This level was created as part of a school assignment given to me by Sjoerd "hourences" De Jong. Me and my fellow students at The Garden had three weeks in which to create a small deathmatch or CTF level. After those weeks were over I kept working on fine tuning based on the feedback I had received.
I was inspired by old platform based Quake maps when I created Transcendent. The obvious danger of jumping between tiny platforms floating in a formless void definitely had some charm to it, however, I always thought the gameplay was a bit lacking as the platforms were located so far from each other and were so small. I decided to mainly build Transcendent out of larger platforms floating fairly close to each other and then used their difference in height to block line of sight and prevent a sniper fest. There is also a small platform in the distance holding the sole sniper rifle. The position reveals most of the level, but is also very vulnerable to attack since the area is so tiny and open.
Visually I wanted the level to look like a pair of dark fortresses floating around in space. As such, there are tall walls and towers with spotlights mounted on them, almost like a small futuristic prison yard. A planet was placed far in the distance behind each fortress to highlight the contrast between the dark playable areas and space.
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