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Addressed clipping issues (spiral staircases), added cover, lighting tweaks
Please see changenotes for full list of changes

This project came about as I wanted to try my hand at something different than weapon finishes and stickers.

I had the idea of creating a CSGO map set in the UK: a setting that is quintessentially british, but metropolitan to contrast with the existing abstract-generic middle-eastern affairs. In conjunction with Gorb, we settled on a tube station: transportation hubs and stations are obvious prime targets for terror attacks due to the large volume of people, we felt it a more realistic scenario for the developed world.

I planned out a rough map layout in 3D, then Gorb built it in hammer. As both novices we had to muddle our way through: I was designer and tester, he drew the short straw and was builder and prop creator, I made any additional textures and together we problem solved, which seemed to be an almost daily event!

In designing the map I followed the rule of 5 divided by 3, that seems to be a staple in csgo map design, I presume for the dynamic of having a deficiency in one route placing emphasis on positioning and flow round-to-round. So 3 lanes; one for either bombsite, and a middle lane that allows for either. Loosely structured in a similar flow diagram to dust2 but with greater Y-axis difference to allow for escalators and spiral staircases.

Routes were planned based on times to get to bombsites, and also to rotate from one to the other. Flexilibility was incorporated to allow at least two routes to either site. For example: A to B can be achieved from CT-side connector corridor, A overpass then down the spiral staircase, or up the spiral staircase and down the shaft to T side of B.

The middle tunnel is essentially a chance for instant sniper combat: CTs get the advantage first, but if the T's run the gauntlet successfully they get to take a shortcut to A, take a route behind the escalators to A, or drop down to B. They can even run a bit extra to CT spawn to flank either site.

I had major internal dissonance over whether the bombsites should follow a ‘real world’ room layout or the ‘CSGO layout’ whereby you have obstacles that are essentially abstractly positioned to grant dynamic cover and exposure. This is not something I’m an expert on, and in choosing to mimic real life from the outset I leaned towards the former in the end, although this is admittedly to the detriment of its suitability of a CSGO map.

The other issue was invisible walls for the train tunnels. Gamers hate invisible walls but we cant have players running willy nilly a mile into darkness. In the end we decided on electrical damage past a certain point to dissuade players from venturing deep into the tunnels.

We made a soundscape albeit using existing sounds. And as mentioned above created some custom props, and textures, avoiding trademark and copyright by inventing our own brands, even going to the length of designing our own tubemap! At this stage it has a 4-layer map overlay, and a custom nav mesh although I struggled getting the bots to use the spiral staircases!

This is not a finished product, we fully expect further developments are necessary; although we felt after years slowly chipping into it and diminishing returns on reworking sections that it is at a stage ready for testing and feedback, so please do let us know what you think. We would like to improve this map to a stage where it is a potential campaign map. This could mean scripted trains passing through just as players get to either platform, and if we can work it out - moving escalators that loop.

In conclusion, we bit off more than we could chew for our first map project, but we have both learnt a lot and are hopeful to learn more! We hope you enjoy playing it!

Thanks to content creators for their useful videos, resources & tutorials such as:
Valve developer site
3Kliksphilip
Tophattwaffle
Puppet master for his Maya plugin for prop creation[puppet-master.net]
Mapcore[www.mapcore.org] (Radix and esspho) for help with prop events and prop input and outputs