals" from the Istoria OST by Jon Irons: • irons - istoria soundt...
Istoria Soundtrack is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. [creativecommons.org/licenses/...]

[@windbreaker1701]

If you're interested in more behind the scenes Istoria stuff, check out the dev commentary series Wrk, Irons, and I did earlier this year: th-cam.com/play/PLQLCieRQFC7QTLg6Xqap-NLWFwXdrd6IW.html&si=tajfkCi2zg8aHVF_

[@Adminn_1_ov_NEFX]

This is fascinating stuff. I'd love to see something like a scripting time-lapse or commentary video where we get to see how Treellama, Douchetower, Irons, etc, make their Marathon Lua scripts.

[@scrandina]

interesting and insightful

[@jonirons]

:DINGLE:

[@sphtpfhorbrains3592]

I think streaming your mapping process would be very interesting, particularly if you could provide a running commentary. Or, if it's easier, record the mapping process and upload it to TH-cam after with a retrospective commentary.

[@windbreaker1701]

I think it's such a slow process for me, with so much redrawing taking place, that it would become mundane after a while. Maybe not, though. But there's also the concern that the streaming itself would affect the creative process, which I would want to avoid. I think this is a decent compromise, all things considered.

[@sphtpfhorbrains3592]

@@windbreaker1701 Understsandable. Still, I am wondering how you would summarize your thought process when you created this map. What was the overall concept and what kind of details did you want to add, and why?

[@windbreaker1701]

@@sphtpfhorbrains3592 Since this was the "hub" map, I wanted it to be a spectacle of sorts, and to stand out from the other maps. With that in mind, I decided to make a tower map, because I really enjoy creating towers, like the last level of the Yuge campaign. So, I decided I could make a serious version of that level here :P
To change things up from the Yuge map, I decided to have one half of the map above ground, and the other half below ground, instead of the entire vertical space being taken up by the tower. This would allow the player to discover the subterranean cavern later on in the game, which would hopefully be a cool experience. Irons came up with a really good sting that we use during this transition underground.
I wanted the player to have to work at gaining entry to the tower during the above-ground sequence. With that in mind, I needed to make sure I left enough space around the tower for streets and other buildings the player could enter. As I mapped out these areas, I also needed to be careful that I didn't make them too complicated, since I needed to create the tower and the entire cavern still, and had to be mindful of polygon usage.
We also knew the chain burst would be introduced on this level, so I wanted to make sure the street sequence was fun. As I mention in the video, the spawns here took a while to get right. It was hard to make them feel organic, and to have them not activate at the wrong time. It would have been a bit easier to draw more polygons for activation triggers, but I didn't want to draw more than I had to.
Once the player reaches the top of the tower and beats the above-ground sequence, they are given their first victory in the story (even if short-lived). This also serves as the halfway point in the campaign. And once the player progresses through the next two maps, and then beats the cavern sequence, I sort of view that as the player entering the last act of the game, as they head in to map 8, Born Under Punches.
I'd say the process with this map, and all the other Istoria maps, involves balancing a number of different goals for the level. Overall, you want the combat to be fun. That's the top priority. But you also want the layout to be interesting and a bit challenging, the appearance of the level to stand out, etc... So, it's really just a big balancing act, I feel like. Not sure if any of that makes sense, but that's my answer :P

[@sphtpfhorbrains3592]

@@windbreaker1701 Yes, it all makes sense, thanks.