To me, the fact that the author of the article is the author of de_dust2 is the real highlight! For those who don't know, it's the most popular map ever in Counter Strike, and I expect so it remains to this day.
This is funny, as I always imagined these things to be made by some nameless author of good old Internet, and never bothered to check and look it up. Further less I expected to stumble upon it by said author's random blogpost where it's not even the primary topic.
Dust2 (and Cobble, another map mentioned) is, IMO, both art and genius; most of us will never make anything that brings joy to so many.
It inspires me to work on things that I'm passionate about just for fun. You never know what might come out of it!
He also had blogs about those maps: https://www.johnsto.co.uk/design/
G O A T Youtube doc about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWWhxfGq_yk
I had seen noclip's documentary about de_dust2 featuring him before but didn't piece the name together. Very happy to find that he has a blog!
I love your work! Thanks for the huuuuge work on de_dust2!
It’s an incredible map - so many fun memories!