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With the return of Forgehub Community Favorites, I have the pleasure of announcing the winner (and runner ups) for June 2016.

It's nice to have such a vibrant and varied Forge community available for Halo 5 that we can get a program like this off the ground. It's even nicer to see such different, quality entries across a range of core and not so core gametypes. Everyone has their favourite flavour of ice-cream, and at Forgehub, there is quite literally something for everyone.

A big thank you to everyone that voted, and if your map didn't make the top three, don't feel so bad - there'll be plenty more opportunity in the times to come.

So, the votes have been counted and verified...

In 3rd Place, with 50 points -

Poltergeist Origins by General PUG



In 2nd Place, with 59 points -

Conjourne by Ryley



And the Winner is, with a whopping 74 points -



(drumroll!)



Loading Zone by Given to Fly!

A big congratulations to the runners up and a thank you to everyone that voted. Alas, there can only be one winner.

We asked Given to put his boots on the ground for a moment and fill us in about the map and how it came to life.

LOADING ZONE​

Sikamikanico: So Given, the community has spoken and Loading Zone has won the vote! I thought we could take the opportunity to catch up and find out a little bit more about how it came to life?

Given To Fly: Awesome! First off I would like to thank MultiLockOn for coming up with the map theme. His work inspired me to branch out into a UNSC style of forging. It all started with Xandrith telling Multi he couldn't do a realistic looking UNSC map, so naturally, Multi threw together a canvas with every UNSC looking object in the game. He used that to build an amazing looking 1v1 map. I gave that canvas a download and got to work!

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Sikamikanico: Loading Zone is wonderfully detailed - did that kind of aesthetic come naturally, or was there a lot of trial and error before you settled on a look you liked?

Given To Fly: Originally, Multi was using these pieces to make a very raw industrial vibe, that was dark and intense. I decided to go the opposite route, and make it look very shiny and new. I borrowed ideas from developer maps to help craft the theme I wanted. I was pretty inspired by Halo Reach maps when crafting this one. Initially it was a challenge figuring out which pieces looked right, but very satisfying. I would stare at a wall of items Multi had set up just scanning for an interesting piece of an unknown puzzle.

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Sikamikanico: I found when playing on Loading Zone in it's earlier stages that I got disorientated pretty quickly - how did you tackle player orientation when putting this together? Did player feedback make you change anything you didn't think you'd have to?

Given To Fly: I have heard there has been a little orientation learning curve, but the map is asymmetric, and am proud it takes more than one game to figure out how to move. It gives the map a unique edge that most modern designs stray away from. There is a lot more to the map than 1 or 2 play tests will unveil. The main thing I tried to do was to give each area a similar but different style, structurally, and artistically. Of course while maintaining the yellow trim around the map!

Sikamikanico: Loading Zone features a lot more verticality than you might expect - do you think players will acclimatise to looking up more than normal?

Given To Fly: I think there is much more than meets the eye to this map. If they want to do well on this one, they'll have to look up, and cycle back to the bottom as well. There are many different play styles and approaches to gameplay. Climbing is essential for domination though.

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Sikamikanico: What's next on your Forge plate? Are you going to build something on Tidal with a Wasp like everyone else?

Given To Fly: The next thing on my palette is very far along, well actually, they both are! I am excited to play around with different themes, and terrain again! I hope you guys will like them.

Once again, congratulations to Given and the runners up!​