Rude Awakening
Half-Life 2 Singleplayer
FPS, Scripted Setpieces, Systemic Gameplay
1 Month Solo Project
Released February 17th, 2023
Rude Awakening is a 5-10 minute long Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (2007) level about escaping a small rebel base as it's raided by the Combine. Gameplay is similar to that of a traditional Half-Life 2 level, though progression is similar to that of an adventure game or escape room.
This level was made for level designer Steve Lee's third level design jam (found here), which had the theme of "five rooms". In the spirit of the jam, the level makes use of nonlinear routing and delayed scripted sequences to get more gameplay out of less space.
Download on the Steam Workshop here. At the time of writing, the level has over 700 downloads on Steam and has also been downloaded from Itch and Gamebanana.
Design
For my first time participating in one of Steve Lee's level design jams, the prompt was to create a level around the theme of "five rooms" in a Source Engine game. I chose to create a small Half-Life 2 level that would require players to engage with their environment to solve puzzles, open up paths, and handle enemies, channeling Half-Life's original tagline of "Run, Think, Shoot, Live".
I didn't paper draft the layout prior to implementation, however I did originally plan the level in written format, by detailing the sequence of events that the player experiences. You can see my original plan and notes here.
The level was playtested by four other level designers participating in the jam and one friend. Testers submitted videos that I was able to watch to observe player behavior. The original version that was tested had less enemy combat and scripting, as I wanted to focus on verifying that the puzzles were intuitive enough to solve.
Puzzles
Half-Life 2 is a highly systemic game and much of that is built around it's physics and damaging systems. I tapped into these in order to create interesting puzzles that encouraged players to use real world logic to navigate.
In one example of a puzzle, a hole in the ground is covered in wooden boards. Above this is a catwalk storage area that has old appliances such as a fridge and a washing machine. In order to enter the hole, players must shatter the wooden boards by pushing one of these heavy objects off the catwalk and sending them crashing through the boards.
As another example, in order to escape and complete the level, players must get a car out of the garage. The garage doors are barred shut by a piece of metal, which works entirely by the game's physics. In order to unlock the piece the player needs to obtain the game's signature "gravity gun" to lift the piece of metal and unbar the door.
My original concept for the level was more focused on puzzles and I did some prototyping of this before settling on a version that incorporated Half-Life 2's enemies and weapons, believing that they added more opportunity for exciting scripting scenarios.
Scripting
The level makes heavy use of scripted sequences involving different types of AI. The general goal of using scripted sequences was to introduce enemies into spaces that the player was already in, and to create a sense of escalation as the combine raid the house.
The sequences begin with the Combine sending shells full of headcrabs to zombify the rebels, then continues to them sending in manhack drones to scout the area, before finally sending in the soldiers to clear out what's left.
Some of the sequences are small scale, like having a headcrab walk a certain path to tease the player, while others are larger scale like enemies ambushing the player by shooting up windows and breaching rooms by blowing doors off of their hinges.
Outside of what I specifically scripted, the AI have different systemic behaviors, like taking cover or infighting between different factions (combine, zombies, etc.).
There's also some non-AI scripting, such as a bit where the player must restore power in a flooded basement, which in turn electrifies the water, creating a hazard.