Jordan Cordina

Level Designer

Half Life: Resist

Genre: Adventure / Action (First-person)
Players: Singleplayer
Platform: PC
Status: ​​Unreleased Blockout

Contributions

Position: Level Designer

Team Size: Solo

Using: Unreal Engine 5.3

Duration: 3 weeks

👉Responsibilities

  • ​Sole designer from concept to final blockout, following a set brief
  • Created detailed design plans and a paper prototype in Miro
  • Implemented several scripted events to visualise gameplay
  • Led regular level design huddles, rapidly iterating away pain points

🌟Achievement

  • Created as part of an Into Games Level Design course, ran by Oliver William Walker (Ubisoft, ZA/UM)
  • Blockout featured on Into Games’ Discord and course leader’s portfolio as an example of ‘outstanding work’

Gameplay Summary

  • Blockout features a fictional Half Life title, set in a UK decimated by Combine forces
  • Level is linear and emphasises verticality, breaking the grid and action setpieces
  • The player starts with weapons but depleted resources, and has the option to engage or stealth
  • Level goal is reaching a distant Combine facility, descending the crumbling skyline to reach it

🔎Project Brief

  • Make a 10 minute level for a fictional, unannounced Valve Game.
  • Must be first-person, using an 'Audio Trigger' gameplay ingredient.
  • Put gameplay first, think about what sets Valve's titles apart from every other product, and raise the bar.

🎯Design Goals

  • Fit the context - give the player an initial break from an area of high tension with views and natural scenery, then start to ratchet it up again
  • Sense of scale - area should feel large and expansive, and evoke feelings of awe at the view
  • Precariousness - player should feel like things could give way at any moment - crumbling buildings, tight walkways, steep drops and close calls
  • On the inside - set up a novel opportunity to view the Combine's brutality from the inside
Image description

Screenshot from miro board - featuring planned ingredients, design goals and level structure.

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