Summer Canal

A Source Engine map inspired by pre-release Half-Life 2, based on a leaked map from HL2's development dubbed "prefab_canals". This was my first time using the modern modding tools for Source, so I chose something quaint and rational in scope to begin with.

As most fan projects based on early HL2 tend to focus on the exaggerated dystopian aesthetics seen in the earliest content available to the public (concept art, leaked maps and narrative vignettes by series writer Marc Laidlaw), I chose to instead focus on a later period of development which was much more like the final game.

prefab_canals was from a time in mid-late 2002 when the game was broadly in line with how we know it today, though the placement of City 17 was in central Europe and drew from all over the continent architecturally speaking, rather than firmly sitting in a post-Soviet Balkan/Slavic style that emerged the following year. The large building in the distance is a nod to the cut "Palace" location, itself based on Warsaw's Palace of Science and Culture, which would have featured in the armed uprising in the city that takes up most of the game's third act.

In some places the 2002 aesthetic was more detailed and beautiful than the final game, and featured a great deal of content for City 17 that never saw the light of day in the final game. The style favoured ornate stonemasonry, decorative engravings, light flourishes of art deco, gothic spires and a colour palette inspired by 19th Century modernist paintings.

This little map was my tribute to a slice of time in the legendary shooter's history that can go overlooked even by those in the know about the development timeline.