Source Engine Shenanigans

The other day I had an interesting idea for a 3D puzzle game. I had been trying to think of a cool game idea for a couple days and then my friend suggested something related to mirrors. I thought about, and knew there were many games like this already, but there was not one that did it well. I also thought that mirrors were a cool idea, and I tried to think about how I could incorporate mirrors into my own, original, high-quality puzzle game and after a few days of thinking, I think I came up with a good, original gameplay mechanic. I don't want to reveal the details of my idea just yet, but I want to develop my game in the Source engine. There are many benefits to using the Source engine, but it is also surrounded in miles of red tape and things that scare little teenagers away from becoming Source developers. Tutorials and documentation online are not enough to make a game, and the standard Source SDKs that are supposed to help you are old and buggy. So I emailed the developers of The Stanley Parable, Galactic Cafe, and asked them how they created a Source engine game that was NOT a mod, technical-wise, and legal-wise. Once I get some answers and start some development, I think I'll start a Kickstarter because if you want to sell a game you make with Source, you have to pay over $250,000 to various companies.

I've decided to start learning what I can about 3D game making. I started making some levels for Portal 2 in the PTI editor, and started using Hammer World Editor to make some more advanced levels. I'm not very proficient in Hammer yet, but here are the levels I made today, in both the PTI editor and in Hammer.