Reckoning
Physics-based combat, puzzles, and gameplay

Project Details
Role: Level Designer
Game: Half-Life 2
Engine: Source
Team Size: Solo Project

Description

Reckoning is a single-player level set inside a Combine waste management facility where the combine has covered up their use of toxic waste. Zombies have taken over the facility, and the Combine dead bodies are spread out all over the facility.

You play Gordon Freeman, who has run away from the combine into the facility to escape only to realize that you he trapped and that freedom lies in escaping the zombie-infested building.

The perimeters were 5-10 mins of gameplay, 5-8 interior and exterior rooms, at least two significant combat encounters, and one multi-step puzzle.

Gameplay Goals

My main goal for this level was to get the player to use physics in as many ways as possible throughout the level. This stands true to Half-Life 2 gameplay.

Level Design Goals

Battery Physics Puzzles

I accomplished this by using what I call the “insight but out-of-reach puzzle system.” I would put the player in a room where they need to find a battery or batteries to proceed to the next room. They would look for a battery and see it in a room like the image above. They noticed it but couldn’t reach it until they stacked boxes in the room correctly, jumped on them, reached the correct height, and used the physics cannon to grab it. This puzzle went through many iterations during development, and I changed a lot based on feedback from my playtesters and stakeholders. One of the challenges was putting them in place away from the combat so that after a combat sequence, they wouldn’t be thrown about in the room. This was excellent feedback, and I improved upon my original design.

Killing Enemies Using Physics

Players use the physics cannon and saw blades throughout the level to kill enemies. In the earliest part of the level, I intentionally trapped the player behind some fences and wooden boards next to an infinite saw blade dispenser. This taught them early on that you can use the physics cannon and saw blades to destroy objects. After that mechanic introduction, the player enters another room where the heath resources can only be reached using the same mechanic. Both built off each other until they arrived at the processing facility room in the image above. When the player enters this room, they notice two containers next to a room full of zombies. They shoot the wooden columns, and the weight of the container falls on them, killing a bunch of zombies all at once. During playtesting, this room changes more than any other room in terms of both conveyance and geometry. I met this challenge with great enthusiasm. I constantly updated my overview map and communicated with my stakeholders to achieve this challenging but fun and rewarding moment for the player. 

Creating Paths Using Physics

At the beginning of the level, you see an enormous container hanging above. Near the end of the level, you get to an exterior room where you are close enough to the container to shoot a saw blade at it. Across the other side of this room is the switch you need to access to open the gate, leading to freedom from the facility and beating the level. The player uses the saw blades to destroy the wooden platform underneath the container, which creates a pathway to the switch for the exit gate.

All my previous mechanics, puzzles, and combat challenges built off one another, leading to the container players have been seeing the whole time. This was another rewarding moment for the player. This was not as easy to achieve as I thought, mainly for conveyance. For starters, the feedback I got from my playtesters is why there is a wooden column underneath this container. They liked that it dropped but didn’t believe they were solving a challenge. I responded to this feedback by adjusting how the container was anchored and adding wires around the container that looked like it was holding it together. The wires dropped and floated to the ground when the player destroyed them.

POSTMORTEM

WHAT WENT WELL

Reusing Space Interior / Exterior

I feel like I did an excellent job of reusing the space. I didn’t have to create a bunch of rooms in my level. I only had 4, and one was a transition room to give players time to catch their breath. Because of this, it was easy for me to create a circular flow. Also, one of my rooms, the processing facility, had a long staircase from the back of the room to the front but up one level. I added some enemies there after a stakeholder suggested it. It was super quick to add, and I didn’t have to create a room or anything. I also had a solid interior and exterior space; my level felt big without it being that big.

Being Flexible and Killing My Design Babies Early

This is what helped me a ton. I was able to get more work done in less time. I had to listen to my stakeholders and continue communicating with them through the design process. This may sound easy but going from preproduction to production, it can be hard not to let things go, especially if you feel one of those things is crucial to your design goals and level.

This is when I started to trust my stakeholders in their feedback and just tried something new. For example, I had a great introduction to my main mechanic of destroying columns, something they even agreed with; however, it was introduced in a very odd space. I was around a bunch of shipping containers, and there were a lot of soft lock issues. After trying to fix it a few times, I decided to cut it. It was a good idea but didn’t add much to the level. Getting rid of this freed me up to focus on more important things, and having the player start in front of a landmark made the primary goal much more apparent.

Physics Wow Moments

Half-Life 2 is all about physics, so I knew I had to use physics in a way that was both challenging and fun. Early in preproduction, I created three action blocks; one was shooting a box holding up a large shipping container with enemies’ underneath it. The player must get from one side of a level to another. They use the saw blade and physics gun, destroying the box, killing all the enemy’s underneath them, and creating a path from one side of the level to the other. I expanded on that idea in my level, with a room housing large shipping containers and a bunch of enemies in a room. You can use the sawblade to destroy the wooden columns holding the shipping containers up. Putting some barrels around the wooden columns made this rewarding and empowering moment more challenging. During playtesting, players liked this idea but felt they didn’t earn this empowering moment. Putting obstacles around the wooden columns increased the challenge and rewarded them for their efforts.

WHAT WENT WRONG

What is this space?

I knew three main spaces throughout development: a junkyard, a loading dock, and a processing facility. Bam, I am done. Nope, there are more questions that I thought I could answer later. I could, but I learned quickly that I should not have been so naïve. I asked myself a lot, is this real? But this is a game. It needs to be believable, not real. Will players buy into this space? Does it fill lived in?

I never asked myself what was the processing facility processing, who was processing it, and why? Why are the zombies there? Did they break in? If so, how? I don’t think all these questions need to be answered, but they are enough to make the space seem believable. I failed to do so and learned that this is not something to ignore. Also, I have these three spaces, but what about the spaces connecting them, the stairs, the rooms between rooms? They need a purpose; I should have been intentional in my design.

Authentic, Engaging Puzzles Need Additional Steps

My puzzles are there, and they have suitable conveyance. However, it can always be better, and I would say that it doesn’t engage the player in the way I intended. My design goal for the puzzles was to get the player to use the gravity gun and the breakable wooden platforms to reach areas where the batteries are placed. I framed it as an “in-sight but out-of-reach” scenario. The player sees a battery and looks around the environment differently to figure out how to get to the battery. Sounds great out loud. I was proud of myself, but my goal was ill-defined because it didn’t take into combat. See, the batteries were placed in areas of the level where there would be combat, like a tall wooden platform, the player shoots the wooden column, and the battery falls. However, when the player walks into the room, there is a combat encounter first, and things are blown up, sawblades thrown around, dead zombie parts, and the wooden column is destroyed as well, and my battery is hidden beneath all that. I had to rethink my goals and put them in more prominent places, but it wasn’t that challenging anymore. Also, the batteries are relatively small, so they can be easy to miss if they are high.

Considering Conveyance

I didn’t have an unmistakable landmark from the start. After white-boxing my level, I only started to consider the player’s visual goal. This fix isn’t complicated if you know what you are doing. It was challenging since this was the first level I created entirely in a level editor. But I feel like I grew quickly, and when I start on my next project, the challenges I face here will help me a ton my next go around. Vertical alignment goes a long way. Give yourself more space than you need. Combat can change your intended conveyance goals quickly. It was always easier to scale down, and when you start adding props, that space fills up fast.

What I Learned

Choosing a Tool for Communication

I need to use a tool consistently that I am comfortable with to communicate with my stakeholders. After each milestone, my stakeholders had some concerns that could have been quickly iterated off if I had a more flexible LDD and overview map. I made my LDD in Illustrator, and in Adobe Dimensions, I focused too much on polishing my idea while trying to communicate it. Less is more in this case, or at least being concise is better than being in-depth. I am a very detail-oriented person by nature, which is an excellent thing at the appropriate time, but when writing down my ideas, I should wait until the ink is dry to come up with new ones.

I am easily inspired by new ideas constantly. That isn’t the problem. I need a new tool to manage it. I feel going forward, using Adobe Illustrator is the best tool to communicate with my stakeholders. It’s super flexible and quick. Also, I am very comfortable with it. If I need to think in 3D, which is challenging to conceptualize, I can build a small white box in Hammer, Unity 3D, and even Unreal Engine 4. All these tools are comfortable for me if I don’t get lost in it.

Bubble maps also go a long way. It is a form of ideating but keeping my ideas succinct. I feel like I can quickly examine the relationships between each room of the space. Learning what the flow of the level will be, what will occupy that space, and how the player will engage with it.

Played Level as Intended by Players

Throughout development, I played my level as I thought it would be played. But everyone is different, and some people want to break things or have fun. So I always do it, which is an excellent way to grow as a designer. Learning from this going forward, I can be much more intentional about my design decisions and make sure that there are no soft locks, which I spent a tremendous amount of time doing. This is very important to fix; however, if I considered this at the beginning of development, it would have saved me time that I could have spent on other things like gameplay and conveyance.

Research and Play Game During Development

Since I had many conveyance challenges and was starting to ask myself more questions about the space I was creating for the player to engage with, I missed out on something precious. Playing Half-Life 2! During preproduction, I wrote a paper deconstructing how they used conveyance in their game. I should have just used a lot more of that stuff. I didn’t have to start from scratch. Also, I might have missed or didn’t dive into many ideas gameplay and puzzle-wise because I was looking at the game. If I replayed some of the levels that used some of the same enemies and gameplay as me, I am sure there would be many things I could have just gravitated towards. There are some things you can figure out in the editor.

Gallery

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