Road To Hades wasn't the first set of maps I tried to make, but it was the first one that I released. The premise was that every map would be based on it's TNT:Evilution counterpart, but only in vague, thematic ways. Some maps share a setting with their TNT equivalent, some have similar layouts or setpieces, and a few of them are almost entirely unrelated to their counterpart.
I made it so that I could learn how to map as I went along. This has made it quite embarassing for me to look back on. For example, I didn't learn how to properly use upper/lower unpegged until I was making map22. It's very messy and imperfect, but maybe that's what makes it charming.
This made it's reception very suprising to me though - it somehow managed to get an honourable mention in the Cacowards and a Dean Of Doom episode, as well as getting a lot of very lovely compliments from people who played it. For the whole time I was making it I thought that maybe three or four people would download it, and no-one would ever play it all the way through. So every bit of attention it got was a shock to me.
There's also another much more emotional reason why I made it, but that's a story for another page.