Oh look it’s October again, and that means it’s the month of flooding social media with images of blocky grey level mockups! While it’s been a very busy year for me (I might share more on that toward the end of December), much of it is yet to be shown to the public. Still, I’ve managed to publish one map back in July: Coyote for Team Fortress 2.

Coyote is a rather small King of the Hill map which I cooked up on-and-off from roughly November 2024 all the way up to its release in July 2025. The idea behind it was to create a level that would retain the original art style and vibe of TF2 from circa 2010…

The reason for that is simple: I used to be big on Team Fortress 2 back in its early days. I’m talking 2008-2012 era TF2, when it was a stylized, team-based casual first person shooter with limited cosmetics and arsenal that you had to unlock through either grinding the metals or scoring Steam Achievements. Yes, back then owning any hat was synonymous with high status, before the game turned into a Paris Fashion Week of gaming. Now, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to have a rich array of customization options, but I couldn’t help but to feel like the spirit of the original version of TF2 was kinda lost over time as the game became more of a marketplace for its 1000 hats, skins and weapons.

What does any of it have to do with the map? Well, as time went on, Team Fortress 2 custom map scene has also evolved. A game that was once clearly defined as toon style 1960s corporate warfare set mostly in the deserts of the United States became more of a vibrant globetrotting adventure that took players from Alaska to Africa, jungles and mountains and even space at one point. The wild west theme kinda faded into obscurity, and I wanted to bring that back.

The main source of inspiration was taken from classic TF2 maps such as Dustbowl (theme) and Harvest (layout idea). In the end, while it might not be a map that is going to rise above some of the most ambitious and amazing custom levels that dedicated fans are still making to this day (it’s crazy how much mileage Valve gets out of this game!), I think I achieved my goal of creating a map that had some of that 2010 vibe. After all, nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

You can find and play the finished map by subscribing to it via Steam Workshop, check it out HERE