Left for Dead in Ravenholm: The Neighborhood

Level Design (Half-Life 2 Levels)

Downloads

Overview

Left for Dead in Ravenholm is a two-level Campaign for Half-Life 2 that recreates gameplay from Left 4 Dead within the Half-Life universe. Along with Alyx, Barney and Father Grigori, you must journey through the Zombie-invested town of Ravenholm in search of rescue. In the first level, The Neighborhood, you fight your way through a residential area in order to reach the rescue site at the town square. Left for Dead in Ravenholm features a scripted “Director” system, based on the one from Left 4 Dead, which constantly evaluates your progress, then dynamically adjusts your difficulty and randomly alters your experience along the way.

I designed The Neighborhood as an assignment for a Directed Focus Study class in The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University. The intent of the assignment was to create a polished single-player level that focuses on a topic of personal interest; in my case, dynamic gameplay systems. I constructed the environment in the Hammer Editor for Half-Life 2: Episode Two. I scripted the combat gameplay, cinematic moments, dialogue and Director system in Hammer’s message-based scripting system. I also wrote a Level Design Document during pre-production planning.