Empty Level Design Page

General Development Black Mesa
#1

I’m not really sure what to make of this, but I bet some of you would.
I was googling some Black Mesa level design tips (I find written descriptions easier to work from than digging into other maps), and I found a completely unused, neglected Black Mesa Level Creation page on the Valve Developer Community site. It has the same basic section layout as all other Source game level design pages, but it doesn’t actually have any pages.

I’m an amateur at mapping, but I have it on pretty good authority that a lot of you guys, for lack of a better term, know your shit. I bet a lot of people could make use of that page if it had some well-written, descriptive content.
That, or it could use deletion, considering it looks like its creator doesn’t, well, exist anymore.
Still, I think a level design wiki could bring a lot of people into creating community content.

#2

It’s kinda unneeded when level designing for Black Mesa is pretty much the same as for any other Source game. The only articles that would make sense there would be descriptions on how to use the custom entities that are made specifically for Black Mesa.

#3

Well, usually pages like that aren’t just tutorials on how to use Hammer.
It’s tutorials on how to build environments with the same quality and feel as the original game. Portal 2’s level creation page has several different articles, for Overgrowth, Reconstructing, Underground, Wheatley Science, etc.
I can see different pages for Anomalous Materials, Unforeseen Consequences, Surface Tension, and basically for every chapter’s unique level design.

#4

That would be really awesome and useful if it was written on.

#5

Considering that Black Mesa has like 20 distinct level styles, filling in that “aesthetics” section is going to be a herculean task…

#6

The pages for other games seem to handle it pretty well. Different articles for different styles.
Half-Life 2 has articles for Highway 17, Nova Prospekt, White forest, etc. Portal 2 has articles for all of its styles.
It would take a long time to fill up, but that’s why it’s a community thing. Not just one person doing it, y’know?

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.