Half-Life level designer reveals early prototypes of original game, and they look much like Quake

Brett Johnson, who designed levels for the original Half-Life, has shared a few prototypes of the game. It’s not only a good chance to see how the project initially looked but also how “Quake-ish” it was.

The videos were spotted by The Tax Goblin on July 9. Brett Johnson has shared a glimpse into how the first Half-Life looked at early stages of development on his TikTok account earlier this week.

hey, so this is pretty neat! brett johnson, one of the devs on the original half-life, is posting footage of some old cut maps on tiktok (of all places). it’s cool to see how much more quake-ish the game originally looked pic.twitter.com/95rmG55FcO

— The Tax Collector Man | BLM (@thetaxgoblin) July 9, 2021

There are now two short clips, showing prototypes of levels that never made it to the release version of the game. “Rough stuff. Searching for a style here, using some of the first photo referenced textures,” Johnson wrote in the comments.

@brettjdznEarly HL Prototype 000 ##halflife ##design ##leveldesign♬ Valve: Alyx – Valve

Interestingly, all these early versions of levels look quite similar to Quake. And it’s easy to explain, as the first Half-Life was built on GoldSrc, a modified version of the Quake engine. However, Johnson and Valve did a good job, making the release version look nothing like id Sofware’s iconic shooter.

Bret Johnson’s career in the games industry spans over 20 years. The list of games he’s been involved in includes Half-Life, Dungeon Siege, Guild Wars 2, and Supreme Commander.

You can find more videos on Johnson’s TikTok.