Welcome, boys and girls.

This is the first map I am publicly releasing. I started work on SpoonLocker more than six weeks ago and finished the main layout in a few days, but the tweaking-and-testing-and-tweaking phase has lasted up until yesterday. In the time that I started work on this map, I've already finished 95% of a symmetrical team slayer map, 75% of a large semi-symmetrical big team map, 15% of an asymmetrical slayer map, and toyed with quite a few throwaway ideas.

I have spent a lot of time in forge. I've also spent a lot of time here, on ForgeHub, looking at community maps, seeing what works and what doesn't work. I am a long time Halo player and have done quite a number of map/level/environment designs before. I have a strong sense for multiplayer level design in Halo, so even though none of you know who I am or have played any of my maps before, know that, as a Halo fan, I am satisfied with my level designs, and feel very confident about what I have accomplished so far.

You may be wondering what the deal is with the breakfast cereal theme. I have no good answer to that question. The original name for this map was Spoonybard because the initial design for the map was three interconnected spoon-shaped structures. I first heard the term "spoonybard" on another forum and figured that worked as a name, but I eventually wanted something even more unique that I actually came up with myself; hence: SpoonLocker. It rolls off the tongue nicer than Spoonybard too.

I've tried really hard to make my level designs simple and easy to understand. SpoonLocker's layout is very open, so it's easy to see where everything is. One of my main approaches to level design in Forge is building with the terrain, not against it. I didn't try to build through trees or get frustrated when something didn't work exactly like I wanted it to. I kept my design ideas very flexible and used them more as a guide than a blueprint. If something didn't work, I tried something else or abandoned the idea.

SpoonLocker is designed specifically for One Flag and One Bomb gametypes. It is possible to play Slayer, Team Slayer, King of the Hill and Oddball, but I highly recommend you only play One Flag/Bomb with at least 8 players.

There ain't none. The only thing you might notice is some lag when you look at the grav lift, but there are zero framerate issues that have any affect on gameplay--I was extremely careful about that.

7 x DMR
5 x Needle Rifle
3 x Magnum
2 x Plasma Pistol
1 x Assault Rifle
1 x Plasma Repeater
2 x Needler
1 x Shotgun
1 x Gravity Hammer
2 x Sniper Rifle [1 spare clip, 60 sec respawn]
1 x Rocket Launcher [1 spare clip, 120 sec respawn]
1 x Grenade Launcher
10 x Frag Grenade
8 x Plasma Grenade
1 x Mounted Machine Gun
3 x Health Packs

Spoon facts 101: The scooping section of a spoon is called the "bowl", the long section is called the handle, and the place where the two meet is called the "tang".

One of my main level design philosophies is to make sure there are multiple ways of getting to every area on a map. The above picture shows the three ways of approaching the Bowl: the grav lift, the rock ramp, and the Handle. From the Bowl, there are five different ways to reach the flag; even a mongoose can reach the block where the flag spawns.

Another level design philosophy I have is to make landmarks for players to quickly identify where they are on the map. This is extremely helpful for new players that are trying to learn the layout. The Ribs can be seen from the majority of the map, so it's very useful for identifying your location.

I effing love the Mongoose, so I made sure most areas on the map had smooth, mongoose-accessible pathways. The ramp above is tricky, but allows drivers with a flag-wielding passenger to hit that big ass ramp and score immediately upon landing. The rock crest shown below is the intersection of most mongoose traffic; it has smooth rampways for mongoose traversal, so definitely take advantage of the fastest route between bases.

Defense spawns much closer to their sniper rifle, the shotgun and the hammer, but offense spawns closer to the rocket launcher and will likely be the only ones going for the second sniper rifle up in the tower. The sniper rifles also have direct lines-of-site between their respective spawns.

Thanks and have fun!