Designing the final act of my escape level (HL2 level part 3)

[@mrmandolino500]

Hah! It's always incredibly reassuring to hear that even veterans sometimes commit rookie mistakes. Shows we shouldn't hold ourselves to an expectation of perfection. Great stuff!

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Hehe good to hear, and yep it's an important point about not expecting perfection all the time (or ever) - "Perfect is the enemy of good": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good

[@retrocademedia-announcements]

I would love to see a part 4 of this! This series is super cool and your channel is one of the most helpful level design resources I've found

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Hey, thanks. I'd love to get round to making it too, but there are lots of things (and other videos) fighting for my time these days. We'll see, fingers crossed :)

[@alexbelzer1039]

Seconding this!

[@Crimzan4]

This channel is an absolute goldmine! My favorite game of all time is Deus Ex 1 from 2000, I love the gameplay and I have dabbled a ton with the level editor. But I always struggled with coming up with levels, 90% of the Guides in the internet seriously just get me stuck in overplanning, it ends up being too overwhelming and so no Level actually ever gets made... What I have learned so far in this series is that starting with a text document is a really nice idea (especially with the sequence, I have never done that!), and that building both the beginning and ending of the level first helps making the level instantly playable by setting a goal that I then can abstract and add obstacles between; and that iterating on that, jumping back and forth between a quick additional sketch and then continuing the blockout with that is just really instantly rewarding for Solo Devs. One thing I am still curious about is that I get stuck on making empty buildings / rooms just for "filler purposes". I am so used to planning and planning that even if I have no idea what a building could be for, it kind of has to be there for gameplay purposes but I can't assign it a proper identity (like storage room, storage what for, what would they store? Or what other rooms / buildings would they need?); I get really hung up on those kinds of questions so it's really refreshing to see someone really skilled just whipping up a building like this. I am genuinely curious to learn if it is actually fine to have a "filler building" if it feels right, or if you give it more "sense" later on during the process! Anyways, I am sorry for the long textwall, I am just really excited haha! Thanks for sharing your workflow and experience, I especially appreciate you keeping that "textbook junior error" in, as this is incredibly helpful for me. Seriously considering Patreon currently! Keep up the nice work, looking forward to Part 4 :)

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Hmm so regarding adding buildings / rooms for as "filler" - I would say that if they don't serve a purpose, then don't add them :) But if they do serve a purpose or you know that they will later, then go ahead and quickly block them in (to hopefully give them more "sense" / purpose later, like you say). Questions like "what kind of rooms could this be / would they realistically have?" are definitely worth thinking about - in this video one of the reasons I gravitated towards the remote outdoors setting with random industrial outposts is that it kind of justifies buildings being simple and functional, and only placed where I need them. So in that sense, I'm intuitively trying to pick a setting which helps me and makes the job easier! Hope this helps, and glad you like the videos 👍

[@Crimzan4]

@@stevelee_gamedev that’s very insightful :) Thank you for the explanation!

[@artifact2454]

This is one of my favourite series about level design. There is very little of videos like these out there

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Great to hear, thanks - I hope to return to it someday...

[@NikitaShershakov]

please return to this, we really need it 😅

[@MikeyLove22]

A fantastic video series so far ! Its very inspriring but also uniquely helpful and educational, as I cannot remember seeing any other LD tutorials / educational pieces where a dev will talk you through their process and also work through it with you which makes it a must-watch.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Great to hear it's useful / inspiring - cheers :)

[@CarlodiPaolo]

Yes! literally was commenting how I was looking forward to this just as you posted it

[@stevelee_gamedev]

:D

[@neon-kitty]

This series has been a really fun watch! I hope there'll be a fourth part someday but if not, at least you managed to make it one entry further than Valve :p.

[@JosTipker]

Awesome videos! Hope you do something similar again!😊

[@WackyWhiskerDev]

Great series! Too bad there is no Part 4. One thing I noticed and I struggled with in such situations when it was part of a level design test is the playtime estimation. If you really think about it and you don't speed run it, this level probably takes a minute to complete. I find that really scary when the requirement is 5 minutes or even worse more than that. Wouldn't it take a really long time to design such a lengthy level in a short amount of days?

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Generally when people say a level is roughly x minutes long, we're talking about typical players, and not speedrunners, or even players who are particularly "good" at the game. It's true that making levels for games like this can definitely take a lot of time though, which is why it's important to keep projects as small as you can, and also find ways to work elegantly, and lean towards solutions that bring a lot of value without being too much work, etc!

[@zip2kx]

will there ever be part 4? Would really like to see the parts of how you add side paths etc i personally always struggle at that part, on how to flesh out an existing level.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

I hope so someday - I just have various other videos planned too, and not enough time!

[@tremichi4926]

Thanks for all of your work Steve! How did you get hl2:episode 2 assets into hammer? I can't find any tutorial explaining this.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Hmm it should just be a case of choosing the Episode 2 game config when you open up Hammer / Hammer++? (And if you're not using Hammer++, strongly recommend it)

[@skillzart]

Hi Steve! I'm a complete beginner and struggling to find a good tutorial video of how to use Hammer. Could you make one for us?

[@stevelee_gamedev]

I've thought about it and it's in my list of ideas - it's just a matter of not finding the time, in relation to all the other videos I'm thinking about / working on. Fingers crossed though :)

[@flaviomauri]

Scripting can kill a project. I was working on a map and greyboxed pretty much the whole place. So I turned to scripting a couple of the main bits and I just couldn't make them work, so ended up not finishing it. Very embarassingly, one of the roadblocks I had was making a working elevator: it just wouldn't work, neither following a tutorial step by step, nor using the HL1 old trick of creating the elevator as a sliding door. I could never work out the bug 😟

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Hehe yep, scripting elevators tends to be a nightmare, every time :)

[@magikmw]

I just watched all 3 videos in one sitting and I'm heartbroken to learn there isn't a part 4! Honestly those, and the one where you showcase your Arcane application project made me realise I can probably work in 3D. I always considered it daunting and more complicated than 2D, but roguelikes, and immersive sims (starting with Thief) basically shaped my love for systemic, procedural gameplay and it's probably best realised in 3D. I'm thankful and going back to watch the rest of your videos.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Great to hear they’re useful, thanks for watching! Definitely hope to get back to this series someday…

[@rmt3589]

Same. Almost done with this one, and save a few minutes to put it on my history, started the first one just a bit ago. A 4th would be amazing. But I think this will help me have a workflow for my own levels.

[@wty304]

Awesome !!!!! Can't wait to watch the part 4 !!!!

[@drew6107]

Thanks for this series. I've been looking for videos like this for years. I've never found anything as hands-on as this before. I think you might be able to launch the jalopy through the force field with the gravity gun.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Haha, interesting point about the car and the gravity gun - I think I'll mention this in the next video. Cheers, and glad you like the series 👍

[@Nyllsor]

Ohw Half-Life 2 and The sauce' engine ❤ Great watch :) inspiring too

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Great to hear, cheers :)

[@James_the_gamedev1994]

This was a awesome series to watch. I learnt a lot about level design and would love to see more of it. Thank you.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Lovely to hear, and yeah I hope to get back to this series someday 👍

[@Uradamus]

Always enjoy seeing other folks workflows for this sort of thing. This has been a fun watch so far. Bit disappointed that it seems to have been abandoned at this point though; hopefully you find some time to get another episode out down the line to wrap things up. That Bethesda interview is what brought your channel to my attention initially, checking out some of your other content now.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Yeah I hope to come back and continue this, in the not-too-distant future! Glad you like it so far 👍

[@marcop5400]

Ik also making a level and need to know how to set up Alyx like you did here. Know where i can find a tutorial to set her up or could you explain?

[@iArdo90]

Can we consider the climactic battle as the "set piece" of the beats? Of course, thanks for these videos, they are really useful!

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Hmm I don't think I would actually say there is much going on in this level that is particularly set-piece-y - not yet, anyway - I'm more trying to stick to good but fairly textbook stuff (good structure, objectives and gating, etc) so far, although maaaaybe near the end of the series, some of the enemy scripting and situations (e.g. getting into the final room through the roof) will evolve to the point of feeling like a set-piece. We'll see. (And cheers, great to hear you find the videos useful 👍)

[@erencb2004]

Crates are crackable in hl2. 28:36 In this section players already have weapons in their inventory, so players can crack the crates by using them. And if they do this, they will break the level because there is no way to climb up except using the crates. Sorry if you've already mentioned it, I didn't see so I wanted to write xd

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Yep, well spotted :) The kinda thing I'd try and start thinking about in future videos if I ever find time to get back to this series!

[@michaelperkins1119]

So cool and helpful. Looking forward to part 4

[@Jancias]

While the level is obviously very basic in nature, the way you created it is very nice! Kudos to you for bringing level design theory to more people!

[@stevelee_gamedev]

It's not finished yet, haha (several more parts to this series still to come). It's deliberately rough now so that I can focus on iterating on the design quickly :)

[@BrunoNauts]

Your work is fantastic! I can`t wait for the next video, thank you so much for making these videos!

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Cheers Bruno, great to hear / you're welcome :)

[@BoyOHBoy123]

15:04 use the vertex manipulation tool

[@stevelee_gamedev]

I deliberately didn't because it was quicker just to drag some boxes, and not editing with the vertex tool leaves it easier to change later when I iterate on the design.

[@peacemaster8117]

"There's some weirdness to the idea that you free some civilians and then drive off on your own" That's definitely true, but I think it's interesting to point out that Gordon leaving civilians behind is something he does constantly throughout Half-Life 2. There's so many times Gordon meets friendly civilians and then leaves them in danger: the couple in the hallway besides the train tracks, the various rebels clearing your path in Route Canal and Water Hazard, the guy stranded on the antlion beach, every group of rebels in the final act, etc. Some of them are scripted to die after the player leaves, on the slim chance that you backtrack to them. I think it's done like that to reflect how Gordon is a messianic figure and people are willing to lay down their lives to keep him moving towards the Citadel. There's a substantial human cost to everything Gordon does, and it's on the player to make their sacrifices worthwhile.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Yeah, and to me it's totally part of the story that you don't know if Gordon is even doing good things or not (G-man, etc). I suppose for me there's a slight distinction between what I thought would feel right in a standalone map, versus in the context of the main game :)

[@kameronbarger2052]

Fantastic!

[@JKd3vLD]

Awesome content as always! 🤩

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Cheers Jonatas, glad you like it :)