Re-laying the brick:
This mod started out as the small whimsy of a under-experienced mapper trying to port a pretty cool Half-Life 2 beta chapter into the newer, more PC friendly version of the game. As I got more and more into the process, I realized I had to remove stuff, I had to gut things out because it didn't work right for the Source Engine anymore. Eventually I started adding and changing so much, that it became much more, and I realized I wanted to take what I was doing to the next level, and gut out all of the "broken cracked brick", and lay down some nice new polished brick.
The result of all of this reworking led to a much more detailed project than the original ever was, but it didn't seem to have that cold, dark, intimidating charm the original chapter captured. With new effort, motivation, and newly learned skills, I have taken to undoing many of the pretty bad decisions I have made.This means:
A Title Change, because my title was never very eye-popping, and was in-fact very generic. Coupled with the fact the air exchange was meant to suffocate, I have taken to making sure it fits in well with what will come later in the chapter.
A Lighting Redux, because my original map was always bright, vibrant and orange, which is what Air Exchange wasn't meant to be. I thought I could get away with a "vanilla Half-Life 2" style, but that's not feasibly possible without dampening the quality.
Here is how it looks so far; this will be the last media update till I fully finish the second map:
The future:
I am not quite sure how the future looks at this point, but I will be sure to finish this mod, even if it kills me. For now, my sights are set on porting the rest of the maps and potentially a complete redesign of the first level, incorporating the introduction level to it as-well.
See you next time!
I think bringing back the original design for Half Life 2 is a great idea; this IS supposed to be a dystopia, after all. Not very many mods are trying the darker atmosphere idea, so I'm excited to see what's in store!
Looks really amazing.
The large amount of "red" in the map is interesting, compared to the beta concept art using alot of green.