Would you believe that Corrode has been in development over 5 years? I made the very
first sketch of Corrode right before my 21st birthday. After making a handful of fairly terrible maps, I decided it was time to get serious and really make something ambitious.
From the very beginning I intended to make a dilapidated hydro-electric plant that was actually hiding a nuclear plant. You can see, from my very first alpha that it was all essentially there already:
The first playtest was grueling, but it was successful.
Part of what inspired Corrode was reading
Grazr's incredible tutorial on Scale which he had posted just a few months before I started Corrode. (If any of you are getting started mapping, that should be one of the first tutorials you read.) I wanted to make Corrode and emphasize the scale of things as best I could and take advantage of vertical space. Whether or not I was successful is debatable. It honestly would've been much easier to do had I not primarily confined myself to interior spaces, but I am quite happy with it.
One of the biggest turning points when creating the map was meeting Gooba the Viking. Some of you may remember him for making a Artpass contest map that Valve mentioned when they announced the winners. He graciously allowed me to use his textures in my map as well as making some incredible paint-overs of Corrode. These paint-overs served as a great visual inspiration for 2 parts of the map.
I cannot thank him enough. It really gives Corrode an unique look which I believe is one of its biggest strengths.
Another huge help were my good friends at
Playstuff. Corrode was playtested endlessly by them. Not only that, but many Playstuffians helped me in even more impressive ways! Like Equinoxo, for instance, modeled the entire reactor for the last point, light shafts and all! I can say for an absolute fact that it is the most impressive part of Corrode and his hard work was well worth it.
I also have to thank Seba for modeling the broken metal roof right after CP A as well as the collapsing concrete floor/roof scene outside red's first spawn and inside red's second spawn.
This is just going to devolve into thanking people, so here we go.
Also need to thank Booj for making the logic for the cart elevator, which I could not figure out for the life of me. It works flawlessly and I love it. In fact, I love it so much I added it onto my other map Crag!
I absolutely must thank Boylee from Playstuff. Not only has he been a well of encouragement from Day 1, he also detailed a couple rooms in Corrode as well as reworking the displacements.
^He detailed this room.
Of course, Fubar. If he hadn't prodded me just a few months ago, I would not be here right now. He also made the explosion animation for the final point, which is just amazing and I can't wait for you guys to see it. I don't really have a good picture of the explosion, so you'll just have to play it to see!
There's a few other people that helped in less visible but just as important ways!
Yyler, who is both meticulous and insane. He has been very encouraging at all times, being my own personal Shia LeBouf. He also did a very productive check of the current version of Corrode that fixed a lot of problems with it.
My awesome IRL friend ElectricEidolon who, much like Yyler, is a constant well of encouragement.
Post Script from Playstuff for much the same reasons, also for being a cheeky bastard.
Just, once again, Playstuff in general. I have never met a more welcoming, more European group of friends.
Can't forget TF2Maps. I make no illusions that I've had my rough times with all you buggers, but it has overall been a very positive experience! If it was not for this site and the wealth of knowledge it contained, I would not be making maps today. I love all of you, warts and all.
And, to Valve as well, who I am sure will be looking here to make sure I mention them.
They gave me great feedback on Corrode back in the day which really helped me discover what exactly I've been doing wrong and how to fix it. It took me significantly too long to actually heed their advice.
They did suggest I make the map shorter, though, which didn't happen... they're probably right, but here we are!
Corrode's track is 50% longer than Badwater. It took 5 years to make. Countless hours. 6 people working on it in some capacity. 111 custom models. Lord knows what else. But here it is!
