A complete map release in collaboration with a dear riend.
Flow, space building, encounter pacing, and final map production.
Working with a dated, yet proven program.
Project Scope#
Interloping Habitat was a full map project, in collaboration with a friend, using the new features added in the Black Mesa Xen update to their full potential.
The project covered the complete level-design loop:
- shaping the route and progression from the first blockout,
- iterating on encounter rhythm and readability,
- integrating the visual and technical passes needed to make the level feel finished.
Design Process#
The graybox phase mattered because it established the entire experience. Before visual polish, the level had to work as movement space, combat space, and navigational space.
That included asking practical questions such as:
- where does the player pause and where do they push forward
- how much information should the environment reveal at each point
- how do combat beats and traversal beats alternate without exhausting the player
Building good spaces in the Source ecosystem is not just a matter of detail placement. The flow has to hold up even when the map is visually stripped down.
Working Inside a Less-Documented Branch#
One of the interesting parts of this project was working with features in the Black Mesa engine branch that, at the time, were not especially well documented.
That changes the nature of the work. Instead of following a stable cookbook, you end up validating behavior, testing limits, and learning by direct iteration inside the editor and game runtime. It is slower than using a mature workflow, but it forces a better understanding of how the environment actually behaves.
The new lighting system was especially esoteric: it mimiced the one present in Unreal Engine 4, but with its own Source-Engine feeling.
What This Project Shows#
Interloping Habitat is useful in this portfolio because it demonstrates two things clearly:
- I enjoy building playable spaces, not only systems.
- I can take a project from abstract layout thinking to a finished deliverable.
That combination matters to me. Even when I work primarily in gameplay programming, I prefer staying close to the player experience rather than treating implementation as something disconnected from design.
Furthermore, I can never stray away too much from modding games, I can never get enough of it.