A DECADE OF LEVELS
TECHNOLOGY USED
Source Engine
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This page serves to catalogue some of my most significant maps created since I began designing levels around ~2010. While this is nowhere near a comprehensive collection of my work, it shows my progress and consistency over a decade.
raising the bar redux 2019 - 2020
I spent about a year working with the RTBR team recreating the HL2 beta. In my time, I primarily worked on 3 levels. I hope that one day I have enough time to return to the project and help them push to a full release. My work on RTBR has its own page in my portfolio.
Hospital Shootout Fall 2018
I created hospital shootout as a way to soley focus on level design with an emphasis on dynamic combat and an interconnected environment. This project also has its own page in my portfolio.
Sewers - Winter 2017
Sewers was the second map in a solo mod project I called 'The Canals.' This level focused on being less action focused than my previous levels and is more about atmosphere. I also really wanted to push the 'double-back' concept with players repeatedly returning to previous spaces to create a sense of space.
This level suffers from being punishingly dark. While I wanted the atmosphere the darkness often hides a lot of environmental storytelling and makes certain sequences frustrating.
Overall, though, I'm very happy with this level and believe it is some of my best work. I think the way events unfold - with many solutions to problems introducing new problems - keeps the level feeling fresh and exciting and, when it's not too dark, it's one of the prettier levels I've made.
Canal - Winter 2017
Canal was the starting map in a solo mod project I called 'The Canals.' Unfortunately, this project was canned when I began studying at SCAD. This level focused on traversal and puzzle solving; as the first level in the mod, I wanted to avoid intense combat.
As typical for my earlier environments, this level suffers from being frequently too dark. Watching this now, it's also apparent to me that many of my puzzle are rather obtuse and I do a poor job of leading players towards progress throughout the level.
Similar to Sewers above, this level represents the height of my Source capabilities with advanced scripting throughout and the best visual fidelity you can strangle out of a, at the time, nearly fifteen-year-old engine.
Maintenance Tunnel - Winter 2016
Maintenance Tunnel is more of an environment art piece than a level. I sought to recreate a hallway from an old Iron Horizon level as a means to judge how far I've come with Source. I used similar textures and overall geometry to evoke the same space, then put a lot of effort into details, lighting, and atmosphere. The reference image can be seen at the end of this gallery.
Alpha Sewers - Fall 2016
Alpha Sewers was the second map of my solo mod 'The Canals' and was a direct sequel to the level below and was eventually replaced by the sewers above.
This level in particular was pivotal in my level design career. When I completed this map, I realized that I was capable of making levels much more beautiful and detailed than I thought. However, that beauty highlighted a serious lack of gameplay and, even worse, logical level flow.
It was here that I began to realize my levels were often series of semi-random rooms strung together and did a poor job of elluding to a complete world no matter how nice they looked.
Alpha Canal - Fall 2016
Alpha Canal was the original first level of my solo mod 'The Canals.' Eventually, I scrapped this level when the project became more ambitious and I realized I could build at a much higher standard of quality.
This level suffers from being ruthlessly difficult - most encounters can only be survived with previous knowledge of enemy placement - can you believe this was going the be the first level of an experience?!
You can also see my visual style begin to harden here with dark, moody environments and punchy lighting.
Water Plant - Fall 2016
This level began as a standalone practice map to keep my skill sharp between projects. Ultimately, I was so happy with this map that it inspired me to begin my solo mod project 'The Canals.'
Water Plant is a signature of this era of my work for better or worse. On the positive side, my signiture style begins to develop here - deep atmosphere, gameplay variety, verticality, and 'double-backing' layouts. On the negative, the environments are too dark and the way forward is often unintuitive to players. A unique issue to this level is an almost dreamlike layout, where the way the environments are connected is completely illogical and strange.
Complex - Summer 2016
Complex was the original 'Hospital Shootout' in that it's a level created purely to showcase gameplay. At the time, I was doing a lot of work to better understand AI and constructing combat encounters to add to my, at the time, generally puzzle-focused levels.
This level suffered from a rookie mistake - while ambushes can be fun occasionally, consistent ambushes make the experience frustrating and almost force multiple playthroughs to overcome the disadvantage, which is not ideal.
This level also highlights a lack of down time in many of my levels. up to this point, my levels had some type of gameplay in every single space, making the pacing feel sluggish or annoying. You can see that in later levels, there is generally liminal spaces between set pieces.
Visual Interest Tests - Summer 2016
The Visual Interest Tests were a series of single-space maps where I wanted to concentrate on maximizing the visual fidelity of a space while keeping them performant within Hammer Editor.
I performed a significant amount of research into how the editor functions under the hood while creating these tests from gaining a better understanding of rendering and optimization to improved lighting setups. However, as evidenced by the levels above, I had a long way to go before reaching my 'peak' in terms of Source visual fidelity.
Flying Town - Winter 2015
Flying Town was a precursor to my visual interests tests. For this level, I aimed to pack as much detail into the environment as I could using only brushes.
This was perhaps the worst level I've ever built in terms of performance. Without fully understanding how Source renders and its optimization tools, this detail destroyed the engine and it barely ran despite not being particularly beautiful. This issue is what sparked my interest to do the research above.
Prison - Winter 2011
Unnerved was a short horror experience where players sought to escape a derelict Central American prison. It featured extensive jumpscares and traps. It focused largely on traversal and was more of an atmospheric walking simulator than the action titles the Source Engine is known for.
Iron Horizon: City - Fall 2010
City was the final Iron Horizon map I worked on before the project was canceled, so the map was never truly finished. It was meant to be the mysterious first level of the mod before the player was transported to a fantastical steampunk world.
For this level, I began experimenting with prefabs. I would create buildings in a separate level, make them into a prefab, and bring them into the level proper. This allowed me to build the city quickly by using the same building repeatedly at a lower performance cost.
Iron Horizon: Mines - Fall 2010
I would consider the Iron Horizon Mines to be my best map for at least the next several years. It had solid visuals, exiting gameplay, and many cinematic events from rumbles to ambushes to breaking platforms.
That said, it suffered from the same primary issue many of my maps in this era did - nonsensical rooms leading to a directionless player. While, at this time, I was beginning to grasp the engine, I still didn't quite understand levels beyond cool-looking rooms with some enemies or puzzles in them.
Comparing Mines to the levels I was building just ealier that year shows pretty astounding progress.
Iron Horizon: Desert Bridge - Summer 2010
Desert Bridge was one of my first truly exterior game maps. At the time, I don't think I had the understanding and skill with Source bsps to craft such a complex structure. I was unsure how to make a level without simple hallways and rooms, so the layout itself was a swerving maze of rocks most players got lost in.
Sewers - Winter 2010
Before Iron Horizon kicked off, a close friend of mine and I wanted to create an alternate history mod taking place in an abandoned soviet bunker. We eventually wanted to strive for something more interesting and unique, so we dropped this project for Iron Horizon.
As you can see, this level had many of the hallmarks of my level design - strange layouts and overly dark, however, it is the first map where I begin to add fill lights to my environments, making them not completely black.
Pipeworks - Winter 2010
Pipeworks really showcases my early struggles in source with maps that aren't just dark, but literally black - impossible to see in without the game's flashlight. However, this level was rather ambitious for me at the time, featuring numerous puzzles, large, open spaces, and use of particle effects to bring atmosphere.
Mines - Winter 2010
As far as I know, Mines is the first map I created with any intention of showing publically or having others play it. All previous maps were various tests and personal fun. This map was effectively a three dimensional maze of pathways through various stone and metal rooms. There was no gameplay as I didn't know how to script any.
This level exemplifies a period of time in my level design career where I wasn't really designing levels, but just building at will whatever I felt like at the time. No sketch, no greybox, no written plan, nothing.
Conclusion
Thank you so much for coming on this journey with me, I cannot express how much it means to me that you're here.
I find it absolutely inspiring to see how much I progressed between 2010 and 2020, not to mention my current work. I built this page out of passion to show my deep dedication to level design, and really, environments, in games.