de_sauna_okom
A classic Finnish public server Sauna map. The Sauna room serves as the singular bombsite in this style of map.
de_sauna_okom is a Sauna-style CS:GO map located inside a swimming hall with one bombsite. The Terrorists spawn near the entrance of the swimming hall while Counter-Terrorists spawn near the Sauna.
The objective for the Terrorists is to plant the bomb inside the Sauna, which acts as the singular bombsite. Counter-Terrorists need to stop that from happening, or defuse the bomb if it has been planted.
The layout of many Sauna maps including this one are roughly based on the CS 1.6 map cs_sauna. Inspiration for some areas of this map were also taken from other sauna maps including de_sauna_2009 (locker design) & de_sauna_08 (stairway shape).
Subscribe to the map here to play it in CS:GO.
de_sauna_okom was my first map built from start to finish in a level editor. With the help of numerous Hammer tutorials from TopHATTwaffle, 3kliksphilip and WorldofLevelDesign I was able to pick up the level editor and build out a level that was set up correctly and had no missing formalities.
The map includes a scripted easter-egg where most likely both teams need to co-operate to press a number of buttons all around the map, which result in some doors opening, ultimately revealing a room showcasing pictures taken during the map's development. There are also some beer bottles scattered around the map in weird areas, but they are just for decoration.
The core layout of the map stayed very true to the blockout, but some additional routes were added later in an attempt to allow more routes for the Terrorists to enter the bombsite, as the design of the map resulted in there only being two chokepoints where fights would happen almost every time.
I wanted to include a lot of the fun gameplay aspects that I had seen on other Sauna maps such as wallbang spots, traversable vents both obvious and hidden, openable doors, breakable glass, trick jumps and nade line-up spots. As the map was to be played in a casual setting, I didn't worry that much about a competitive mindset with these changes.
The map was hosted on a Finnish public server named Kiulukerho during 2019-2020 and thanks to feedback from casual players on the server, I was able to address some of the issues such as the aforementioned predictable chokepoints.
All in all I am proud of how this map turned out, the learnings I got from it and the kind of lifecycle it had.
Development summary:
Map idea
Having played on numerous CS:GO Sauna maps leading up to 2016, I had noticed some obvious issues on some of them that always caught my eye and hintered the experience. After gaining an interest in possibly doing a map of my own, I wanted to try out and see how good of a Sauna map I could make myself.
Blockout
The blockout for de_sauna_okom took a lot of inspiration from other Sauna maps, but there were still original aspects to my revision such as the window room, vent routes and intentional wallbang spots.
Testing and layout iteration
Through small-scale tests with friends and bots, I was able to identify pain points in the layout and implement solutions to fix them. These mostly consisted of adding additional paths to the layout, as the original layout that I was following was very restricting and linear.
Art
As the layout was finalized for the most part, I started slowly chipping away at arting the map while listening to variaous Finnish radio channels. I gave each section of the map a distinct, but subtle coloring scheme so players could easily understand where they were.
Post release improvements
After fully releasing the map, I had contacted the admin of a CS:GO Sauna server, Kiulukerho asking if my map could be included in the map pool, to which they agreed. Playing on the map with various other players led me to make some minor adjustments such as additional wallbang spots and small layout tweaks.