Anticipation and pacing is an important part of creating any single player and multiplayer map. It's even more important to creating a successful horror and survival level.
Pacing is the tempo, the speed that something is revealed.
Anticipation is waiting for something to happen, an expectation.
Pacing and anticipation is knowing how to scare the player, what to do and when to do it. All this comes down to successfully pacing and creating anticipation to a certain event or an outcome.
Following series of articles are going to go in depth and explain how to create horror and bring fear in level and game design. Survival horror level design.
First part covers Cliches.
Definition of cliche is ideas that have been overused to the point of losing its intended force or novelty. Some may have started as original ideas in the beginning but over the years of watching movies and playing same videogames, we know what is going to happen.
Cliches are important. Cliches work. But there is another dimension of using standard horror elements and making them work.
In the following tutorial I cover all the aspects needed in creating a map change within a L4D editor. Perfect when creating campaigns. The tutorial is lengthy and comes in 2 parts. Make sure to take notes.
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Two tutorials that cover skybox use and adding a light_environment that will allow to project light into our scene from the skybox texture.
First tutorial is how to and second one is the workflow.
Creating Skybox and Light Environment:
Creating Skybox and Light_Env inside Hammer Source will give us the ability to create outside area with a sky and a sun/moon light.
Environment Workflow Part 4 - Skybox:
In the following workflow I continue to block out the entire level with my skybox texture and closing off the map in a vacuum.
The following 3 tutorials we begin to add functionality to our environment.
Creating Breakable Glass:
Creating breakable glass in L4D tutorial that breaks into pieces upon shooting it.
Creating Rotating Doors:
In the following tutorial we create a rotating door in L4D hammer, complete with sound and coolness.
Creating a Ladder:
Creating a ladder that our character can climb to escape from the zombies for just a few seconds is simple. Watch the video to find out how and check out the notes.
The following 4 tutorials cover displacement/terrain.
Creating Terrain/Displacement:
In the following tutorial I show you how to create a simple terrain displacement in your Left 4 Dead map.
Terrain Texture/Alpha Blend:
Here, you'll learn how to add variety to your terrain by applying a texture that has blend properties and painting in the alpha.
Creating Terrain Part 1 - GroundFloor:
Simple terrain/displacement tutorial showed you how to create a simple terrain in L4D. In the following video I expend further on using multiple brushes and creating larger displacement for our environment, the ground floor.
