Single Player - Father Grigory
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Updated June 5th, 2005!

My goals of this project were to: Demonstrate an ability to design a compelling single player experience Demonstrate skill in level layout and architecture The first things I decided were the size of the level (as big as I could reasonably complete in 2 weeks) and the general theme. I wanted to demonstrate that I could emulate a pre-defined theme, so I chose the Ravenholm area from the single-player game. Ravenholm has a classic zombie wasteland environment and would be fun to design as well as probably make for the most interesting stand-alone level. I later decided the player would play as the shotgun wielding monk, Father Grigory. I didn't want to over-complicate the level so I decided to limit the player to the crowbar, shotgun and flashlight. I had a few defining ideas early on: Loop the level progress through the first floor of a large building, around the alley outside and then in through a middle level (or levels) and end up on the roof. From the roof, the user could open up a blocked passage from earlier in the level. This was nothing complicated, but it would create a maximum feeling of distance in a relatively small area. Have a room filled with steam or fog that limited visibility. This seemed like a natural game-play mechanism that had been overlooked by the game designers. I figured it would work really well with the zombies which are all about surprise.   Direction I wanted to match Half Life's existing expectations of roughly 70% action, 20% exploration and 10% puzzle. To do this it was key that I make the enemy placements interesting as well as keep the environments looking realistic and creepy. I also needed something to break up the linear progress of the level and make the player think a little. I kept the main path of the level fairly tight so there would be little confusion as to where to go (one problem I experienced playing through the real Ravenholm levels). The the break in the linear progress would occur when the player, having been rather clearly led up to the roof, meets with a sudden dead end. There is nothing but a superfluous box of shotgun ammo and a strange chain-link cage / shooting perch overlooking an inaccessible area that is clearly important (the red light clearly distinguishes it from the explored part of the level). The area beneath the cage is rather empty save for the 3 barrels which any Half Life player will probably reason are explosive. One hit from the shotgun will spark a huge explosion and if the player returns to the bottom level of the building he will find a barricade has been blown out, allowing passage to the level end. Brush Modeling I designed the structure of the level first; the walls, floors, stairs, etc, with a general idea of where I was going to have the enemy encounters. Once I had the basic framework, I worked on molding it into something that looked real, in particular I focused on the surrounding building facades and the horizon. I could not get the 3-D skybox to work without its drawing ugly lines across the sky (the Valve-provided demos had the lines too) so I had to be tricky in keeping the player from being able to see too far into the distance (at which point he would realize he was in a tiny box and not in the middle of a ravaged city). I think that the rooftop props like the chimneys and water towers do a good job of drawing the focus in close and the predominance of high walls keeps the view off of the horizon.   Lighting and Effects Lighting was key to capturing the essence of Ravenholm; I found a good full-moon lighting and allowed it to dominate the outdoor environments. Inside, I stuck to the strong, typically Ravenholm, spot-lights and spaced them out enough to leave lurking shadows for monsters to hide in. The steam room was my greatest indoor challenge - all of the other rooms I lit with warm, rustic lights and brooding shadows, the steam room got white light, lots of tanks and pipes and, of course, steam. Half-life's particle emitters are a little problematic - if the player turns away too far from the source, all of the particles vanish, even if they are still visible. To combat this in the rather large steam room, I used large props to manage the player route and blew the steam in toward him so he would be less likely to pass the source while he was still seeing the particles. Of course when the player returns through the steam room, the effect is ruined, but by that point the enemies are dead and the player is just running through. If I were to redesign the level I would take the steam room out of the return loop so that it was a one-way experience.   Enemy placement I tried to include a good variety of the zombie/headcrab species (except for the poison zombie which I think is kind of lame and really just an ammo-sink) and to mix them up so the player couldn't get into a routine. The fast zombies would be the highlight of the level so I had to be careful not to over-do them. I placed two; one that races through the steam just as you enter the room and another that jumps on you from behind when you first emerge into the alley behind the building. Both of them worked beautifully and are genuinely hair-raising as they leap, unexpected and screaming, out of nowhere. I later added more enemies - see below. Problems My biggest problems were in learning the idiosyncrasies of a new level editor - props that wouldn't show up in game play (how could I have known there wouldn't be support for world models that aren't predefined for a particular prop-type?), AI that would shut off on subsequent plays because it wasn't saving a node network, and an equipment pre-loader script that just wouldn't work at all (I have to start the player on a HEV suit pickup just so he can run or use the flashlight). Extra touches I didn't get around to doing include finding props for the fire escapes (where could they be?) and implementing audio based messaging instead of those lame little floating text lines. I also had a problem luring the player back downstairs after he blows open the doorway. I broke up the barricade into different colors and added a gap so the player could see through it and it would make a bigger impression when it was first encountered. I also, spawned new enemies on the way back down to reassure the player that back-tracking is indeed the correct thing to do. I had received feedback that the level was too easy. Even though it is only supposed to be indicative of a level within a larger game (and therefore not completely life threatening from start to finish) I decided it would be better to make it more of a stand alone challenge. I increased the difficulty by spawning a poison zombie and two fast zombies along the route back down to the church door. If played on the difficult play setting, the Father Grigory level is quite a challenge.

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