FMPONE releases de_santorini

Based on the eponymously named Greek island in the Aegean sea, de_santorini is a map which will attempt to bring balanced competitive play combined with clean and crisp visuals.

The work of mapmaker Shawn "FMPONE" Snelling, previously known for his co-contributions to de_cache and de_season, de_santorini takes place in a bleached-out villa on the Greek island, with easily identifiable blue and red shades that do not distract or take away from peeking angles.

When asked about the inspiration for the map, Snelling delved into his philosophy for its creation as well as ideas about it being both simple to play on casual modes and yet highly tactical:

"The idea for Santorini came about when trying to do something interesting and dynamic like Mirage or Dust2, but with a faster pace that allows for full-on rushes at either bombsites, but also complex execute strategies due to the fully open skybox, as well as passive and dynamic mid-holds for CTs.

Santorini is a map that offers both teams a bunch of different options for how they choose to play, but I also feel the map fits well into a PUG environment, because individual, skilled players can make a big difference (for example, sniping mid window and getting valuable picks for their team)," Snelling told HLTV.org.

Although an image of the maps' call-outs may make it appear confusing, the design is in effect inspired by three lanes with multiple connections between the lanes to encourage rotates. Perhaps the most iconic area will be the open and highly contestable mid area.

Finally, Snelling gives credit to a growing trend in map creation, which is a constant and symbiotic relationship with the community in regards to incorporating feedback.

"The process for Santorini has been 100% community driven, starting off with a knowledgeable core-group of playtesters, expanding out into a public greybox test where we got great feedback from Reddit, then finally expanding into getting professional players involved like steel.

The overall purpose of the map's development has been to do things the right way, test early, test often, take feedback, but also have an artistic intent and vision for a fun, mid-centric competitive map.

I'd also like to thank my collaborators Hordeau and Dimsane. Hordeau coordinated a lot of feedback, gave his gut opinion on design stuff, and put the playtests together for us. Dimitri made the 3d meshes for the level, and I'm super happy with how they turned out."

Below you can also find a runthrough video of the map done by Joshua "⁠steel⁠" Nissan.

Workshop: The map is now available on the Steam workshop page and can be found here.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter