High School Level Design Projects​​​​​​​
Back in 2013, while on my last year of High School, I discovered Portal 2, and with it, the Authoring Tools made available by Valve, on Steam, to create custom maps from scratch. I started to try it by enhancing maps created using the in-game puzzle creator (Perpetual Testing Initiative – PTI).
That wasn’t such a smart decision since the mapping community warned me that the end result could have some problems (and believe me, they had) but those were my trial and error maps, and I worked with them until they worked smoothly.

The map Narrow Path. The “Before” version was created using PTI + Mods. It looked bad. The “After” version was made using Hammer, Valve’s tool.

Another map made while using the in-game editor was named after a famous GLaDOS voice-line: "Have fun soaring through the air without a care in the world".
The process was the same: make the "skeleton" using the in-game editor and then porting it to Hammer. There, I could make changes, add more stuff regarding scenery, and even change how the puzzle is solved.

Screenshots of the final version of Soaring Through the Air

After a lot of learning about how Hammer and the Source Engine work, I started designing maps from scratch. I’d literally get a grid notebook and start scratching. When I was happy with what I came up with, I’d start coloring the drawings and writing a story for the map, which would also involve how the level would be played, regarding mechanics available.
My main project was Ruins of Civilization, named after a Portal 2 Announcer voice-line that suggested you found Aperture Laboratories in the middle of the ruins of civilization, after an apocalyptic-like scenario. That’s not just suggestion, since the game series Portal and Half-Life share the same universe, and the world is currently in ruins thanks to the events back at Black Mesa, as seen in Half-Life.
Ruins of Civilization never got released on the Steam Workshop, since the project started to coexist with my first year at college, and I had to choose my priorities. The project is still safely stored, waiting for a time to shine in the middle of the busy adult life.

First concepts for Ruins of Civilization

While bringing the concepts to reality, several changes were made to the story and the map itself. I decided to literally merge the games that revolved that universe: Portal and Half-Life. For the office areas of Aperture Laboratories I used both Portal 1 and 2 objects, and also objects from Half-Life 2. Some classic HL2 sounds had to be imported as well, since they were not available before.

Screenshots from the current state of Ruins of Civilization, showing the starting areas

Screenshots of another map project