Discover the secret weapon the Combine are developing and use it to wreak havoc within their own base. Explore the castle and battle a barrage of enemies through indoors and outdoor encounters. Castle Base is a challenging experience intended for the players with FPS familiarity. This is a single player Half Life 2 map built using Valve's Hammer editor.
Status
Complete, not published
Role
Game & Level Designer
Software
Source/Hammer Editor (HL2 Mod), Illustrator
Castle Base
Rational
I wanted this level to be open and allow the player to approach with any opportunity they saw. Initially the player starts at the base of the castle with a bridge guiding them to the front gates. The player’s objective is to sneak into the depths of the castle, steal a weapon so they can defeat the boss and make their escape.
My intention was for the player to scan the environment and notice that they had 3 entry options of. The first path was straight through the front gates, the second is by climbing a watch tower and the final involves the player swimming through the sewers.
Each path offered a unique experience that catered to different playstyles such as stealth, aggression and exploration. The three paths would converge by the time the player obtains the secret weapon and fight the area boss.
Process
1
Document the map layout with the intended playable paths
2
Make a floor plan and label all the obstacles and collectables in the design doc
3
Create a initial map grey-box for testing and iteration.
Iteration
Upon playtesting I made iterations to the level to refine its overall flow. The open structure was not clear for players and choosing specific paths over others did not provide consistent experiences. I cut out the multiple paths and made the level linear so that players will progress through one path that takes them throughout the entire castle.
With this decision I was able to create more curated experiences, that had clearer objectives and a more visually pleasing space to play through. Clever players are able to use the environment to their advantage by finding more effective weapons and good positioning to survive an encounter.
Closing
This level takes about 20-30 min to complete. Pacing plays an important role in how a levels feel. A problem I had with my initial design was that the pacing had no balance. The first iteration had long moments of downtime and consecutive encounters. It did not give the player enough time to breathe and take in the environment or cool down after a tense encounter.
The updated version of the map not only provided more balanced pacing but also put the player through a variety of scenarios such as exploration, puzzle solving, close quarters combat, long range combat and stealth. The updated experience made more use of verticality and enemy diversity to give the player a clearer sense of progression.
Notes
Verticality
Diverse Encounters
Balanced Pacing
Enemy Placement