Vineyard (dz_vineyard)

Index of every page on this site: llms.txt. Any page is available as markdown by adding .md to its address.

Sun-soaked Tuscan hills, with farms, a fort, ruins, a winery and a castle. The second Danger Zone map I worked on.

What I did

After Frostbite we knew how to make a Danger Zone map. We had learned a lot, we knew what worked and what didn't and why, and we knew where we could improve, so we started on Vineyard with the same core team, slightly fewer people, pretty much right after Frostbite released and was added to the game. Vineyard was designed a lot better, with stronger landmarks. One thing I wanted to make sure of was that there were no copy-pasted buildings: every building had to be unique, which at this scale is quite a challenge and wasn't the case on Frostbite, where we did reuse buildings, villages and houses. So we designed far more unique landmarks, unique buildings, and even unique underground sections. Where Frostbite was one huge bunker, Vineyard has three distinct underground areas: a winery, a canal system and a castle dungeon. We also pushed the engine to its limits, with huge optimisation challenges along the way. My role was the initial design, putting the team together, and later coordinating everything and making sure the gameplay was top-notch. I think it turned out great. The map was in the game for almost two years, until the end of CS:GO, and technically is still playable if you boot up Counter-Strike: Global Offensive today. I think this may be the best Danger Zone map we ever made: an improvement across the board in uniqueness and technical execution, and it brought a fresh theme to the Danger Zone pool. Italy is a common setting in Counter-Strike generally, but it hadn't been done for Danger Zone, so we got to bring that very classic Counter-Strike theme to the mode. And again, it seems to have been popular in the community, with people still reacting positively whenever I talk to players who have played it.

Credits

Links