MaRRa-Kai: First of all thank you very much for agreeing to do this interview for the debut of the site. Could you just get things going by telling the readers a little bit about yourself.

Glen C: My name is Glen Cooper, I’m 23 years old and I live near Seattle Washington in a town called Woodinville. I am married with a 1 and a half year old boy and I work full time for a web development company in the Seattle area. I’ve been hooked on CS since beta 3 – It’s by far the best multiplayer game ever.

MaRRa-Kai: What was the inspiration for cs_italy?

Glen C: I saw some screen shots for Team Fortress 2 that had an Italian village in them. I thought that would be a really cool setting for a CS map. Lots of tall buildings with narrow streets.

MaRRa-Kai: What was the initial reaction from people when you brought out cs_italy?

Glen C: The initial reaction was really good. We posted some screen shots up in the mapping forum on cs.net and people got really excited. If anything it gave us encouragement to finish it and make it better than our original plan.

MaRRa-Kai: Have you made any maps that didn’t make it off the drawing board?

Glen C: Yes. I’ve actually got several map ideas that never really got anywhere. Some were because of limitations with the Half Life engine, others were ones were ones I started and just lost steam on. I love coming up with ideas and working through the plusses and minuses of each aspect – but once I get into the grunt work of doing all the mapping, sometimes I can loose focus.

MaRRa-Kai: Do you think that the terrorist’s have an unfair advantage, with ‘sniper’s tunnel’ and the obvious camping positions on Italy?

Glen C: I don’t think so. The terrorists definitely have a good camping spot on that map, but it takes coordination for the terrorists to camp effectively. In order to cover every entrance, you need at least 3-4 players who are just camping like you are. I find that the best strategy for the Terrorists is actually to rush, then circle around behind the CTs. I’m actually really happy with the way the map is balanced.

MaRRa-Kai: What is your view of Easter eggs in a map and are you planning on adding any to your future maps?

Glen C: I love Easter eggs. I wish we had spent more time on the one in Italy. Unless I’m pressed for time, there will always be an Easter egg in every map I produce.

MaRRa-Kai: Have you got any new maps coming up in the next version of CS?

Glen C: Probably not. I’ve been busy with other things, but like I said I do have a few in the works. If I get back into it, there are a couple of ideas that I would like to release. At this point I’m just waiting for TF2. Hopefully there will be a CS2 which is built on the TF2 engine. I think that will be a lot of fun to map for.

MaRRa-Kai: How did you get started in mapping and how long does a map usually take to create?

Glen C; I’ve been mapping since Doom 2. I really like it because I always get more enjoyment out of creating extensions to games than playing them. Remember that old Nintendo game Excite Bike? I liked making my own tracks better than playing the actual game. It’s always been something I’ve enjoyed.
Italy took me about a month to create. I don’t really have a standard time though. It generally changes with each map I do.

MaRRa-Kai: What are your top 5 maps?

Glen C: I don’t know that I have any other maps that I could consider “top” anything J. I created a couple of regular Half-Life deathmatch maps and a few Duke Nukem maps. Most of that was quite a while ago. Italy is definitely my most public and popular creation.

MaRRa-Kai: Thank you very much for doing this interview, any last words before we part?

Glen C: I should add that DigiChaos was a big part of the creation of Italy. He did all the custom textures which I think are a big part of the map. I’d also like to say thanks to the whole CS team. They’re a great bunch of people to work with and they have shown their appreciation for the mappers in many ways.