The Making Of: Dust

January 2003 (updated 5th November 2011)

Introduction

Dust is undoubtedly the map by which I am best known. While I wish it was the product of an intense and detailed design process, labouriously poring over each and ever detail, in reality it was the product of thievery and luck. This is the story of how Dust came to be.

Time Travelling

Many FPS players recognise Dust - or the later Dust 2 - as quintessential Counter-Strike maps. However, few realise it was actually wouldn't exist if it weren't for Team Fortress 2 - a game that was released a full eight years after Dust became a staple of the Counter-Strike map rotation.

There was no H.G. Wells trickery here. It was 1999, and Half-Life was only months old yet picking up more 'Game of the Year' awards than there were game magazines. Me - a 16 year-old on the more fun side of a summer's worth of GCSE exams - was ecstatic with news that Valve Software were working on a sequel to the most popular team multiplayer game of the day - Team Fortress. Like any good teenager, I'd spent more hours sat staring into a screen playing that game than I had revising for my exams (much to the concern of my parents.)

But whilst I had been ambushing my future educational prospects, behind closed doors Valve had been hammering away at updating and upgrading Team Fortress for a new generation of hardware. News of Team Fortress 2 was rare and sporadic, but occasionally a tidbit there or a screenshot here would nervously peer out to an excited but nervous audience of TF fans. What were Valve planning?

One day, a handful of screenshots started their steady journey around the gaming websites of the late nineties. Of those, two screenshots leapt out at me:

Early Team Fortress 2 screenshots

The seed had been sown.

Meanwhile, a free Half-Life modification known as 'Counter-Strike' had been gathering momentum. In the autumn of 1999 Minh Le and Jess Cliffe released its second beta, and it had become my new addiction. With the mod came an urban texture pack ('cstrike.wad') with which I made a map set in a retirement home - 'cs_tire' - and it was deemed good enough to be included in the third beta. Jess asked me if I'd be interested in making another map, but this time for beta 4, and was prepared to hook me up with a texture artist to help me with it.

Jess introduced me to artist Chris Ashton, who had originally created the urban texture set I was familiar with. All I wanted were these:

Identifying the textures I wanted

Chris quickly got back to me with lookalikes. While not exact replicas of the ones from TF2, I soon became completely infatuated with them. I loaded up Wally (a utility for managing textures) and quickly bundled them all together ready for use.

I felt like I was snatching a duckling from under its mothers beak, but the waiting was already too much to bear. Besides, I thought, surely Valve wouldn't mind one small map for one small mod for their one and only game?

Copy and Paste

Starting the map was easy - it was a lift directly from the TF2 screenshots Valve had unveiled a few months before. The map boasted road flanked by buildings, leading up to an archway and a wall dividing it in two. Each building and wall decorated with ornate trims along the top or bottom. It was these features that would define the architectural style of Dust.

It all started out quite simple and straightforward - a plain road with a couple of buildings and walls, plus the arch. It wasn't identical to the map featured in those coveted TF2 screenshots, but it was close enough, and importantly, it was a start.

The arched doorways of Dust have become a hallmark in the Dust theme - A Dust map is simply not Dust without at least two or three dividing the map into distinct areas. Creating the first one was at the time a great test of my technical mapping ability, but I soon calculated how to create them in the easiest and neatest way. My design eschewed the 'curved triangle' shape of the TF2 screenshots for a simpler 'square with rounded top' shape, partly because it was simpler, but primarily to ease player passage through them. I extruded the arches from their adjoining wall - straight from the screenshots.

The birth of Dust

I had decided against copying the screenshots verbatim for fear of reprisals, and set upon filling in the gaps. I'd already created a raised platform, and had decided that this would be the area that the Counter-Terrorist team would spawn in at the start of the match. This necessitated defensive measures - so I made some windows.

Windows overlooking the CT spawn area

Not only did they look hideous, but the windows didn't give the views I wanted, nor did they fit with the intended gameplay. I didn't want to encourage the CTs to hold back. I removed them.

Under the Influence

Side-by-side, the TF2 'influence' is plain to see:

TF2's influence on the CT spawn area

TF2 directly influenced building placement and the arches

In some respects, the TF2 screenshot looks nicer to me - smoother and softer than the harsh edges of the Dust buildings. I was far more familiar with standard geometric shapes, 90 degree corners and 45 degree angles, which is why Dust looks far boxier in comparison.

That was the easy part - after all, Valve had already done this bit for me and all I'd had to do was copy it. But what I had wasn't much - it was barely enough for a one-on-one deathmatch, let alone two teams of eight players each, or more. Worse, there were no more screenshots for me to copy. I was on my own now.

Extrapolation

With the design of the first area nailed, producing the rest of the map was 'merely' a case of extrapolating those existing elements into an entire map. Of course, things are never quite that easy, and this middle section of the map proved rather difficult.

I'd created a T-junction out of the TF2-styled CT spawn, and was struggling to work out what to do with it. I quickly created a route to the left leading to a downward slope, and at the end of it - an underground cavern.

The quickly-rejected underground chamber.

Seasoned CS players know exactly how that turned out. While the CT spawn area was light and airy, this giant room was gloomy, boxy and lacked any character about it. I got rid of it; Dust was to be an outdoor map.

It's at times like these where working without an initial design can prove extremely difficult. You look at what you've got, and struggle to see where to take it, knowing that each step in one direction is a step away from a solution in another direction - and you don't know which way is going to turn out better. It can be tough knowing what to do next, and sometimes you question whether you should scrap everything and start again. I'd made all my previous maps one room at a time, making it up as I go along with precious little pre-planning, and they had gone reasonably well. I had to hope I could do the same again.

Mercifully, that's exactly what happened, and the remaining half of the map (the Terrorist side) came to form relatively quickly. It's this side of the map that I'm happier with, a product perhaps of being comfortable with the map's visual style by that point. The shallow decline into the underpass is perhaps one of my favourite aspects, both aesthetically and as a player who spent many hours armed with a Steyr Scout at the crest. The small crate-blocked alley in that area would have led round to the CT 'sniper nest', but the path seemed so long, linear, and downright dull that I just dropped it, using crates as a blockade.

The pivotal feature of Dust is the central hallway, as it tied everything together that I had made up to this point. Unfortunately, it's also a moment of which I can recollect very little, bar my efforts ensuring players couldn't see all the way through it from one end to the other. Every crate placed in that intersection was placed very specifically to cut off lines-of-sight and improve performance, but turned out to be of far greater gameplay importance. It was in this corridor that each team would typically meet, and so it needed to be fair, and balanced, with a slight defensive bias. The 'T' shape (or 'H' shape, depending on your point of view) is simple, but seemed to do the trick.

Timing the map was an important element of getting this balance right. The aim was to ensure both teams caught first sight of each other in this corridor. Knowing that most players will start running the second the match begins, I did the same, counting the time taken to go from each team's spawn area to the central corridor. Making sure the two distances were equal ensured the battle would rage there first.

Bomb Planted

Despite the layout being complete, I'd paid very little attention to where the bomb locations should be. Bomb Spot A seemed like an obvious choice - it was essentially it's own courtyard area which would assume no purpose otherwise. However, it was Bomb Spot B that proved more difficult.

My initial thought was to place it in the hallway, but quickly back-peddled. At this point I hadn't yet played the new 'bomb defusal' gametype (and neither had anyone else) so placing bomb spots was down to common sense and using logic as best one could - placing the bomb spot in the hallway would negate Bomb Spot A's importance and it simply wasn't built for that purpose.

My second plan was to put the bomb in the underpass. This suited better - it was equidistant between the two spawns, and I thought offered a reasonable amount of cover. So it went there.

Bomb location decided, I zipped up the map and fired it towards Cliffe for the first round of playtesting. His immediate feedback was the final part of the puzzle - he suggested I move the bomb spot from below the underpass and place it directly in the CT spawn.

The problem was I'd been treating this brand-new gametype as if it was one I knew already - Capture the Flag - except in this CTF mode the flag (the bomb) started at the Terrorist spawn. But defusal wasn't Capture the Flag. In fact, it was so utterly different that hardly a comparison could be drawn. Placing the bomb in the CT spawn hadn't even crossed my mind. I made the change, and sent it back for playtests.

Playtesting is an important stage of any map's development cycle. Without it, there's little way of knowing exactly how a map will play when faced with real people; real players who haven't the intricate knowledge of the map that you have. It's playtests that inform you of flaws that need fixing before release - if the map is even fit to be released at all.

I didn't get to play in the playtests (by virtue of being in a different timezone) but I heard that they went well enough to be included in BETA 4. To have one map ('cs_tire') already in the official map rotation was great, but to have two? The pressure was mounting. What if it didn't live up to people's expectations? Would people even take to this new and (at that time) unique game type?

A few days later, on the 5th November of 1999 - a Friday - I got my answer. BETA 4 was released as I slept. Saturday morning arrived, and I - skipping breakfast - rushed to download the new beta, just like everyone else had done hours before. There were already hundreds of servers and on them thousands of people were already planting and defusing bombs on the map I'd designed, and I'd not even got to play it myself yet.

Needless to say, CS occupied most of my weekend.

Getting BETA

While CS was still in its beta stages, I changed Dust with almost every new release. Often these changes were somewhat experimental, more often they were aesthetic, and sometimes they changed the game play entirely.

BETA 4

Dust first appeared in BETA 4 as one in a trio of 'defusion'-style maps introduced in that release. Comparing it to CS 1.6's - the last release - shows the differences that have been made in its lifetime. In CS 1.6 for example, Dust has many more crates and much more cover than it did originally - many of these were added to provide either team with more cover and defensive/offensive strategies. Aesthetically, CS 1.6's Dust is far cleaner and warmer, having benefited from a custom skybox and tweaked sunlight.

Both the sun and skybox changed between BETA 4 and CS 1.6

The terrorist spawn received minor cosmetic changes.

BETA 5

The BETA 5 version of Dust wasn't that much different to the original, with mostly aesthetic changes. One of the most biggest changes was the crack in the wall of the CT sniper nest overlooking the underpass. I had made this change with the intention of helping the Terrorists by exposing CT snipers. However, the increased view area actually helped the CTs by offering a wider angle of view. Miracously, the wall was fixed again in BETA 6.

BETA 5's underpass

The underpass gained some cover. Players on the Terrorist team in BETA 4 had a terrible time trying to get through under the threat of CT snipers. The additional crates were designed to let players get close enough to throw a grenade. Later revisions of the map added even more crates to provide cover.

BETA 6.1

The exact placement of player spawns was crucial to ensuring that Dust was balanced, a lesson I learnt after moving the CT spawns forward in BETA 6.1. I had concluded that the map was biased towards the Terrorists, and thought giving the CTs a head start of about 2 seconds to help balance it out.

Once 6.1 was released, the effects of the change became quite apparent. It was now easier for the CTs to hold down the hallway, and harder for the Terrorists to rush the bomb site, as intended. However, the balance was now too far in the CTs favour. I recieved many complaints about this at the time, as well as one or two compliments. Ultimately, it was obvious that the spawn positions from the previous Dust were fairer, and so in 6.5 the CT spawns were reverted back to their original positions.

Retail 1.0

In April 2000, Valve bought Counter-Strike. With it, they secured the rights to include Dust in a boxed retail version of the game. It was hard to believe this small map I'd made in my spare time less than a year before would be appearing on store shelves, on 1st November 2000, days before Dust turned one-year-old, that's where it was. I was 17 and had just become a 'published' level designer.

Rejected Ideas

Dust didn't see any further changes after 1.0. It was as good as I could make it without the risk of alienating players who were fans of the map. However, that's not to say I didn't have a few ideas that nearly made it in.

The major change that I almost made at CS 1.1 time would have changed the dynamics of the entire map destroyed many proven strategies. A new route directly from the underpass to the very centre of the hallway, I thought, would help Terrorists form a firmer frontline, and encourage a more defensive strategy.

Rejected: a staircase joining the underpass to the central hallway

In retrospect, I think it would have just become the fastest route for Terrorists to reach the underpass, undermining an deprecating a large area of the map in the process. It would have removed one of the dynamics that made the underpass so fun.

(Note this is not the same as the staircase added to Dust in CS:GO, which connects the top of the underpass to the bottom. I believe the CS:GO solution is far better suited to Dust than my original plan was.)

24/7

At one time, Dust was the most-played FPS map in the world, in terms of both number of concurrent players, and the amount of time those players spent in the map. There were thousands of "Dust 24/7" servers, and the map became particularly popular amongst newbies, despite falling out of favour from clan matches. Dust became the ideal map for schooling new players, knowing they could focus on the game rather than trying to find their way around.

There is no indication of how well the map would have been taken if some of the changes mentioned in this article remained - for example, the bomb site in the underpass, the sniper house, or the stairs between the underpass and the hallway. I'm glad they never happened.

Ultimately, it's hard for me to claim I knew what I was doing as I pieced Dust together. I attribute it's success more to incredible luck and lack of imagination more than any skill I possess. If anything, I learnt more from Dust post-release than I knew when I was making it.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero

In March of 2004, Valve released Condition Zero, an updated version of Counter-Strike that included a single-player mode and updated versions of all the popular maps from the main game. It's version of Dust shared much in common with the original, being largely based on the original brushwork. The map notably featured more pronounced structural detail supported by an expanded and more colourful palette.

Dust received a fresh lick of paint in Counter-Strike: Condition Zero

This version of the map was the product of Ritual, although some finishing touches were added by Valve just before release of the game. The Levelord played a hand in its renovation.

Counter-Strike: Source

In November 2004 - mere months after the release of Condition Zero - Valve released Counter-Strike: Source, a completely refreshed and revamped version of Counter-Strike based on the Source engine. It brought Dust right up to modern graphical standards.

Dust's overhaul in Counter-Strike: Source

This renovation of Dust was done at Valve by Kristen Perry and Ido Magal who were given the unenviable job of determining appropriate architectural references for Dust based upon the Condition Zero version. I think they nailed the look completely - maintaining the golden tones everyone was used to, embellishing the few details that were there and giving Dust the kind of ambience that it had always lacked. My reaction when I first saw what they had done was nothing short of complete astonishment and amazement. I was proud of what Dust had become and ever grateful to those who had helped get it there.

Meat-Space

I was not prepared for what would follow Dust's success.

Dust manifests itself in real-life

I still don't know who was responsible for the sand castle, but the real-life crates were by Aram Bartholl, a Berlin-based artist who is also planning to create a life-size Dust replica.

And then, of course, there's Minecraft:

Dust, recreated in Minecraft

This Minecraft version of Dust was made by users of the cdg.net forums, who have also been recreating other popular CS maps.

In Closing

To this day I am still amazed that Dust was as successful as it has been, and I have a hard time believing that I actually created it at all. But, looking back, its success is hardly surprising given those who helped it along the way, from Jess Cliffe's invitation and support, to Chris Ashton's recognisable art, the feedback from players, through to Brian Martel, Richard Gray, Kristen Perry, Ido Magal, and a whole plethora of talented behind-the-scenes clever clogs who I've never met, but deserve far more credit than I could ever give.

Also, of course, Valve Software whose idea I stole in the first place, and without which none of this would have ever happened. Hope they didn't mind.

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