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Project Presentation
Nam Humanum is a personal narrative campaign project made on the Source engine for the game Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop.
The campaign itself consists of three distinct levels and an original scenario introducing 3 new characters to the game world. As storytelling takes on greater importance in our campaign, I focused on notions of rhythm to build the basis of my levels.
The campaign was originally conceived for the game's Steam Workshop page, but will now be officially integrated by the developers as part of an update celebrating the 5th anniversary of Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop.
Logistics Area
Nam Humanum's first mission is short and intense, serving as a powerful introduction and capturing player engagement early in the campaign.
For this, I focused my design around three ambush zones where players, taken by a large mass of enemies, organize the defense of an area to give time to the team technician to complete their task. As these three zones are usually marked by strong upswings, it was important to set up quiet passages to mark the contrast and not overload the players. So I linked my areas of tension through corridors that offered more possibilities for movement, with generally few enemies and a more present narration.
PLATFORM XVII
I wanted to complicate the ideas presented to players in the first map for this second level. The map is made up of islands that are connected by a platform that is activated by technicians.
The first two islets are built, like the first level, around a gradual rise in rhythm, which constantly leads to intense phases of protection for the technician as he restarts the operation of the platform. The phases of movement between the islands are once again used to reduce tension and develop the narrative through dialogue between characters.
The last two islets end in a mini-boss phase, introducing one of the new enemies used in the next level in a cinematic way, resulting in a logical increase in danger.
GROUNDWORK LABS
For the third and final level of the campaign, I wanted to create a map around an arena located in the center of the layout. My objective was to have players revisit this arena multiple times, which would change as they progressed through the level.
The Source engine's limitations prevented some of these changes from being visible in the final map version.
This level is intended to be larger than the two preceding it, making it almost labyrinthine. Some areas, much more open, allow to set up fights against a larger number of enemies.
