After being eaten by an organic sentient A.I. machine of your own creation, you are forced to fight your way out with the help from an old friend.

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I made Belly of the Beast for Steve Lee's Level Design Jam 3. Going into this jam, I wanted to make an interactable, fun, engaging and interesting portfolio piece that tested my level design skills. Luckily for me, Steve's jams aren't over a weekend; this jam was a little over a month. I'd be able to flesh out a story, blockout puzzles and action set pieces as well as playtest and iterate my level without having to crunch over a weekend.

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I had only made one Source Engine map previously and it didn't have story, puzzle, action or interactable sequences that I was satisfied with. For this jam, I chose Half-Life 2 to base the level off of because HL2 has all the components of gameplay and story that I wanted to use. I almost decided on Portal, but I envisioned the level and gameplay to be more of a shooter with light puzzle elements instead of no shooter components with heavy puzzle elements. In addition, linear single-player FPS games (such as Half-Life, Halo, TimeSplitters, Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast, Republic Commando, Blood [1997] and many, many others) are one of my favorite genres of games so I was extremely excited to tackle this jam.

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The theme was Five Rooms and I was encouraged to:

1. Make smaller but higher quality levels.

2. Be economic with level space and favor elegant design decisions.​

3. Encourage levels with distinctive areas and a clearer sense of structure​.

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LEVEL DESIGN

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From the beginning I wanted to combine puzzle, shooter and story elements together into one. I quickly wrote down an outline for how the level would play out. There would be 2 puzzles, 2 action sequences (including a brief sequence of exploration via an airboat) and 1 quick scene of story exposition. For the two puzzles I had two ideas: the first puzzle would be simple and the other would be slightly more complicated. In addition, I planned out a boss battle to end the level. My ultimate goal was to use all of the elements that made HL2 gameplay really fun (FPS mechanics, physics puzzles, vehicular exploration, and narrative) and fuse that with an interesting story.

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STORY, TONE, AND ATMOSPHERE

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In addition to the games that inspired me I mentioned above, I was also heavily influenced by two of my favorite filmmakers: John Carpenter and David Cronenberg. Their films The Thing, Escape From New York, Scanners and Videodrome inspired the story, tone and atmosphere of the level. Specifically, the fusing of sci-fi horror with fantasy is such an interesting theme that it inspired me to incorporate elements of body horror-esque gooey and slimy visuals juxtaposed with mechanical and machinery aesthetics. In addition, I used HL2 sounds, lighting effects and music cues to create a moody atmosphere and intense heart-pounding moments. 

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CONCLUSION

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I was very happy with the level, and I really enjoyed making it. However, if I had more time and some teammates to work with, I know this level would be even better. I had to cut several things because I didn't have the time. For example, I initially wanted a jailed human companion that the player would find while exploring to help out and bring along on the adventure. I also think the level could benefit from a more dynamic and chaotic boss battle and zombie hallway battle. I think the zombie hallway sequence could be a little bigger with more rooms and enemies and for the boss battle, I would like to add another phase to make the battle more intense and difficult. But overall, this was a very fun and creatively challenging jam.

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