Level Study: Unforeseen Consequences
What I did
In order to familiarize myself with the tools such as geometry brushes and modeling mode used for blocking out a level in the Unreal Engine I worked to recreate the third level of Half Life, Unforeseen Consequences.
Following the original intent behind Half Life, that there would be no loading screens I learned about level streaming and recreated the sub-levels following the original from c1a0c to c1a1d.
I then connected them all properly in a master level so that a fly through would be able to follow the same path the players tread as Gordon Freeman.
Everything was built and placed by hand using additive and subtractive geometry brushes alongside modeling mode.
Design Insights
Something I noticed early on while aligning the early sub-levels together in the main level was that overall the player was always moving in relatively the same direction except right after getting HEV suit. This clearly helps with navigating Black Mesa and combined with the linear levels helps the player never feel lost.
Additionally, even though in the original Half Life the sub-level sections are never present simultaneously, I found that even after placing all the sections in the main level there were no intersections between any of them. None of the sub-levels had “impossible” rooms that couldn’t physically exist. Despite the winding nature of navigating Black Mesa, these factors help the player from becoming lost especially in later levels such as Surface Tension
