Role - Level Designer

Size - Solo Project
Platform - PC
Work Period -worked on for 9 weeks averaging 10 hours per week
Project for senior year level design 2 at Champlain College

The Valve Hammer Editor is the engine used to develop the Half-Life and Counter-Strike series of games. I learned and used it to construct a level with in the Half-Life 2 setting of the engine where players can go traverse an abandoned resistance settlement overrun by headcrabs and zombies. Players will have to face multiple threats while also dealing with resource management of ammo and battery life.

Intent

My intent for this level was to give a challenge to the player of resource management within the Hammer Engine using Half-Life 2 gameplay. In my time playing the game, there was always some reason to manage your battery life on your suit to power some aspect of the gameplay from the flash light to sprinting. However, it felt that those resources were there as an additive for the player to use to mitigate minor frustrations rather than being used as a necessity to progress through the level. With that, I wanted to challenge’s the player’s ability to keep track of their battery resource during attentive gameplay moments.

Inspiration

During the initial steps of figuring out what I wanted to do with this level, I played through Half-Life 2 to see what I would be working with technically and see what aspects the game does offer that I enjoy. I enjoyed the idea of Ravenholm being a zombie infested city where the player has to solve puzzles while dealing with swarms of zombies. The setting of the game changed from a bright and tense atmosphere to a dark and dreary one which made me use my flashlight only occasionally to see more detail here and there. It made me think how could this kind of setting be used to challenge the player in more than just the gun play.

Introduction to Ravenholm in Half-Life 2

Planning

The initial steps of laying out the level were done on paper to figure out general layouts of rooms, hallways, the over all level, and possible encounters. From there, I set up the golden path through the level in Adobe Illustrator as a reference piece while working in engine. The main aspects of the level are the abandoned buildings which provide varying encounters and the underground sewers which test the player’s resource management.

In Engine

Themes

Aesthetically, I wanted to focus on making the player feel like this was a settlement that was quickly dealt with from the enemy and scrambled together by the survivors to defend themselves as much as possible.

Challenge wise, I made it so that players would be eased into the final challenge in segments. the final obstacle was a long dark sewer segment with a fair number of zombies, in near complete darkness. The first challenge encourages the player to get use to the risks/rewards of each encounter based on their resources. The second, has them get use to the idea of being in pretty dark areas that has a fair few enemies in key placements to provide the most challenge gun play wise. The third challenge is managing you ammo resources in a tight space with the most amount of enemies so far which leads to the final segment where players have to employ risk/reward benefits, light management in a dark area, and enemies in key placement to distract the player from other threats.

Barracade put together to protect survivors (also lock players to the path)

An enemy that throws enemies at the player on an elevated platform while regular enemies grabs the player’s attention

Key Encounters

Showing the car in the courtyard with a lot of zombies

Providing the objective- The player starts in a secluded area that includes a car that they can not use. The car died as the player reached the settlement. they have access to a building that shows them a courtyard filled to the brim with zombies and another car. The courtyard has an opening that they can leave through and the car can be used to leave. So, get to the courtyard and reach the car to leave.

Showing both objectives in the freezer room

First Encounter- This freezer room has two poison zombies in it with a shotgun on the ground with a light focused on it to help point it out to the player. At this point the player only has access to the standard pistil so the incentive is high to risk going in to grab the shotgun. Yet, there is another option witch is a manhole that is lite up as well. The player has a choice to go a safer route if they choose to or risk getting a new weapon while having to fight against tough enemies

Final Challenge- In the dark sewers, the player now has to manage their focus and light source to fight against zombies. The start of this challenge is a lone fast zombie that chases after the player in a straight of the sewer. Player’s put most of their focus on fast zombies due to how annoying they are in groups. this leads to the other zombies that are around the corner to throw barrels at the player. While this does seem like a challenge, it is actually quite easy to handle due to the way the sewer’s are set up which prevents the zombie from surrounding the player and limiting the amount of possible barrels being thrown. However, this aspect is hard to notice will in a the dark and with enemies around in unknown positions leads to player’s being anxious. Thus leading to players wanting to leave as fast as possible.