I learned level design in a month to prove you wrong

Experiment Overview

The video documents a month-long level-design experiment: recreating the same Half-Life 2 map at realistic real-world scale and at the larger scale typical of video games.

The creator argues that game spaces are often oversized because players move faster than people do in real life. Extra room also helps players and enemies navigate and fight. The comparison reveals a trade-off: realistic proportions feel cramped and awkward at game speeds, while the enlarged version feels more playable but strangely spacious.

Creative Process and Design Techniques

• Choose an existing game and editor: Instead of building a whole game from scratch, the creator uses Valve’s Hammer editor and learns it through tutorials.
• Start with manageable spaces: A train station seems too large for the experiment, so the creator switches to smaller, familiar areas: a maintenance closet, narrow hallways, a computer room, a bathroom, an alley, and a laundromat.
• Build encounters around spatial discomfort: Zombies, thrown objects, blocked routes, and cramped corridors are used to make players feel constrained. The intended experience is deliberately awkward rather than conventionally enjoyable.
• Iterate through playtests: Testers reveal that players may skip intended routes, use doorways as cover, or avoid entering a combat space. Their reactions expose problems the creator did not anticipate.
• Use level-design tools and constraints:
  • Add player clips to prevent players from bypassing a route.
  • Use NPC-only clips to keep enemies in a particular area while allowing the player to move freely.
  • Adjust enemy placement and weapons to encourage movement and prevent players from being pinned down.
  • Use props, collision, and soundscapes to shape each space’s atmosphere and navigation.
  • Add invisible geometry, such as ramps, to smooth player movement—not only to block access.
• Scale for playability rather than using a fixed multiplier: The game-sized map is adjusted room by room, with increases ranging roughly from 50% to 150%. Enlarging the spaces makes construction and navigation easier, but also reduces their intentionally hostile feel.
• Consider perspective and movement: Flat-screen games often exaggerate space and visual proportions, while VR can feel closer to real-world perspective. A map’s effect also depends on how quickly the player moves through it.

The creator finishes with two versions of the map and releases them on the Steam Workshop.

Creators and Contributors

• Noodle — Video creator and level designer.
• Sam — Helps with the project and discusses its design.
• Max — Level designer on El Paso, Elsewhere; advises on Hammer and level design.
• DJ Sprite XD — Playtester.
• Ed — Playtester.
• Leon — Playtester and game-analysis creator.
• Shigeru Miyamoto and Remedy — Referenced in connection with quotes and development-talk screenshots.