Tristan and Oliver have chosen, or been chosen, to embody free men as they break down Valve’s industry defining title Half-Life 2 into these three bits:
Situational Variety - The sandbox-like combat created through the game’s physics, objects, and weapons.
Full, Continuous Control - The narrative devices deployed to tell a compelling story while always maintaining full player control.
Diegetic Wayfinding - Expertly guiding the player exclusively through visual and audio queues, minus objective markers.
Find us on Twitter:
3-Bit Design: @3bitdesign
Oliver - @oliverwauters
Tristan - @theatrewalker
Some references:
Half-Life 2's Ravenholm is peak Valve level design - Polygon, video essay
Half Life 2's Game Design is Incredible - JacksonX, video essay
How Valve Introduces a Game Mechanic - Htwo, video essay
Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar - A Behind the Scenes Look: Prima's Official Insider's Guide - Prima Development, book
Classic Postmortem: The making of Half-Life 2 - Game Developer, article
Reverse design: Half-life - Patrick Holleman, book
"The narrative had to be baked into the corridors": Marc Laidlaw on writing Half-Life - Rock Paper Shotgun, article
