Death Penalty
A Left 4 Dead 2 Custom Map
Custom Left 4 Dead 2 Map (Hammer Editor) September 2020 – December 2020
Lead Designer/Developer Team Size: 1 (Solo)
Overview
Death Penalty is a custom Left 4 Dead 2 Map created in the Hammer Editor with Valve's community tools and assets. I created this from the ground up starting with a detailed Level Design Document, to blocking out geometry of the level, to editing and perfecting the navigation mesh, and finally texturing and populating the map with props. I am still tweaking elements of the map, and I intent to post it on the Steam Community Workshop.
Map Gallery
A major theme I pushed in my blockouts of Death Penalty was varying room sizes to keep gameplay fresh. Since Left 4 Dead 2 constantly throws large waves of enemies at the player, it can get stale if the environments pose the same threat every time. To combat this, I made the level in a way that has the rooms change in size. Which means no large rooms lead directly into another. Breaking up the map into (in essence) small - large - small - medium - small - large, gives players a reason to handle each room differently, such as changing weapons, positioning, and strategy.
Design Theme - Combating Repetition with Room Variation
Lighting was also incredibly useful when making rooms feel different from one another. For example, the player goes through two cell blocks that are very similar in layout. In Cell Block A, the player enters from a bottom level jail cell and the lights are turned on. In Cell Block B, the player enters from the top level Security room and the lights are completely out, forcing them to use their flashlight. These changes combined with varying prop layouts makes for completely different gameplay experiences in extremely similar spaces.
More Variation with Lighting
A
B
Level Design Document:
My level design document is complete with level mockups, visual references, and an overview of the intended experience. I followed my initial plan in this document when building the level, but it went through several iterations before the final product. You can flip through it in the viewer to the right or download it with the button below.
Top-Down View of Level with Differences in Lighting
