The whole point of writing this book is to avoid reducing the essence of an important game like Half-Life down to a short description. With that in mind, I will try to summarize the lessons that we can learn from it. These lessons are not meant to replace the knowledge found elsewhere in the book, but merely to concisely remind readers of the ideas at work in the game.
(1) In a set piece game, organize your set pieces into segments which revolve around a theme. That theme should consist of a series of similar tasks that depend on a similar skill. Obviously, it's important to put those segments in ascending order of complexity, but you don't have to design them in order. It's almost a certainty that many of Half-Life's set pieces were created out of order and organized after examining which set pieces fit together the best.
(2) The principle of self-containment means that set pieces should be clearly separated from one another with some kind of break in between. Not every set piece needs to offer health/ammo afterwards, but restocking the player between set pieces helps the designers as much as it does the player, because it helps the designers to know that set pieces start with the same basic conditions.
(3) Bounce between genres in your game to break up the monotony of set piece after set piece. Whether this means having platformer sections, vehicle sections, puzzles or anything else, it's a good idea to mix in at least a little of something else.
(4) Similarly, if your game is quite long, consider an entire level with an emphasis on a genre other than your main one, even if there are a few elements of the primary genre mixed in.
(5) Do not kill the player suddenly and without warning, even if your checkpoint system is robust. Games like Hotline Miami and Super Meat Boy can get away with this, but most games will be worse for doing so.
(6) Do not make radical changes to your game at the end. Changes to mechanics, physics, etc. need to appear early for the player to become comfortable with them. Do not abandon your best design ideas at the end of the game, either. The increase in arena content at the end of Half-Life didn’t mean that the cover theme had to disappear completely. There isn’t anything wrong with the arena theme, but it’s a shame that it came into prevalence at the expense of Half-Life’s best content. Similarly, there is no reason for the jumping mechanics to change.
(7) Be careful with scripted scenes. As exciting and persuasive as they can be, the creation of these scenes involves the designers getting lots of extra tools made by non-design team members. This can consume project resources for a relatively small return in terms of minutes of content.
I would like to thank several people who helped with this text. Adrian Sandoval and Jonathan Weigler both helped to make sure that this book addressed the experience they had when they played the game for the first time, nearly two decades ago. I would also like to thank the editors of the book, Amanda Lange and Nicole Kline, who did a great job as always. Finally, I’d like to thank the Kickstarter backers who made this project possible.
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