Nick Coombe is the creator of a few Counter-Strike maps and is most known for the map Torn. He is the older brother of Matt Coombe.[1]
Biography
Nick Coombe, originally from the United Kingdom but having moved to Canada in 1995, got started in level design in summer 1999 after being blown away by the single-player campaign in Half-Life.[1][2] His first project in Worldcraft (which has since become Valve Hammer Editor) was designing a summer cottage that his parents were planning on building.[1]
Nick eventually decided to start working on a single-player modification for Half-Life called Crinity (from where he would later take his nickname) which he also built a website for. This website was eventually expanded to provide various mapping assets for the Half-Life engine.[2] While he never finished this modification, he would produce numerous other maps for Half-Life before his initial foray into Counter-Strike mapping in April 2000.[3][4]
His initial attempt at designing a map for Counter-Strike was a hostage rescue map called Takeover, which centered around a disused military academy complex.[3][5] It was a relatively big map that had three main routes for players to take.[5] However, Nick decided to scrap this map before it was finished.[6]
In late 2000,[6] Nick's brother Matt Coombe approached him about an idea he had regarding a map for Counter-Strike. Matt worked on the map alone for a few days, until the brothers decided to turn the map into a joint effort.[7] This map was mostly finished by June 2001 and would eventually become Torn,[7] which was officially released as part of Counter-Strike in version 1.3.
When Gearbox Software took over the development of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, they decided to recruit several mappers from the community to help out in the design of new maps for the game.[8] Thus, in July 2001 Nick started working at Gearbox and would contribute a total of 2 maps for their version of the game, one of which he designed jointly with his brother (Rooftops).[9][10] The Coombe brothers would only stay for a few months, accepting work at a more local company, 3DNA, in November 2001.[10][11]
Despite the hectic development of Condition Zero, one of his maps would eventually get released as Downed in the final version of the game.[12]
Nick Coombe would eventually return to the games industry together with his brother when they founded the company Get Set Games together with a few friends in 2009.[13] Nick has been working there since, with the focus being on the creation of mobile games.[10][14]
List of maps
Official maps
| Map name | Game(s) | Responsibilities | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Downed | 
|
Level designer | 2001 |
| Rooftops | (cut)
|
Level co-designer | 2001 |
| Torn | 
|
Level co-designer | 2001 |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 [ Counter-Strike.ch - Interview mit Crinity und Madcross (English, Orginal) ]. Archived from the original on 2001-08-16.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Crinity - About. Archived from the original on 2000-12-06.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Crinity - Maps. Archived from the original on 2000-05-11.
- ↑ Crinity - News Archive - March/April 2000. Archived from the original on 2003-10-05.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Crinity - News Archive - May 2000. Archived from the original on 2003-10-05.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Crinity - News Archive - October/November/December 2000. Archived from the original on 2003-10-12.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Valve ERC - De_Torn: Interview with Crinity and Madcross. Archived from the original on 2002-10-19.
- ↑ CS-Nation - barney (aka n@rby) interview. Archived from the original on 2004-10-26.
- ↑ Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Information Vault - Josh Jeffcoat Interview
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 LinkedIn | Nick Coombe
- ↑ Half Life Italia - Level design: eight experts confrontation - Nick “Crinity” Coombe. Archived from the original on 2003-04-13
- ↑ Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Information Vault - Nick Coombe Interview
- ↑ Get Set Games - About
- ↑ Get Set Games - Games
External links
- http://www.planethalflife.com/crinity/. Archived from the original on 2003-08-03.