This level originally started life as a speed map for one of the Quake Retro Jams. I forget which one but it dates back at least 5 years. I had made all but the rooms beyond the silver key door. There was a long hiatus from mapping due to burnout and then subsequent life events (like becoming a dad and moving house). I had always intended to release it, even moreso than my other abandoned maps, due to the relatively simple nature of vanilla maps.
In my usual fashion I did not name the level until very late in development. The working title was 'Cerulean Tabernacle' until I decided to change it to 'Cerulean Tears' inspired by heavy doses of playing Elden Ring. There isn't much to tell in terms of story, the map is a church but with lots of water present (and most open rooves have water underneath). There is a smashed stained glass window to represent my recent disdain for Microsoft Windows and subsequent conversion to Linux.
When I revisited this map it didn't take me long to get most of the geometry in place for the post silver key door rooms. Everything went very quickly actually and I got some very useful feedback from both Sock and scar3crow. Much of the progression was made simpler and a lot of the button pushing was turned into straightforward triggers. Some great feedback on the first big open water area was given by Sock which changed a late shambler encounter into an early fiend adding a lot of early tension, this was also enhanced by removing the early armour.
This was practically finished in September 2024 but scar3crow suggested I connect the penultimate room and the start room (they are close together). This made me re-iterate the room a bunch of times which took a further 2 months of deliberation. I built a huge chapel-esque room, very detailed, but it did not fit in with the rest of the map properly. I cut this room down 2 days before the February release into a more simplistic corridor, considering this part of the map is a secret it did not make sense to keep it as such a large set-piece. Deathmatch was thrown in too because the connected room makes the map flow really well, so thanks to scar3crow for giving me this headache the map is much better for it.
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TUt enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
TUt enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.