Chris Horn

Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Crowbar Collective.

Ive been a level designer for Crowbar Collective since the very early days, first starting as an early tester for a friend on the project in late 2005 before joining the team in the middle of 2006 just after the Alpha 5 leak, about 6 months or so into development. Originally it was to add a helping hand in remaking everything again from scratch post leak, but also as I had some interesting tech I thought could be useful for skybox development, and my old modification was winding down at the time. I delayed joining earlier as I was at the time working on a Christmas release Counter Strike Source map CS Xmas. My primary task was to plan and build Questionable Ethics from scratch as it was one of the few chapters that had no development at all on it bar a single concept drawing and some early textures. This later grew into work on Blast Pit, Surface Tension, and various small bits here and there. In mid 2012 to late 2018 I took over as Lead Level Designer in order to design the primary development plans and layouts for Xen, based on earlier prototypes Id been working on, and focused primarily on Gonarchs Lair, Xen and Nihilanth and also drive Multiplayer forward, with Crossfire as my primary DM map. Im currently Xen lead and Senior Developer with a specialization in planning and environmental storytelling. I also designed one of the largest in-game easter eggs I think exists, with the Pizza Code Mystery ARG.

How difficult was the task of reimagining Xen?

Development started on the initial prototyping of Xen way back in 2008, where a few of the team, myself included, started to create some baseline prototypes and map concepts, using my earlier work in Questionable Ethics as a basis. The earliest works included a test map and various prototype props that made it into the mod version of the game.
(the earliest map of Xen c2008 - by me :3) The planning process for Xen took approx 6 months, which I completed whilst we started to convert the game into a retail project, and took on the task of starting Multiplayer maps and gameplay. The Process for which was a complicated comparison look at the original, beta Xen maps from Valves perforce server and collated old references and original concepts from various wikis and fan sites. I then designed each and every area of Xen to Nihilanth with a focus on progression, links to the original in key areas; maintaining a flow of gameplay towards an end goal, providing an ideo locator in the form of the great tower (a mirror to the Citadel in the Half Life 2 game) and including some of the original cut content, but in a more logical and story driven way (the swamps). The full process and all the reasoning behind every plan detail is far too long to include here, but I will provide a collated plan from my originals to show that the entire section was designed to not overlap and lead linearly from start to finish. Eventually, we moved on to blocking out the chapters, which at first was a direct overlay conversion from my original drawings, using the numerical notes as a guide. This was then refined over the next few years as we tested gameplay, cut and redesigned areas based on feedback, before pushing into a full art pass and polish phase at the end.

Any movies or other games besides Half-Life you took inspiration from during development for your role specifically?

The primary games over the years Ive taken inspiration from include titles like Farcry (the original 2006 game), Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat (for Blast Pit), Rainbow 6 Vegas for the ST Dam map and various mixes of labs for Questionable Ethics from games like Quake 2 and 4, Farcry. I have a very large collection of films, but oddly didnt really use any for reference (Apart from Indiana Jones and the Last Cruscade to complete an easter egg a friend came up with in the pub one night). Other references for things came from Kew Gardens and The Eden Project for plant references and my own urban exploration adventures for alot of the early Blast Pit style guides (Tunnels 300ft under the cliffs of Dover and lost napoleonic forts)
(Southforeland Deep Shelter - by Me)

How far are you planning (or have planned) to go with the ARG?

ARGs are interesting things when they spread out from the original intent, originally the ARG was set to be in 3 component parts, the initial beginner puzzles to ease people into it, followed by a single harder puzzle that would unlock an interactive and far harder section, which in turn would then complement the release of Xen with an even harder and more complex section of puzzles. However work constraints and timings as well as the non-continuation of the storyline tie into Multiplayer (which was originally planned to have a storyline built into the environments - you can see the only real public part of that storyline in the multiplayer trailer mock commercial we did). The ARG itself is now gigantic and very multilayered, as to how far it goes is entirely secret, the complexity may increase or decrease depending on the participants and the future is not entirely set, whilst being both complete and not. It is important to remember that not every mystery can be entirely solved and nor should it, or it ceases to be a mystery. I can say that I already started to plan the final phases of the ARG storyline and that of the Dr Horn character, and it may or may not lead to something big (or even small with big ears). Is there a conclusion - probably. Have we reached it yet - not yet. Is it solvable - for that people will need to construct more than just where Dr Horn has gone, what he has become and how pizzas tie into it, the conclusion will not be the solution but the beginning of an end that starts a new chapter. Its just not that linear and probably full of bugs... :3*58[-(1.3065321(*50]-9)1(]8;.3[5-5($41538360];32(2?9[608[638255[:904::0[8279-68$]1$10(-9*)60$353$8-*96.87]35)

Do you accept pineapple on pizza or are you against it?

As the world's leading and only authority on Pizza I can confidently answer this question in detail, the conclusion you should all in future refer to as fact. (this is not a democracy, proof is not needed) Firstly, Pineapple rated in the top 10 pizza toppings according to Huffington Post, now admittedly it was 9th just above Spinach but I digress. More importantly, we have to take into account the use of Pineapple as a foil to flavour, combinations of raw pineapple with cheap ham squares is usually the reason people hate pineapple on pizza. Should you, however, roast the chunks and lightly smash them in order to glaze and release more juices, whilst dulling the acidic edge it can really work well with pulled pork or even pepperoni, as it cuts through the fat without being overwhelming. In short, most of you havent had Pineapple on pizza done well. (This is also an argument that can be made with Marmite, but that is beyond the scope of this factoid). Many argue from the position of authenticity, claiming that it's not Italian. This is clearly nonsense, as Pineapple existed in Italian cuisine before Pepperoni ever did, and things like Corn and Ranch dressings are hardly traditional. Also I had a delicious Ham and Pineapple pizza in a pizzeria restaurant at 1AM on a hot summer night in the port town of Salerno, stonebaked properly by an authentic Italian pizzaiolo, it was great. (I also had a pizza alla fiorentina, which has the spinach and egg but now I'm starting to reminisce about food... ) In short, it's not only fully acceptable, it's one of the more popular toppings that has sadly become a meme. If you dont like it, dont eat it, all the more for me.

If you had unlimited time, money, and help, what game would you make?

Im a big fan of role playing games like The Elder Scrolls or Zelda. Having played Breath of the Wild recently, and plenty of Skyrim I would love to combine the two gameplay styles with that of a puzzle game like Myst but potentially with a cute style and open quest design system. Im also a big fan of the Silent Hill games, so a horror puzzle game mixed with the Amnesia style system perhaps in VR would be fun. My biggest problem is scope, when I plan something I tend to plan very big and work down from there rather than expanding into feature creep, but with unlimited time and money the game would have everything, detailed character arcs for every NPC, every book would be readable and have relevance to quests and puzzle solving, there would be an entire library dedicated to helping the player solve some of the puzzles and a little professor living in his observatory to get advice about books and puzzles from. Immersion being the key focus, whilst combat wouldnt be very important at all outside of specific stealth and or story components. The difficulty would be in how hard the puzzles were, and there would be multiple levels of this to choose from. As with all vast highly detailed story worlds, a trilogy would likely be needed. Who knows, perhaps this will one day be a thing. Dr Horn ~ Out.