Summary
This level was made for the Steve Lee Half-Life 2 map jam in 2022. The theme for the jam was; Systemic AI Combat, which is why it recurs multiple times throughout the level.
About School's Out
About Half-Life 2
- Planned, Built, Playtested, and Iterated in 3 weeks
- Built in the Hammer editor
- 3 Combat encounters (systemic AI combat)
- Playtested in the Steve Lee Level Design discord
- Single-Player FPS
- Powerful player character
- Powerful physics, props which can be moved and thrown with the gravity gun.
Project Responsibilities
- Planning the level
- Building the level in Hammer
- Managing playtesting data and feedback
- Iterating the level
Overview
Level Playthrough
Screenshots
PRE-Production
Tension Graph
Sketches
Research & Planning Notes
Breaking In
The breaking in part of the map is the start of the level. I wanted to slowly raise the tension by first having the player break into the school before there would be any combat.
The player is first led through as shed after which they’ll enter a small playground next to the school building. I added several ways for the player to overcome the obstacle in the area. The player can launch any of the physics objects in the area to break open the wooden panels, which will allow barrels to roll down, which can then be used to climb up into the school. The player can also climb up the slide and shoot/hack the wooden planks manually, after which they can also climb in.
During iteration there initially was only one way to complete the puzzle, playtesting showed that players had a hard time completing it this way, so the solution was made more obvious by adding more physics objects and explosives to break open the boarded up entrance. The solution of climbing up the slide was also added as an alternative.
School Hall
This is the school hall combat encounter, it’s the first of the three the player will encounter as they play though the map. Even though the theme of the map jam was systemic AI combat, I wanted the player to experience at least one combat encounter without multiple factions interacting with each other. This to not rise the tension too early in the level by creating a lot of chaos.
The player can observe some of the combine from the previous area of the map, this to give them an idea of the battlefield, and what they’re up against. The player will enter the area at the lowest part of the chamber where they are at a disadvantage against the defending combine. Multiple soldiers are scripted to move to strategic positions when the player enters the area, killing enough enemies will also trigger two reinforcing soldiers to storm out of the doors at the top of the stairs. The player can press a red button to disable a forcefield that’s blocking their way to the rest of the map.
During iteration, playtests showed the combat encounter was a bit too harsh, especially for it being the first in the level. I swapped several enemies for less dangerous variants, including the reinforcing soldiers, removed an enemy, added more cover, and also added supplies and physics objects for the player to use.
Library
The library combat is the second encounter the player encounters in the level, the player is thrown into a fight between civilians and zombies, which is scripted to start as the player enters the area. It’s the first fight the player will experience with systemic combat between multiple AI factions so I limited it to two factions.
The player enters the library from the top of a broken down hallway on the side of the room. The drop down serves as a one-way drop to make sure the player can’t backtrack. The player starts in the middle of a fight between civilians and zombies, the better the player performs the more civilians survive the fight, which in turn helps them in the final battle as the civilians will serve a supporting role. Alyx is also one of the characters on the civilian side, ensuring the player will always have at least 1 character to help them in the next battle.
Through playtesting it was clear that in earlier iterations players would hide in the small corridor they enter though, making the combat feel anti-climactic and easy. Because of the corridor the zombies also weren’t as likely to attack the player, rather focussing solely on attacking the civilians, this didn’t feel engaging enough on the players side. The corridor was widened and shortened to make sure the zombies would attack the player and they couldn’t hide in there, one NPC was removed from the civilian side as they beat the zombies too easily, some zombies were replaced with headcrabs for enemy variety, and more physics props were added on the zombie side of the map for them to throw at the player and civilians.
Final Battle
The final battle was designed as the climactic ending to the level, it’s the only combat section in the map were the three factions interact with each other (Civilian/Player, Zombie, Combine). It’s the final fight the player will have in the experience, and as it was intended as the climax, it’s also the most challenging.
The player will enter the combat arena from the side, encountering a force of combine fighting a group of zombies, at the start the combine are more occupied with the zombies, but they’ll start fighting the player as they make themselves known. There are 2 separate waves of reinforcements that occur as the combat progresses, first are 3 combine soldiers that will drop in through the ceiling 15 seconds after the battle has started, 8 seconds after that, another 2 soldiers will take cover from the overlooking hole in the wall and will engage in combat as well.
During iteration, physics objects were added as there weren’t any in the first iteration. Two combine enemies that originally started out in the middle of combat, were moved to be reinforcements that serve as support from the overlooking hole in the wall. The amount of zombies was also reduced as playtesting showed that the fighting was too chaotic for players to see what was going on.
Playtesting
- Playtesting was mostly conducted in the Steve Lee level design discord with community members.
- The level’s three iterations were each playtested.
- Levels were tested with the target audience in mind; people with prior experience with Half-Life 2.
Post-Mortem
There are a bunch of things I would have done differently would I have worked on the project today.
Because it was a jam the level design process was rather rushed, which isn’t all too surprising I would have liked to have more time on my hands however. What I would have done differently is the amount of attention each area got, which wasn’t equally distributed enough. Some of the areas I’m the least happy about are the ones near the end of the game, especially the library arena as none of it feels right. I don’t especially like the feel of how the player enters the area as it feels rather abrupt and doesn’t make all too much sense from a worldbuilding perspective. I don’t like how the combat in the space feels, this happened because the original layout that I sketched out didn’t really work out, but there wasn’t enough time to redo everything at a later point. Another major thing I would have changed would be the puzzle to get into the facility, this was though up in early development and I would have rather completely removed it as it didn’t work as I intended it, but again there wasn’t enough time for it so I had to make due with what I had. Last of all I would have taken an extra day to do more set dressing, I’m not exactly happy with how the level ended up looking, and this was mostly because I did all the texturing, set dressing, and lighting in one day.