Casali brothers

Brothers Dario and Milo Casali are best known for creating The Plutonia Experiment, one of two stand-alone megawads for the second official Doom II expansion, Final Doom. The eldest brother, Stefano Casali, is best known for producing the well-known comic strip Love Is....

Dario and Milo

Dario Casali

Milo Casali

Careers

Early days and work with TeamTNT

Avid Doom mappers from the earliest days of creating WADs (a progenitor of the modding and level design practiced today), Dario and Milo began to develop what would become a passion for them in the creation of several independent maps. Although somewhat roughly executed compared to their later work, several of these levels (especially the TheBest series) enjoyed notoriety on Doom forums and listserves for being remarkably difficult. These early levels enabled the Casalis to gain the foundation for what would later become their careers.^[1]

Shortly after working on the Memento Mori megaWAD and the Requiem megaWAD which Dario contributed to, the Casalis met several members of the then-popular TeamTNT, a large online group of mappers, and joined the team. These megaWADs were collections of single Doom levels created by WADers and linked together to form an overarching storyline. Dario and Milo enjoyed the collaborative efforts involved in teamwork and having only developed single maps earlier, they could appreciate the magnitude of the finished megaWAD product.^[1]

At the time the Casalis joined TeamTNT, a major project was just starting to develop: a ground-breaking 32-level megaWAD to be released for free online. TeamTNT was enjoying a great deal of attention within the Doom community due to their announcement of this megaWAD, and as a result several skilled mappers within the community were eager to join. This flurry of activity attracted the attention of Doom developers id Software, and they began making quiet negotiations with TeamTNT to purchase the finished product for sale as an add-on for Doom. Id also requested that a second 32-level megaWAD be created in addition and for this request, on the recommendation of an employee of theirs, American McGee, they turned to the Casalis. With TeamTNT, the Casali brothers designed several levels for TNT: Evilution (a megaWAD constituent of Final Doom) as well as all 32 levels of The Plutonia Experiment megaWAD independently.^[2] During his time with TeamTNT, Dario went under the member name "Number 6", although his usual callsign is "Punisher". Milo has variously used the callsigns "doom warrior" and "Venom". Neither brother has continued work with TeamTNT since Final Doom.^[1]

The eventual decision of TeamTNT to go ahead with the sale of what eventually became Final Doom greatly angered many within the Doom community despite TeamTNT's later kept promise that it would produce more free megaWADs in the future after Final Doom. Doom fans at this time were often proponents of hacker culture and the free software movement, and TeamTNT's actions appeared to be a betrayal of their lifestyle for purely capitalistic reasons.

Recent work

Immediately after splitting with TeamTNT to pursue more modern level design, Dario Casali independently designed several levels for Quake including a 7-level solo-play mission and a 5-level deathmatch series. Milo also created a single Quake deathmatch level. Efforts like these which highlighted Dario and Milo's natural talents at level design were enough to attract the attention of the up-and-coming Valve Software. Valve made a bid for Dario and he joined their level design team for a project then called Quiver. This project was later released under the name Half-Life.

Dario currently works for Valve Software and has done extensive level design work for them besides his efforts on Half-Life^[3] (which included design of 5 of the 18 chapters). He is responsible for the overwhelming majority of officially released multiplayer maps for Half-Life, and has worked on the Team Fortress Classic mod where he was responsible for the 3 multiplayer maps. For Half-Life 2, Dario designed 4 of the 14 chapters. He is also credited on the major Valve productions: Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift, Half-Life (Game of the Year Edition), Counter-Strike: Source, and Half-Life 2: Episode One.

Although going through a bit of a hiatus, Milo has most recently been credited as a member of the Popdog team (a subsidiary of Barking Dog Studios) in the development of the 2002 FPS Global Operations.

Released works

Doom series

• TheBest series – 4 free single maps
• Punisher series – 2 free single maps
• Greek – free single map
• Seej – free single map
• Memento Mori – free megaWAD (portions created by the Casalis)
• Requiem – free megaWAD for which Dario made 1 map.
• Final Doom – the second commercially available Doom add-on officially licensed by id Software^[4]
  • TNT: Evilution – megaWAD constituent of Final Doom contributed to by the Casalis working in collaboration with TeamTNT.^[5]
  • The Plutonia Experiment – the second 32-level megaWAD constituent of Final Doom entirely created by the Casalis.^[6]

Quake series

• Prodigy Special Edition GL – free 7-level solo-play mission incorporating all previously released Prodigy levels created by Dario Casali and including a transparent water patch created by Darren Winter^[7]
• DCDM Series – free 5-level series of Quake deathmatches created by Dario Casali^[7]
• TUN – free Quake deathmatch level created by Milo Casali^[7]

Half-Life series

• Half-Life – Dario Casali is credited under development staff^[8]
  • Powerup – single player level (chapter 7)^[9]
  • Residue Processing – single player level (chapter 10)^[10]
  • Questionable Ethics – single player level (chapter 11)^[11]
  • Surface Tension – single player level (chapter 12)^[12]
  • Forget About Freeman – single player level (chapter 13)^[13]
• Crossfire – multiplayer map officially released by Valve Software^[14]
• Doublecross – multiplayer map officially released by Valve Software^[15]
• Frenzy – multiplayer map officially released by Valve Software^[16]
• Boot Camp – multiplayer map officially released by Valve Software^[17]
• Snark Pit – multiplayer map officially released by Valve Software^[18]
• Subtransit – multiplayer map officially released by Valve Software^[19]
• Undertow – multiplayer map officially released by Valve Software^[20]
• The Hill – multiplayer map designed as a contract-work for PC Gamer^[21]
• Half-Life 2 – Dario Casali is credited under development staff^[22]
  • Route Kanal – single player level (chapter 3)^[23]
  • We Don't Go To Ravenholm... – single player level (chapter 6)^[24]
  • Anticitizen One – single player level (chapter 11)^[25]
  • Follow Freeman – single player level (chapter 12)^[26]
• Half-Life: Opposing Force – Dario Casali is credited for original Half-Life content (although he did not work directly on Opposing Force).^[27]
• Half-Life: Blue Shift – Dario Casali is credited for original Half-Life content (although he did not work directly on Blue Shift)^[28]
• Half-Life (Game of the Year Edition) – Dario Casali is credited for original Half-Life content^[29]
• Counter-Strike: Source – Dario Casali is credited for original Half-Life 2 content^[30]
• Half-Life 2: Episode One – Dario Casali is credited for original Half-Life 2 content^[31]
• Half-Life 2: Episode Two – Siege at the inn, Dog V Strider encounter, final Strider battle^[32]

Team Fortress series

• Team Fortress Classic
  • Dustbowl – multiplayer map^[33]
  • Crossover2 – multiplayer map^[34]
  • Flagrun – multiplayer map^[35]
• Team Fortress 2
  • Gold Rush – the first payload gameplay map^[36]
  • Badwater Basin – the second payload gameplay map^[37]
  • Pipeline – the first payload race gameplay map^[38]
  • Thunder Mountain – the third official three-stage payload map^[39]
  • Coaltown – Mann Vs Machine
  • Big Rock – Mann Vs Machine

Left 4 Dead series

• Left 4 Dead 2
  • Dark Carnival – Roller coaster, rock show finale^[40]
  • Swamp Fever – Plantation finale^[41]
  • The Parish – Park and bus station mini-finale^[42]

Portal 2

• The Fall

Other

• Global Operations – 2002 FPS developed in part by Milo Casali^[43]

Stefano

Stefano Casali

The eldest brother, Stefano, has not been involved in mod-work. Stefano has worked in advertising and currently works full-time producing the well-known comic strip, Love Is... together with Bill Asprey.^[44] The comic strip was originally created by the mother of the three brothers, Kim Casali, during the late 1960s beginning as a series of little love notes that she drew for her future husband, Roberto Casali.

References

External links

• Archived version of Dario Casali's personal website
• MobyGames developer blurb on Dario Casali
• MobyGames developer blurb on Milo Casali
• Love Is... official website