Archived from the original dev blog and left as it was written, so it reflects the game as it stood in 2007.
When I re-applied for Black Mesa Source around summer this year I didn’t expect to get back in, but to my surprise a reply! Not long after that I was assigned the task of remaking one of the original Half-Life Deathmatch maps; Undertow.
I thought it might be a nice idea to post a blog about the development of Undertow and all the changes that have gone on through this process. To start things off I decided to split this blog into three parts so to speak, each covering the three main areas of the map to help organize it a bit.
Central area - Outside part of the map
So to start off and to refresh your memory here is a shot of the original area taken from Half-life 1 Deathmatch:
From the start I worked on the central area, mapping out the rough shape that it was going to be and starting to add in some details in the orangemap to finalize it. Although from the first shots it was much larger than the original it got shrunk down a great deal later on.
When working out this area I wanted to keep allot of the original features of the map so I tried to keep the same feel to it, you can see it in how the top floor outcrops slightly from the one below and with the small indents at the lower floor with hold health charges at opposite ends.
Once I had got the basic layout with some extra details done I moved onto playing around with adding materials and some props to get a better feel of how it may look. I had already though about what kind of theme I wanted to use within Undertow, basing the map off a waste/water treatment plant that was part of the larger Black Mesa Facility.
With that in mind I used some of Abe’s work on residue processing to get some inspiration as well as treatment plants in real life for my texture choices:
Above decal made for this area was to help add a little more detail to the area. As well as working on the main central outside area I had also work on the inner parts, from the upper floor areas to the surrounding corridors.
The upper floors at the start kept the original design with ladders to gain access to them but I found it to be a bit clumsy and a bit confined, so I developed into these spaces the steps instead as you can see above. And towards the last few shots a bit of material/pop development. Since the map has in both the original and this version those long corridor's I wanted to keep the conveyor belts in to help speed up movement with an option to switch the direction that they push you in to also make for some interesting fights.
That about concludes part one of this blog into Undertow's development, but to as a last treat here are some near final shots of the area as it currently stands.
