Nat Clayton, level designer

Scaffold was created as a part of Steve Lee’s Level Design Jam 2

The second of two maps I created during #Blocktober 2022, Scaffold was made as part of a community game jam following the themes of non-violence and verticality.

Originally, I wanted to create a level for Mirror’s Edge, following advice from a member of the jam discord. But with so few resources available and a strict time limit, I settled on returning to Half-Life 2, with a twist. I wanted to make Half-Life 2 feel like Mirror’s Edge.

The core concept of Scaffold was to create a structure that the player would slowly climb through exploration and platforming, recontextualising the game’s toolset for non-combat means. Pistols are used to shoot padlocks from afar or break supports on balance beams; grenades to blast breakable struts from out-of-reach platforms.

The heart of the level is a large courtyard with an unpowered lift. Treating this room as a hub for a series of smaller puzzles, the player pokes through different rooms to find the batteries required to power up the lift and bring them to the top, paths looping in and introducing concepts that are further explored later.

Feedback from the jam community was positive and constructive, praising the map’s introduction of puzzle elements, layout and aesthetics. One piece of criticism was that the map lacked checkpointing or healthkits, an oversight on my part due to the map’s largely non-violent (yet still full of harmful drops) design. Otherwise, however, I feel the map succeeded in its goals, and gave me valuable knowledge to pull into future HL2 map projects.