been following this account for years and lately this random cat has started breaking through the door flap even when it’s locked and every time I see a photo like this of him busting his way in it actually kills me
Prior to being hired by Valve in 2022, Chuck Wilson, the company's current level designer, recreated Ravenholm in Source 2 as a personal exploration project.
"The opening to Ravenholm seemed like it would be an appropriately scaled project to tackle. I started by loading up Ravenholm and taking tons of pictures of the opening area, and reacquainting myself with the look, feel, and scale of the space.
From the ref I was able to deduce the scale and re-block it out with Hammer 2's modeling tools. After I got the whole space blocked in, I decided to make some compositional changes to the space to better guide players to the zombie and to the eerily lit sawblade shack. Once the composition was adjusted, I switched to detailing and diving into some of the new features Hammer 2 had to offer.
I walked away being blown away at how powerful these tools are for Level Designers, and even more so if you are a Level Designer with some environment art background. These are easily my favorite tools I have worked with to date."