A standalone Black Mesa map I spent almost a year building and eventually released through the Steam Workshop.
The map starts cramped and damaged, then opens into a much larger area full of Xen wildlife and research infrastructure.
A Source Engine level released as a Workshop addon. I also made the VMF available for anyone curious enough to take it apart.
The Nesting Grounds#
View The Nesting Grounds on the Steam Workshop .
I released The Nesting Grounds in December 2018 after almost a year of work. It was meant as the prologue to Xen Survivor: Dr. O’Donnell, one of the surviving Black Mesa Survey Team members, escapes a derelict laboratory and enters a huge testing area used to study Xen wildlife.
The contrast between those two spaces was the whole point. The beginning is enclosed, damaged, and uncomfortable; the map gradually introduces stranger specimens and larger research spaces before finally opening up.
Inside the Laboratory#
The Xen wildlife is already taking over the laboratory, what was previously used as arrogant exhibits, are now claiming their cage.
The quieter rooms carry most of the Resonance Cascade’s aftermath: abandoned workstations, broken furniture, blood, and a very recognizeable critter that very clearly should not be in the ceiling.
The new lighting introduced in 2018 did a lot of the work. I wanted the route to feel unsafe even when nothing was actively attacking the player.
The more industrial spaces gave me room for vertical traversal, environmental hazards, and a little controlled chaos before the exterior section.
The map also contains combat encounters and an optional generator-room puzzle. That room can still trigger an old physics-related crash; if it happens, the Workshop instructions recommend restarting with map bm_nest. Otherwise, the normal launch command is map nest.