Surprise 7

This is a Half-Life 2 map made for the LD Jam 7, hosted by level designer Steve Lee

The theme for this jam was *A surprise*, and I wanted to create a very self-contained map in Hammer, since my previous map (which was also my first) was a bit too ambitious, and I got burned out, but also because I wanted to show how I can design maps that make the player stick around longer, giving the art department more time to shine!

This being my second map, I also wanted to learn new stuff to do in Hammer, so I got into scripted scenes and dialogs and all that jive.
I also, of course, focused on level design stuff, but didn't give too much tought to it this time, going mostly by my 'gut feeling' (You'll still find resources like valves, optional paths, traversal variety, use of lighting, patterns...)

UPDATE 1: Yesterday I dreamt about this map, and today I updated it with some new stuff and iterations. You can't play the original version because apparently uploading a file with the same name as the previous one will automatically replace it without asking you if that's what you want to do. Thanks itch.io!!! Anyway, the new version is much better.

This map was made in Mapbase episodic, which is recommended, although it should work perfectly fine in the base game! (Episode 2)