Zastels' Mapping Style

I have developed a consistent guiding style now for several maps and I wanted to highlight my style so that it can be identified.

I very much enjoy BSP mapping because it is the art of hiding hallways. I have learned to both try and hide a hallway to make it look like something else, and to embrace the fact that it is a hallway.

Balmy, Blanket, Canopy, 2Bookoo, Moonluck, and Aachen, all had very high slanting walls for different environmental reasons. This guides my style, I'll explain:

Balmy -- High walls with built up sand drifts

Blanket -- High walls with built up snow drifts

Canopy -- High walls with built up dirt defenses

2Bookoo -- High walls inside a mountain canyon

Moonluck -- High walls which act as a river bank

Cowboy -- High walls from the construction site being incomplete

Aachen -- High walls built up from destroyed buildings spilling outwards into the streets

I enjoy maps with well planned vertical elements that do not feel overly vertical, as if you're naturally going from one terrace to the next. I seek out reasons for an environment to have high walls so that it makes you feel closed in and cuddled, like the space provided is intentional and carved for you.

In my hometown of Muskoka, I feel inspired to make a map depicting it. My style of high walls gives me an early idea of how I would create an environmental story of high walls. I would want an autumn season, and the leaves to be vibrantly stacked up against high cliff faces due to the wind. In the same way I used sand or snow to create drifts, I'll instead use piles of leaves. To depict Muskoka in an interesting level design way, I can sculpt the landscape with the simplified concept of leaves being formed into drifts from the wind. This enables a story telling through the environment, everything happening is naturally justified. If I need to elivate the player in height, I do not need to seek an artificial way of doing that such as a ladder, I can simply stack a smooth pile of leaves to act as a ramp.