First Attempts at Level Design

One of the great things about the game Quake icon-external-link-12x12 icon-search-12x12 was that it unleashed the inner game developer in all of us. Sometimes this was a good thing, and sometimes it wasn’t, but the technologies it made available to the world led to an explosion of user-generated content for a game that was already engrossing.

I was a little late to the party, but ended up releasing two maps after getting my hands on a nifty level editor called WorldCraft. These were smaller maps—usually one or two rooms—designed for a special one-on-one game mode called Rocket Arena icon-external-link-12x12 icon-search-12x12. My initial release was called All Along the Watchtower and it turned out to be a respectable first effort. The followup was called Storage Facility and it was one of the better Rocket Arena maps of the time.

All Along the Watchtower
Rocket Arena map for Quake
Download wtower10.zip

Storage Facility
Rocket Arena map for Quake
Download facil10.zip

My third and final map for Quake came some time later: one weekend, a couple years after I finished Storage Facility, I got a fierce itch to make something and WorldCraft and Quake ended up being the best outlet for this creative energy. The result was a map called Generator Room, which is a really tidy level with a good environment for dueling. Unfortunately, Quake was old news at this point, so there weren’t very many people who got to play it.

Generator Room
Rocket Arena map for Quake
Download gen10.zip

These three Rocket Arena maps are relics of the past yet they hold up quite well for people who still enjoy a round of multiplayer Quake from time to time. I wouldn’t want to have to use them as the centerpiece of a résumé, but they are worth sharing nonetheless.