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This is the website for the Level Design arm of David Johnston's mighty and all-powerful empire.

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The Making of: Dust

"Today Dust is - according to the statistics - one of the most played maps in the world, and certainly racks up a remarkable amount of multi player time. It seems remarkable considering how random the development of it was, and how little planning I put into it - which is both a comforting thought and a slightly concerning one." read more...

The Making of: Dust 2

"I never really thought that Dust 2 would be appropriate. If Dust 3 was going to be included in CS, I was told it had to be renamed to Dust 2. The primary reason was continuity, and to avoid many 'what about Dust 2' e-mails which would have flooded in. Ultimately I had to remind myself that Dust wasn't mine anymore - it was my creation, yes, but it belonged to Counter-Strike." read more...

Level Design

"So you've thought up your mod and you've made a website. Terrific. Where's that mod again?" from Modding: doing it the right way

"Now is the time to spend 5 minutes thinking about how your mod will play. It's definitely got to be team-based, and consist of teams going around in packs using SAS-like maneouvres to out-think and out-gun the enemy team, just like in the movies. It needs lots of weapons (several of which are functionally identical) that make cool 'zap' sounds and look completely impractical. Make sure the gamepla- oh there's something on the telly." from How to topple Counter-Strike

"Right, so you've got your map. It looks amazing. It feels alive. People are salivating at screenshots, and you even know the precise number of brushes. The problem is... it's really, really boring. It feels like corridors and doorways separated only by a few themed rooms. How do you resuscitate it?" from Dull map?

"Single-player mapping is a lot like guiding a rabbit around with a carrot. The player is the rabbit, the carrot is some goal, and the werewolf is the big bad boss. Take the rabbit away and you're stuck with a confused werewolf and a carrot." from Rabbits, Carrots and Werewolves