I have my map layout all done and dusted (not a counterstrike pun). Now all I have to work on is the aesthetic of my work (the most gruelling and hardest part for a perfectionist).
As you can see by the screenshots, everything is extremely basic, the texturing, the geometry, but essentially the layout is finished.
With much personal research on level design, I can say that my map layout is done! All I have left, is the experience a person gets when they load up my map. I purposefully left this part until last, because I knew it was the hardest part, and that I was able to get the layout completed in a relatively fast time.
I have taken or implemented many different level designs from other map makers like FMPONE. My map includes aspects of other maps like, Dust 2, Mirage, Cache, Season, Tuscany, Nuke, Inferno, Santorini, Overpass and Cobblestone.
I essentially went into counter-strike on an offline server I created, and explored the different areas of the maps. For example in middle of mirage I studied why the map developers had put thing in certain areas, by testing them. Like the boxes at the top of middle, why they were placed in such a way, and to my research I found that it allows for skirmishing and for the team to gain ground by distracting possible players in the window, short and middle connector.
Game Cultures 