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Tessera (de_tessera)

Tessera is a competitive 5on5 defusal map for CS:GO. It has now reached the point in its development that it can be called ready for action.

Here are the things I had in mind when creating this map:

- I wanted to promote tactical, skillful play
- Gameplay & functionality > aesthetics
- A competitive level should have a rather simple layout with great visibility and nice angles
- Utility is important part of the game, this map demands the usage of smokes, flashes and Molotovs (the heavens are open on purpose)
- There should be plenty of different tactics that the teams can use in different situations
- Optimization, optimization, optimization
- There should be things in the sky that help you navigate
- Important spots should have intuitive call outs
- Different parts of the map should be easily recognizable
- I started the making of this map's layout in the 1st mid. I then created the CT side building and moved on to work on the 2nd mid. Bomb sites and spawn areas followed as well as "mains" for the sites.

4-box design with two mids was the principle. I wanted the T-side of the map to be easily defend-able by the Ts. Just like in de_cpl_mill. Also I thought that the second mid should have more use than in Inferno, so I made it so that both mids lead to different bomb sites. Unlike in Inferno where the 2nd mid is just kinda out there on the side. In this map both mids are truly in the middle. The bridge in the second mid is borrowed from Inferno.

The map's layout kinda looks like Cache's layout, but with two mids and obviously unique sites and different halls and connectors. I did make a good use of the new Nuke's assets. Asset recycling is highly important for games like CS:GO. The hut or "dog house" in the construction area is also a Nuke rip off. It wasn't there in the initial version of the layout but came later when I needed to block the line of sight from the A site to the construction area, so CTs can rotate and Ts can push B from construction if they manage to take the 1st mid.

In the previous text I bolded the maps that had great influence on this map. Dust2 isn't there but 4-box design was, which is something that d2 represents.

I'd like to thank TopHattWaffle for the Map Making 101 tutorial series, it really helped me out. As well as the older hammer tutorial videos he's made, great job, I appreciate it. Thanks also to 2/3kliksphilip for his tutorials. And a big thanks to Volcano and fmpone for their talk in GDC 2015. Very educational presentation, I think everyone who makes competitive maps for CS should see it. Lastly, I'd like to thank WarOwl for his videos especially "What Makes a Great CSGO Map? (VLOG)", good tips that I implemented in the making of this map.

In late 2017, the map took part in this competition: https://www.mapcore.org/topic/20899-mapcores-csgo-mapping-contest-2017