A weird little video about a weird little trend in Valve's games. Inspired by @Great_Blue "Disintegrating" by @Myuu Discord: / discord Twitter: / purplecolonelyt
I'm an electrical engineer, but I spend a LOT of time in factories, including the largest factory -- and building -- in the world by volume, Boeing's aircraft manufacture facility in Everett, Washington*. I also used to be a theater guy before someone finally sat me down and explained that I couldn't act. I see a lot of catwalks just like the ones you show, and there are a lot of reasons why they're installed in place of enclosed hallways: 1) Elevated catwalks allow a different view of the item being worked on, which is quite useful when you're working on something large like a tank or an airplane. 2) In some cases, there are functions which must occasionally be performed from an elevated walkway, such as painting the tops of aircraft or inspecting control surfaces 3) Catwalks weigh considerably less than a full walkway whilst supporting the same traffic, which requires less investment in support structure 4) Building and electrical codes require power outlets, ventilation, lighting, evacuation signage, fire control, and points of exit for a hallway. Catwalks require railings and a safe way to return to ground level. 5) Large factories sometimes need to use cranes, boom lifts, or other industrial transport vehicles in order to move items and people around; an enclosed hallway presents a much larger area that could be accidentally contacted during operation of these vehicles, and is considerably more expensive to repair in the event of a collision. 6) A lot of catwalks are installed because employees occasionally need access to specific items such as pipes, wiring, rigging, or compressors, and those are things that either require clearance or ventilation or else must be enclosed in a 'human-habitable' area. 7) Many people begin to experience mental health issues when stuck in small confined spaces all day; since catwalks are already cheaper than enclosed hallways, it makes sense to make them available when it is practical to do so. This goes double in facilities so large that it isn't practical to go outside during one's breaks. 8) Engineers tend to get lost in the theory of their work and forget about the realities of production. Having them actually see the process of building the things they've designed can help remind them that they're designing for real life and giving orders to real people. 9) Some people like to look down on the floor many stories below them and feel like a supervillain in command of an army. Let them have their little moments of pleasure. 10) Sometimes a catwalk used to lead somewhere, but that part of the building was removed or redesigned, and it's cheaper to just leave the catwalk where it is. 11) A single enclosed hallway passing through open space with nothing around it looks kinda... stupid. It's like the world's most unimaginative hamster tube. * It should be noted that Everett is only a few miles from Valve's headquarters in Bellevue and offered tours up until 2019, so it's quite likely that the facility acted as an inspiration for some of Valve's level design.
most often its to solve problems with building code that random seeming catwalks, stair wells, garbage cans, ect are installed. basically, a building inspector walks through the place, finds an array of problems and forced the company to address them and, well, companies find the cheapest solution. 2 points of entry to every room with a fire hazard is huge. i worked for a company doing ventilation systems...90% of the jobs were inspection failures.
"Cave Johnson here. One of the lab boys walked in, _on company time,_ tellin' me that R&D needs a couple more catwalks to work on the bigger Enrichment Spheres. And that was the *most* useful statement I've heard this whole month. You're _lucky_ I'm choosing not to dock your pay for this, Jason. *But!* It's not JUST R&D that needs catwalks. Look around you! See all that empty airspace? That's space not being occupied by *science!* I'm done commissioning a catwalk company to supply us enough for the next 50 years. The bean counters are skeptical, but as soon as they have a look at all the busy researchers walking through the room, in various different heights, they'll change their minds quickly enough. Cave Johnson. We're done here."
@valletas theoretically all of the apertures would do this, and become an ever accelerating pillar of technology as a singularity of knowledge and theft
I'm really hopeful they come out with Half life 3, Portal 3, and Team Fortress 3 in a special Blue box to complete the portal reference/Orange box they released before, but I doubt it lol
Catwalks are believable enough in an industrial environment that they don't need to make sense for players to just accept them. Most people just assume they're being used correctly and don't know any different. Though, for Portal specifically, they're used to help the place feel more massive, labyrinthine, and incomprehensible.
For Portal it makes sense since everyone in Aperture Laboratories seem to be insane I can see Cave demanding architects to add more and more pointless catwalks
@@GianniLeonhart or it could be a necessity. It was a salt mine, and so if they needed new facilities with the required rooms to do those, they'd just build it in an unoccupied space of the mine. They're going to need lots of catwalks if they do that
Now, even with the hindsight, I dare to say that they felt bit off through all the valve works, but what is part of valve. They reminded me of platformers which had some super tricky places that I couldn't reach for years, even if I doubted that there were anything there at all. I still got there. These things are like hint of color from the past, when curiosity could push me to breaking through walls in games.
I would say the purpose is the opposite. They exist to root the design in your mind as traversable. Like many aspects of level design this is about casting the participant into a lived in space. They are like game trails in a forest.
Fun fact, this world building is actually called "Theme Park Architecture". Small details that sell the subconscious that the world you're temporarily visiting is functional, lived in, and expansive; when it's actually not. A lot like what Imagineers create at Disney World to make you feel like you're "there" in the theme.
it's also called "hyperart thomasson" - useless architecture that have their independent function as being artful decorations. think of stairs to nowhere, a beam without a sign on it anymore, a doorway that's been sealed off or a loose door, a bar for holding on in a random place or incomplete fences one walks around are also examples
@@ibuprofen-noodles This reminds me of the Talos Principle where one character at one point questions if the world looks aged because it really is, or if it was built to look that way to convey a message.
@@ibuprofen-noodles I feel like Valve’s doors are less hyperart thomasson, and more the “theme park architecture”. Hyperart Thomason is just random stuff in the middle of nowhere, while these walkways are things that you might find have actual purpose in real life. We as players know it leads to nowhere, but for the purposes of the world building it could go to a bunch of offices or something. I don’t think the two terms are synonyms.
As someone who has worked in many industrial settings, there are catwalks in odd places. They're cheap to build and hardly ever get replaced when the original obstacle is removed. Also, they can be used to quickly lift large/bulky items vertically without having to deal with stairs.
Yeah at 3:47 when he's walking about "why isn't there any machinery to work on", I was thinking that maybe there used to be, but said machine was removed leaving only the "useless" catwalk
This guy created a whole conspiracy and video based off the fact that's he's ignorant. There's a million reasons to have catwalks like these in many different settings lol Has this guy never left his house? Lol
This, my friends, is what happens when you leave your fanbase without a main title game for more than 10 years, they start to freak out and analyze catwalks, which by the way, has no cats on it...
@@gordonfreeman9965 well considering more VR headsets were sold this generation than the current Xbox, and everyone with VR has played the new half life, I'd say a lot
You would be surprised how many random, hidden unused areas like catwalks exist in old industrial buildings at large companies. It really depends on the age of the building, as the space needed by the company grows or shrinks. When they renovate or retool, they tend to do the minimum amount of work, and don't always rip out everything. One factory I worked at had a whole network of rooms and catwalks above the factory floor. Some were used as after hours classrooms or tradesmen areas, but the rest were trashed and neglected. It was more cost effective that way
Additionally, I worked at another warehouse, where the main area was used for storage, but there were floors of adjoined office space that was heated and unused. Lights sometimes work, leaks and other issues. It was very backrooms. Again, just unused space that didn't fit what the company required of the sqft of that building
@@cobertos_6455 Ive worked in a building that was an old post office, and between a lot of rooms (and even bathrooms) there were a network of hidden hallways with one-way windows that could see out. I even found a hatch in the roof of one room that led to a "hidden" room with a couple chairs and old cans, where I presume old workers would sneak off to drink with their friends. Everyone who worked there while I was there was aware of the hallways, and we painted over every window.
I took an Amtrak out of Union Station in Chicago a few months ago, and what really struck me as we were pulling out was just the sheer number of unused platforms and loading docks just up the line, before we even exited the station.
Also things like the snack machine are not that uncommon in older warehouses. There might have been a walkway at some point that is now unused and the snack machine fits there quite nicely.
Cus then that would instantly disprove is crackpot conspiracy. This whole video is stupid AF lol He thinks connecting two rooms together without making it accessible to the lower floor is madness 🤦♀️
Because the youtuber doesnt know how catwalks are used for... In the valve community, the catwalks have no issue of being there, the connections are proper, its usually safer, cheaper, and sometimes even required by law to be that way...
Personally, from a design perspective, I think it's a way to add vertical details to maps. I mean, think about it logically: walls are pretty boring in real life. Look at any building and pay attention to just how much free real estate is left untouched. It's boring to look at, but practicality doesn't care about looks after all. So what do you do? You can add windows, that works. But those only get you so far, since if you're indoors, you can't just add them to every single surface. And you might even have to create a room beyond the windows so they're not just painted onto the walls. You can add pipes and cables and this and that, and that usually does work, but not in every context. Sometimes there are buildings where those don't make sense (such as wooden buildings). Instead, you can place balconies and catwalks there. It breaks up the monotony of the walls a little, and even expands the world a bit. The player might wonder "huh, I wonder why these are there, what purpose do they serve in this place?". Making everything feel more alive, like everything has a purpose that you can't immediately see, as you pointed out. And they could even serve a gameplay purpose. The Source engine isn't great at displaying large, open spaces, so designers have to make the most of the tiny spaces they're given. So they add vertical elevation everywhere, meaning you can walk above places you've already explored.
As ridiculous as this concept is, the catwalks in portal really do add a lot to the games. You're always running around them, especially later in the games, and it totally adds to the feeling of breaking out of the intended path
The G-Man walking these incomprehensible, pointless pathways through nonsensical doors seems incredibly fitting for the character. Even aside from his paranormal presence, he seems to always be traveling, but never actually arriving anywhere. It's as though he truly makes his home within liminal spaces, never daring to get too close to any actual destination, but instead for some unknown purpose watching others doing so instead from a safe distance.
Like the one man in city 17 rambling to himself about the trains. "They're always departing but never arrive, and the ones that do, they never leave. You always see them go but..." repeat. It kinda fits, doesnt it?
I can just hear Cave Johnson saying "If you're hearing this, it means you're taking a long time on the Catwalks between tests. The lab boys say that might be a fear reaction."
“What the Foreman gets to look down on his peasants like some sort of feudal lord” Yes actually, my dad used to work on reutilizing amazons old Seattle headquarters and there were catwalks everywhere for Jeff besos to stand looking down at everyone until they were removed (also a surprising amount of bullet proof glass in his office :))
also there used to be in some factories catwalk that more or less was only for the foreman and inspector to walk on. maybe it would also be used for guides during new hires. (thoes catwalk was before radio and phones was a thing). so the forman had to shot whit a megaphone from specific location what needed to be done. or yell that machine 6 feeder had tiped for the 8 time this weak and leaking water everywhere.
Sounds kinda like the enclosed catwalks (with one-way glass windows) in mail facilities for the postal inspectors to peek down on the shenanigans below...
I've always loved catwalks in Valve games. They do a lot to evoke the feeling that the world you're playing in is much larger than what you're directly able to see and gain access to, which not only makes the world feel real and lived in, but also makes the player feel small, both of which add tremendously to atmosphere of the game. In the cases of Half-Life and Portal, I feel like they also convey a lot about the settings of the games. The fact that Black Mesa and Aperture Science have all these clumsy looking, oddly placed catwalks suggests that the facilities themselves were poorly conceived in a sense, or at the very least were just inefficiently cutting corners in the name of even the most meaningless conveniences. For Black Mesa specifically, I always got the sense that the facility itself originated as something far smaller than what we see in the game, and that over the years it was just haphazardly expanded to fit new needs and testing requirements as time went on, as evidenced by it having an abysmally incoherent overall layout, and, of course, countless meaningless catwalks.
Has someone who works in a production plan we have lots of catwalks that are used only from traversing one place to another. For example if you have a warehouse and you add a building to that warehouse to get to that new building you would have to put on safety gear in the warehouse but if you're on an elevated catwalk away from the production floor or the warehouse you don't have to put on safety equipment
Avery Brewing Company in Colorado has an entire second level of catwalks going through their brewery, connecting the front of house to the 2nd floor labs. I wonder if that has similar reasoning. Though they also double as great vantage points for guest tours.
Avery Brewing Company in Colorado has an entire second level of catwalks going through their brewery, connecting the front of house to the 2nd floor labs. I wonder if that has similar reasoning. Though they also double as great vantage points for guest tours.
Avery Brewing Company in Colorado has an entire second level of catwalks going through their brewery, connecting the front of house to the 2nd floor labs. I wonder if that has similar reasoning. Though they also double as great vantage points for guest tours.
I like to think there's a stark difference between realism and immersion. In cases like this, certain catwalks may not be "realistic" (having a real purpose, connecting to realistic places), but they are "immersive" - a subtle, wordless reminder that the player is in a facility of some sort.
That and they have a purpose of giving you a well known "ease of access" walkway that YOU can't get to. Which is often where we see the G man walking around. Gives you a sense of "what the fuck, why can't I get up there?" When it's so easy for everyone else to access and it's a purposely made structure that isn't meant for you, it does evoke certain feelings which add to the feel of the game. Like the feeling to unload rounds and rounds of ammo into the people up there only for them to walk on by. In a game where many things show that you did something when you beat on walls, crowbar a corpse into oblivion, or just shoot up the place and something happens like a decal being added or the corpse exploding it feels weird to watch the game ignore you by not giving you access to that little stupid walkway that the storyline characters get to use so readily. Even in the sense that this topic exists, it evoking a feeling or you wouldn't be making a video about it the hopes of getting views and money. So they indeed have a purpose, you're just purposely ignoring it. It IS level design that is intended to fuck with your mind. This is akin to the asshole in the movie theatre standing up and saying "that's so fake!" No shit? This piece of fiction isn't really taking place? Who the hell would have guessed?
Not a structural engineer, but am still an engineer, and the realistic answer would likely just be that the material cost of catwalks plus the small renovation for is cheaper than constructing a hallway and it probably takes less time to set up too, meaning the area of the building is under renovation for less time, meaning more time is spent witb that area usable. Lack of stairs or ladders still doesn't make sense. Map development reason is pretty similar, if you want to add a a walkway, it's easier to just paste a catwalk object there than to model out a hallway and put windows in, plus from a gameplay perspective, it allows a weird camping spot
A seemingly useless catwalk could also have some function it's not serving any machinery but is overlooking something like a turbine hall of a power plant. It could be useful to have a elevated view when servicing equipment.
Tons of these catwalks also overlook things that seem like heavy equipment routes. Manways are a super common sight in industrial spaces, and they usually look weirdly redundant, but keeping personnel out of heavy traffic spaces and away from moving equipment is a super simple and easy way to improve the safety and efficiency of the entire facility.
"We need a vending machine on the third floor" "Sure thing, just add an electrical outlet in the main hallway and.." "Nah we're gonna put in a catwalk" "A.. catwa.." "A catwalk Steve. It's cheaper" "Than just adding an electrical ou.." "Yep" "Cheaper.." "That's exactly what I said. What part of 'catwalk to a vending machine instead of just adding an outlet because it's cheaper' are you not grasping here?" But I do like this explanation, it makes sense.
@@SolidIncMedia my thought for that specific catwalk with the vending machine is that it used to be a hallway to get to somewhere, but the room on the left got closed off for some reason and the door bricked up and rather than just have nothing there, they put a vending machine where the door used to be. seen similar things in old buildings that got split into different units
@@solahifuefos9301 Can also act as a break room, put a bench and a table there and you're all set. Since they're underground it's probably nice to watch "out" over something!
i work in industry and honestly most of these are actually realistic enough. i have one that just connects 2 tech rooms. one that goes "nowhere" and is just for observing stuff and even one that just has a row of switching-cabinets on it. i would say the only unrealistic thing is that the doors sometimes have nothing behind it except i have that exact situation with the storage rack bolted to the other side. and even the snack machine cold make sense, water-coolers coffee makers and the likes are placed very methodically to steer communication and access control. this video could have been the other way around and make more sense.
You missed an opportunity to do a beta moment on the air exchange, a place where valve truly succumbed to catwalk madness and filled it with so many that it became impossible to tell which one you were supposed to take to progress and would become doomed to wander the catwalks forever
After reading this comment I would've mentioned the Half Life 2 Highway 17 bridge, but on that the catwalks make sense. Though still give an eerie vibe due to the far look below.
@@hoovysimulator2518 The Highway 17 bridge has the opposite problem. Why the hell does it have a couple of random shacks under it suspended above the void?
@@IBeforeAExceptAfterK I always assumed it used to be running along the entire bridge, but the rest has already collapsed. In some places, you walk on partially collapsed catwalks.
As a maintenance electrician one point I can provide is that there are catwalks which you DON'T want to be used by most people in the factory. There are areas which house dangerous or delicate machines and instruments and thus they are locked off and inaccessible for most workers. There are usually locked doors leading to the catwalks which can be used by us (maintenance). In other places we simply bring a ladder and climb onto the catwalk.
I love the 2 doors marked private that don't have handles on the outside. Because it speaks of a man trying to add a nice cheap passage from one section to another, and two section chiefs getting sick of people using that path, and both deciding to create one way doors, either independently or not. Has a real "I'll show THEM" vibe that fits perfectly into the 'us vs them but both are just us' tone of TF2. Maybe the one who removed the handles was the Administrator, trying to minimize illicit fraternization between red and blue, after the soldier vs demo war.
I somewhat recently made a portal 2 chamber, set within a ruined chamber. In one area, the ceiling is busted, and through it you can see that there are... two doors connected via a catwalk.
Whenever I try to create something in hammer, I always try to make sense of the place so there wouldn't be these absurd pointless areas and it makes it so much harder than it needs to be so I don't really blame them for that.
Take a while to noclip through Water Hazard. You can convince yourself that it was a real manufacturing area pretty easily. There's clear ports and locks and canals for ships to pass through. The implied water level changes a bunch though lol
the main one that comes to mind is the catwalk in stanley parable, not an official valve game but very important in the story, especially when considering your analysis: it's the first choice the player has to find themselves, they have to think outside the box and not just deliberately defy the narrators instructions
I’m a maintenance electrician who’s worked in a bunch of old factories, and I’ve seen all of this stuff in real life. Catwalks to stuff that’s been removed decades ago, important machinery only accessible via an insane series of platforms and ladders clearly planned by a lunatic, and doors that have been chained off because the platform behind it was removed decades ago and now just drops two stories straight down.
There's another, much simpler meta reason for (some) catwalks: they serve as interior balconies, because having a normal ass balcony inside of a building would look weird af. The reachable ones serve as a way to look down or far away from them, and the unreachable ones probably exist to avoid having a weird looking empty space
Kind of surprised you didn't mention Portal 2, around 30% of which consists of walking around on catwalks, many of which are just meandering all over the place over bottomless pits.
@@gladosbutstupid8807that invalidates anything meaningful he has ever said, including this entire video. your morality is determined on whether or not you like Portal 2
My childhood spent on using noclip to get to the out of reach catwalks of portal 2 has finally been vindicated. I can die with a clear consciousness now
I always imagined the catwalks in valve games (I did kinda notice their prevalence before) were so they'd /always/ have somewhere for G-man to appear so that you'd always feel like you're being watched. Even if he's not there right now, he could be, just out of sight.
I noticed this a while ago as well. But, these catwalks are not merely fiction. I discovered several inaccessible catwalks at my university that lead to electrical panels. I really wanted to get up there...
You just reminded me that my university has an entire inaccessible room in plain sight. You had a ground floor, right? And these big pillars around the entrance that also had bathrooms or closets or something inside them. So you could easily see the doors into these closets. And there was a mezzanine floor. And another closet lined up with the mezzanine floor. But the mezzanine floor was on the other side of the room and did not connect to these pillars, so you had doors to nowhere.
The actual reason any would be randomly around is actually pretty simple. In very old manufacturing buildings a lot of things will get constructed to facilitate certsin large scale equipment. As any mfg facility ages so too will the technology, and new wings will be added. Certain machines will sometimes be removed, certsin wings can be neglected. Whole factories can be left vacant as ive seen with tobacco factories down in kentucky, where the new equipment was built into an old uodated husk, next to another factory that was floors and floors stripped bare of any but a few machines. It was a clean job too. Most of the machines that were removed you would never know. So this is actually more common. The silliest part in valve games is when they go nowhere.
Black Mesa was built inside a cave complex; those are notorious for not really going anywhere. My current hypothesis promotes the idea that Black Mesa (the landform) is an extinct volcano weathered down by the millennia, and the BMRF was built into the lava tubes and magma chambers.
@@Thornbloom the beginning of what you said was actually correct, but everything else is not. Look up deep undeground military bunkers (D.U.M.B) black mesa had terrible oversight but the resonance cascade was the only reason the facility gets destroyed. They go everywhere, and are underneath all of America and have been used probably longer than we know. They are incredibly secretive and functional. Last bit of news i heard about them was how much food was getting stored in these bunkers was enough for multiple civilizations to survive off. Im giving myself fallout vibes now..
I actually find the snack machine example in Office Complex to be really neat. There was a similar setup at my old high-school building, since it was shared between two districts. The one I went to actually locked one end of the walkway connecting the two halves and used it as a music room, windows and all. Was a good hangout spot for watching people pass on the street.
All catwalks in valve games are made for G-man to make him easily access any area that he needs to, as we know from the final hours of HL alyx he can also travel through doors sooo
I always saw the catwalks in tf2 and especially Portal as signs of the companies in the games being suboptimal with their design decisions, and unforeseen needs fulfilled by the catwalks. This in Portal 2 specifically shows the lack of thought Cave Johnson puts into the company with his throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks mentality, adding several probably useless catwalks wouldn't that match that mentality?
So something funny about the example at 5:54, one could argue that that one actually has an industrial purpose, as evidenced by the suspended barrels right next to it. When I worked in a steel mill we would stand on a catwalk like that and use no-touch tools (pretty much hooks on 8' poles) to help guide suspended loads like that through tight openings, like the one above. Erect-a-step even came and demoed their products for us once!
The garage we used as our base of operations was an old meat packing pant. It had a couple weird catwalks and a raised room that was only a break room. I miss working with those people. My head canon is that these catwalks are natural evolutions to the facilities due to unforeseen additions to the buildings. For instance, that windowed catwalk with the vending machine? Mayhaps the back windows once saw outside the facility, lending natural light to the hall through the adjacent windows? Maybe that vending machine is covering where a door once was? Perhaps it lead to an office in what became a different security clearance, so it had to be bricked off? Yes, they could have turned it into a supply closet, but maybe someone decided to place the vending machine there out of a dumb governmental type protest? officials have done stupid things to prove a point. Points that are then ignored and just become more mud in the water. I know I've made my share in the past, though they were of the transitory type.
From "meaning can be found anywhere, even where the author didn't intend" to *G-man spinning in the backrooms* this video was absolutely fantastic. Your narrating voice is really soothing!
This is just pointlessly over-analyzing a detail that, almost certainly, is only as common as it is through incidental design decisions. ...It's great! Please make more X3
I think it’s video alike these that over analyze nothing at all that have really soured my liking of game analysis. (Snack machine as metaphor? Come on.)
"...full of useless dead ends that only serve to confuse the players. Like Black Mesa" With that line, I'm subscribed and you're now my favorite Half-Life UA-camr.
@dkskcjfjswwwwwws it's a solid remake for sure, but there are a fair few area with just way too much stuff everywhere, making it close to impossible to actually know where you need to go. The biggest offender is Surface Tension where there are just random doors leading to tiny balconies EVERYWHERE.
@@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413 It is, but is not perfect, and is nice to see someone that is not just "Everything in Source is the best thing ever" like many others in the community are.
I got intrigued in the part you said that the catwalks can be seen as a virus that have been spread even in other valve adjacent projects and i couldn't think for a better example than INFRA, a source game about being a structural analyst where you take photos and environmental puzzles where a lot of the time you get to walk see and interact with catwalks and other types of dead-end like structures that gives the illusion of a big world, like emergency stairs, closed elevators, broken or locked doors, etc. I think is something it can be expanded upon on.
It's actually really funny to "pull back the curtain" on that game and bind a key to unlock-and-open doors (bind q "ent_fire !picker unlock;ent_fire !picker open"), just to see what's hypothetically behind them. Is it the void? Is it a concrete wall the door gets absorbed into? Is it a tiny little cube room that for all intents and purposes is a closet? Is it the Backroooooooms? (it actually IS at one point in _INFRA: Underground,_ if you're standing in the right place during a specific changelevel)
It's almost like people who've made maps have zero experience in actual industrial settings, but have seen them and thought you include elements from those settings.
I used to work at a foundry. It was said that in the time of the second world war this waa the location of a p.o.w. work site. In certain areas of the older structures there elevated walkways that were completely fenced off. Apparently those were for the gaurds to watch the interned workers. Heres the kicker, I worked in the tooling shop, a more modern corrugated tin-can. I only ever went to those cat-walks once or twice, because I never had the time to just really check it out. It left me so very curious.
Cat walks in places in games is meant to break up the visual monotony in a room. Instead of having just a plain jane wall there you have some realistic design element to make it look more dynamic and less boring.
I work at a government facility that's been around for ~100 years and we have so many odd catwalks/dead-ends/bricked up hallways/etc. My favorite is this little stairway that goes up to a platform and that's it. The two tunnels that lead to it were completely sealed off, so the stairs and platform are absolutely useless now, but they're not really in the way so there's no point in spending time/money to take them down as well. There are also countless offices that were sealed off in random parts of the building, so you can see their windows from the outside but they're practically invisible inside.
The instant I saw the title of the video and the thumbnail i was like “yeah.” I just knew. I knew about the catwalks. It was just IN my subconscious, waiting to be pulled out. I actually do have a REAL reason there are so many inaccessible catwalks in tf2 levels, from a design perspective. A LOT of tf2 map design, boils down to clipping off inaccessible areas but still having open space there, in order to make the playable space feel larger and less cramped than it actually is when they want to put an invisible wall for balance reasons. But, it does actually have real effects on gameplay, such as projectiles not colliding with clip geometry. Also, players typically can’t walk on catwalks, because their surfaces have holes in them and tf2 doesn’t like walkable surfaces that you can shoot through, so it’s also a subtle sort of game-language to silently tell the player “this surface is unwalkable.” Connection over things like this. That’s what Valve is all about. All of your rants about the artistic meaning you took away from the catwalks and the fucking soda machine made me feel not alone in my insane obsession with the source engine’s art choices because i literally had the SAME THOUGHT about that area from office complex in my recent blind play through of Half Life, and this has given me the bravery to make videos talking about the deeper meaning i found behind every stupid little detail of video games i play because i am a hyper fixated autistic boy. I really enjoyed this video. thank you :)
On 2Fort, the metal grating on both bases near the entrance, allows explosives to go through. Not bullets, but it is some damage that goes through something.
@@hoovysimulator2518 Oh. Well that’s weird. But it makes sense. A blast would still hurt you through a grate. But it’s stupid because a bullet would also still hurt you at least sometimes through a grate lol.
Valve has this super unique approach to map design that gives it this weird surreality, and I’m glad other people seem to be picking up on that. It seems like a very deliberate artistic choice, and one that drastically impacts the experience - often without anyone even noticing. It’s refreshing compared to the rest of the game industry’s boring, bland, and incredibly wasteful approach to map design.
catwalks make the environments feel a lot less cube-like and are just super easy detail while staying out of reach of the player. If they were walled-off corridors the walls would feel undetailed and unnatural. If they were stairs the player would be tempted to go up them. catwalks are an incredibly good solution to environment detailing.
Its a really visually intresting thing, one of the closest things i can think of in real life like is the skybridges, for a video game comparison in the pitt dlc for fallout 3 catwalks made out of construction equipment are used but in concept art you can see they were originally the sky bridges connecting buildings like in the real world, in the plot of the dlc these catwalks are to seperare a upper and lower place but also a upper and lower cast and are necessary to proceed I never really noticed how important catwalks in shooters but their presence is honestly a visually intresting one i always felt it tied into the concrete industiral themes most shooters have as their backgrounds but maybe its more than that
I think I just accepted these catwalks overall and never even thought about them, simply because when I was a kid, my school had one of those that lead to a library
4:50 I've been playing Black Mesa lately and this is so true! It's gorgeous how they've expanded some of the environments, but it results in tons of dead ends and rooms that you explore for no reward.
It’s because it adds depth to the level detail, as if there are rooms there even though you can’t access them. And having a useless cat walk is the most important part of every map
You know, I thought it was a little silly to overanalyze a mapping detail like this, but then you showed the glass window catwalk to the vending machine and my mind simply broke. What in the world is even that.
i love pointless spots in maps like those, make you wonder how people used that place, what was it for and how it would look if used again. this is all much better when these spots are in games supposed to be realistic
I work in factories that use catwalks like these. They are used to transport heavy objects on a trolly or something similar which would be difficult and time consuming to take down a level and bring back up again. They dont put stairs/ladders on them because the heavy object wouldnt be able to be manuvered up or down them. But dont get me wrong, it is damn annoying when you cant just acess it with stairs/ladders
Worse conspiracy is that Valve employers want to work at games like tf2 or hl3 but their supervisors dont see it as "effective work" so they are forced to doing stuff that brings company money
reminder: valve has no real supervisors, only real time that happens is when a project is near completion and needs all the momentum it can get (eg: hla, cs2) blame valve's desk culture and projects falling apart at the seams lol
@@ThermalLabs oh trust me, they know that well do you know how many hl3 projects have been started and canned due to lack of interest, arguments/disagreements, etc lol it might not be the full list but the final hours of hla gives a good view of what they've been up to (you dont have to buy it, just watch it on youtube if you want)
Valve has no supervisors, which is why HL3 never has happened, if Valve did the supervisors would make FOR DAMN SURE half life 3 would be made, do you know the amoung of sales it would get? instead Valve has their employees rate each other, so if your the only one working on HL3 people will rate you poorly and youll get fired, if you try and get a team to work on HL3 you risk that not happening and being rated as not productive, so people work on what is safe, counter strike, Dota, and steam
I think you might've missed the Risk vs Reward of traversing catwalks. In TF2 for example, the areas the catwalks connect offer some level of indestructible cover. However, as the player traverses the catwalk, it exposes them to some amount of vulnerability where they can be attacked. Conversely, it's possible to attack a wider area from a catwalk; but an enclosed hallway only allows you to attack anything within the hallway itself. Also, catwalks allow for drop-in points for computer-controlled enemies to appear during in-game events. You've cleared out the areas you've just left, and there doesn't appear to be any enemies ahead of you. But suddenly, enemies are appearing from previously closed off rooms and traversing the catwalks, giving you both the ability to react and shoot at the enemies; but also giving the enemies a vantage point to shoot at you in return. Catwalks add a third dimension to enemy traversal that you have to keep an eye on. Moreover, there's no denying the industrial, or dystopian vibe that catwalks give off. They give off that aesthetic of cheap, industrial planning; where only function matters, and no thought has been given to form or beauty.
Function is the only thing anyone should focus on, world goes to shit as soon as people go for form over function with their bodies and machines. We would have been at the stars by now if we went a ubertech dystopia. You like a utopia? that's a good joke bub, I like answers that cannot be questioned and thirst for power that cannot be quenched. Functionality is of greater value than form or beauty, if you have a hammer made of gold not only will it be unwieldy, it will break faster than if it were designed with only function in mind. The world should have no place for art or beauty, only the focus on the anvil of progress. I despise inhuman thoughts such as yours, you clearly lack the greed in our design, you would never take the stars as your own. I am disappointed, even if I have no rights to be disappointed.
Great video. Video games sell an illusion. The artificiality of the catwalks can be found everywhere. Take Gordon's impressive arsenal; none of which is capable of damaging the scenery. To halt his progress all the Combine would really need is one sturdy door. In the Stanley Parable, if the player annoys the narrator enough, he'll send them to an endless, poorly lit maze of meaningless corridors, somehow more horrifying than anything in Doom.
I'm an electrical engineer, but I spend a LOT of time in factories, including the largest factory -- and building -- in the world by volume, Boeing's aircraft manufacture facility in Everett, Washington*. I also used to be a theater guy before someone finally sat me down and explained that I couldn't act. I see a lot of catwalks just like the ones you show, and there are a lot of reasons why they're installed in place of enclosed hallways:
1) Elevated catwalks allow a different view of the item being worked on, which is quite useful when you're working on something large like a tank or an airplane.
2) In some cases, there are functions which must occasionally be performed from an elevated walkway, such as painting the tops of aircraft or inspecting control surfaces
3) Catwalks weigh considerably less than a full walkway whilst supporting the same traffic, which requires less investment in support structure
4) Building and electrical codes require power outlets, ventilation, lighting, evacuation signage, fire control, and points of exit for a hallway. Catwalks require railings and a safe way to return to ground level.
5) Large factories sometimes need to use cranes, boom lifts, or other industrial transport vehicles in order to move items and people around; an enclosed hallway presents a much larger area that could be accidentally contacted during operation of these vehicles, and is considerably more expensive to repair in the event of a collision.
6) A lot of catwalks are installed because employees occasionally need access to specific items such as pipes, wiring, rigging, or compressors, and those are things that either require clearance or ventilation or else must be enclosed in a 'human-habitable' area.
7) Many people begin to experience mental health issues when stuck in small confined spaces all day; since catwalks are already cheaper than enclosed hallways, it makes sense to make them available when it is practical to do so. This goes double in facilities so large that it isn't practical to go outside during one's breaks.
8) Engineers tend to get lost in the theory of their work and forget about the realities of production. Having them actually see the process of building the things they've designed can help remind them that they're designing for real life and giving orders to real people.
9) Some people like to look down on the floor many stories below them and feel like a supervillain in command of an army. Let them have their little moments of pleasure.
10) Sometimes a catwalk used to lead somewhere, but that part of the building was removed or redesigned, and it's cheaper to just leave the catwalk where it is.
11) A single enclosed hallway passing through open space with nothing around it looks kinda... stupid. It's like the world's most unimaginative hamster tube.
* It should be noted that Everett is only a few miles from Valve's headquarters in Bellevue and offered tours up until 2019, so it's quite likely that the facility acted as an inspiration for some of Valve's level design.
Point 9 is very important and I am now fully on board with catwalk installation.
All I did at Boeing with crane maintenance was walk around the catwalks and stare at people doing nothing. I love catwalks
@@COMTNRIDER maybe this is why they have doors flying off planes now
most often its to solve problems with building code that random seeming catwalks, stair wells, garbage cans, ect are installed. basically, a building inspector walks through the place, finds an array of problems and forced the company to address them and, well, companies find the cheapest solution. 2 points of entry to every room with a fire hazard is huge. i worked for a company doing ventilation systems...90% of the jobs were inspection failures.
fr@@tjcola7703
if i ever become an architect i will add pointless but accessible catwalks and balconies just for the velve community
it sounds kinda fun ngl
the velve community thanks you
If you really want to troll, place lambda logos in inaccessible places.
Gather up, fellas, we've got some lobbying to do!
@@tech34756 *unholsters a crowbar*
The strange catwalks in Portal actually have a good lore reason, too.
Cave Johnson was absolutely fucking insane.
"Cut costs? Hell no lets create a machine that can steal from other aperture sciences from across the multiverse, that will work"
"Cave Johnson here. One of the lab boys walked in, _on company time,_ tellin' me that R&D needs a couple more catwalks to work on the bigger Enrichment Spheres. And that was the *most* useful statement I've heard this whole month. You're _lucky_ I'm choosing not to dock your pay for this, Jason.
*But!* It's not JUST R&D that needs catwalks. Look around you! See all that empty airspace? That's space not being occupied by *science!* I'm done commissioning a catwalk company to supply us enough for the next 50 years. The bean counters are skeptical, but as soon as they have a look at all the busy researchers walking through the room, in various different heights, they'll change their minds quickly enough.
Cave Johnson. We're done here."
@@L3X1N perfect
@@L3X1NThat is scary accurate.
@valletas theoretically all of the apertures would do this, and become an ever accelerating pillar of technology as a singularity of knowledge and theft
This is what a lack of HL2: Episode 3 does to a man's mind.
a Freeman's mind
Like VALVe would count to three
I'm really hopeful they come out with Half life 3, Portal 3, and Team Fortress 3 in a special Blue box to complete the portal reference/Orange box they released before, but I doubt it lol
You mean CS3?
It’s coming out soon… I can feel it
Catwalks are believable enough in an industrial environment that they don't need to make sense for players to just accept them. Most people just assume they're being used correctly and don't know any different. Though, for Portal specifically, they're used to help the place feel more massive, labyrinthine, and incomprehensible.
For Portal it makes sense since everyone in Aperture Laboratories seem to be insane
I can see Cave demanding architects to add more and more pointless catwalks
@@GianniLeonhart or it could be a necessity. It was a salt mine, and so if they needed new facilities with the required rooms to do those, they'd just build it in an unoccupied space of the mine. They're going to need lots of catwalks if they do that
Now, even with the hindsight, I dare to say that they felt bit off through all the valve works, but what is part of valve.
They reminded me of platformers which had some super tricky places that I couldn't reach for years, even if I doubted that there were anything there at all.
I still got there.
These things are like hint of color from the past, when curiosity could push me to breaking through walls in games.
I would say the purpose is the opposite. They exist to root the design in your mind as traversable. Like many aspects of level design this is about casting the participant into a lived in space. They are like game trails in a forest.
@@orbatos And that adds to the sense of being lost, and not just feeling of being stuck.
Catwalks are just a super easy way to add detail that look nice (and take approximately 4 seconds to make.)
Somone help him, the parasite has gotten into his brain
@@bacon-sandwich4726 oh god hes beyond saving
Wrong. They are indicative of the working classes struggle for true power, that is not otherwise provided to them by their foreman.
@@bacon-sandwich4726 you're better off leaving him alone
he could potentially spread the infection to the rest of us
cat walks sure are the best
Fun fact, this world building is actually called "Theme Park Architecture". Small details that sell the subconscious that the world you're temporarily visiting is functional, lived in, and expansive; when it's actually not. A lot like what Imagineers create at Disney World to make you feel like you're "there" in the theme.
it's also called "hyperart thomasson" - useless architecture that have their independent function as being artful decorations. think of stairs to nowhere, a beam without a sign on it anymore, a doorway that's been sealed off or a loose door, a bar for holding on in a random place or incomplete fences one walks around are also examples
@@ibuprofen-noodles This reminds me of the Talos Principle where one character at one point questions if the world looks aged because it really is, or if it was built to look that way to convey a message.
@@ibuprofen-noodles I feel like Valve’s doors are less hyperart thomasson, and more the “theme park architecture”. Hyperart Thomason is just random stuff in the middle of nowhere, while these walkways are things that you might find have actual purpose in real life. We as players know it leads to nowhere, but for the purposes of the world building it could go to a bunch of offices or something. I don’t think the two terms are synonyms.
@ibuprofen-noodles thank you for introducing me to this, I had no idea Hyperart and Modernology were so interesting!
@@Freak80MCTalos Principle takes place entirely within a simulation, so it's obviously meant to be like that.
As someone who has worked in many industrial settings, there are catwalks in odd places. They're cheap to build and hardly ever get replaced when the original obstacle is removed. Also, they can be used to quickly lift large/bulky items vertically without having to deal with stairs.
Yeah at 3:47 when he's walking about "why isn't there any machinery to work on", I was thinking that maybe there used to be, but said machine was removed leaving only the "useless" catwalk
This guy created a whole conspiracy and video based off the fact that's he's ignorant.
There's a million reasons to have catwalks like these in many different settings lol
Has this guy never left his house? Lol
And there's 0 reason for your parents to make a failure like you, and yet here we are@@chrish4439
@@chrish4439 babe, your missing the joke
no cats on cat walks 0/10
Actually, there are Cats in Cat Walks, u just need to look a little deeper and you will find a Siberian Cat chilling inside.
i still have nightmares about that cat...
Fellow cat liker
All of them are already in GLaDOS's cat cemetery. :(
No cats walking 1/10
This, my friends, is what happens when you leave your fanbase without a main title game for more than 10 years, they start to freak out and analyze catwalks, which by the way, has no cats on it...
forsenDespair
It's only been 3 years
@@derekfurst6233 How many people have actually managed to play the game? And even if we had content, we´re still thirsty for more XD
@@gordonfreeman9965 well considering more VR headsets were sold this generation than the current Xbox, and everyone with VR has played the new half life, I'd say a lot
@@gordonfreeman9965 quite a few. I hear it’s been modded to work on flatscreen, but I would definitely recommend the first experience being in vr
You would be surprised how many random, hidden unused areas like catwalks exist in old industrial buildings at large companies. It really depends on the age of the building, as the space needed by the company grows or shrinks. When they renovate or retool, they tend to do the minimum amount of work, and don't always rip out everything. One factory I worked at had a whole network of rooms and catwalks above the factory floor. Some were used as after hours classrooms or tradesmen areas, but the rest were trashed and neglected. It was more cost effective that way
Additionally, I worked at another warehouse, where the main area was used for storage, but there were floors of adjoined office space that was heated and unused. Lights sometimes work, leaks and other issues. It was very backrooms. Again, just unused space that didn't fit what the company required of the sqft of that building
thank you for sharing your expertise and experience on the subject!
@@cobertos_6455 Ive worked in a building that was an old post office, and between a lot of rooms (and even bathrooms) there were a network of hidden hallways with one-way windows that could see out. I even found a hatch in the roof of one room that led to a "hidden" room with a couple chairs and old cans, where I presume old workers would sneak off to drink with their friends.
Everyone who worked there while I was there was aware of the hallways, and we painted over every window.
I took an Amtrak out of Union Station in Chicago a few months ago, and what really struck me as we were pulling out was just the sheer number of unused platforms and loading docks just up the line, before we even exited the station.
Also things like the snack machine are not that uncommon in older warehouses. There might have been a walkway at some point that is now unused and the snack machine fits there quite nicely.
4:00 Why isn't connecting two rooms a sufficient explanation for the existence of the catwalk?
Cus then that would instantly disprove is crackpot conspiracy.
This whole video is stupid AF lol
He thinks connecting two rooms together without making it accessible to the lower floor is madness 🤦♀️
Because the youtuber doesnt know how catwalks are used for... In the valve community, the catwalks have no issue of being there, the connections are proper, its usually safer, cheaper, and sometimes even required by law to be that way...
Personally, from a design perspective, I think it's a way to add vertical details to maps. I mean, think about it logically: walls are pretty boring in real life. Look at any building and pay attention to just how much free real estate is left untouched. It's boring to look at, but practicality doesn't care about looks after all. So what do you do? You can add windows, that works. But those only get you so far, since if you're indoors, you can't just add them to every single surface. And you might even have to create a room beyond the windows so they're not just painted onto the walls.
You can add pipes and cables and this and that, and that usually does work, but not in every context. Sometimes there are buildings where those don't make sense (such as wooden buildings).
Instead, you can place balconies and catwalks there. It breaks up the monotony of the walls a little, and even expands the world a bit. The player might wonder "huh, I wonder why these are there, what purpose do they serve in this place?". Making everything feel more alive, like everything has a purpose that you can't immediately see, as you pointed out.
And they could even serve a gameplay purpose. The Source engine isn't great at displaying large, open spaces, so designers have to make the most of the tiny spaces they're given. So they add vertical elevation everywhere, meaning you can walk above places you've already explored.
Very insightful 🤔
holy shit, German Peter??
Love your videos Peter!
remember when you made that jojo video???
The German swooping in to comment on engineering and industrial design in video games.
It's a little known company secret within Valve -
all of their workstations are only accessible via rocketjumping up to a catwalk
Just like President Lincoln intended.
@@LordVader1094 amen
T'was indeed the good ol' days before those pesky stairs were invented.
A real blunder on Abraham Lincoln's part, I'd say.
GabeN got too fat to reach the TF2 and Half life ones bless his soul
@@darthvader8744 LOL
As ridiculous as this concept is, the catwalks in portal really do add a lot to the games. You're always running around them, especially later in the games, and it totally adds to the feeling of breaking out of the intended path
The G-Man walking these incomprehensible, pointless pathways through nonsensical doors seems incredibly fitting for the character. Even aside from his paranormal presence, he seems to always be traveling, but never actually arriving anywhere. It's as though he truly makes his home within liminal spaces, never daring to get too close to any actual destination, but instead for some unknown purpose watching others doing so instead from a safe distance.
I work in a manufacturing plant and can tell you GMan walking around on catwalks and watching you is what the average boss does.
Like the one man in city 17 rambling to himself about the trains.
"They're always departing but never arrive, and the ones that do, they never leave. You always see them go but..." repeat.
It kinda fits, doesnt it?
I can just hear Cave Johnson saying "If you're hearing this, it means you're taking a long time on the Catwalks between tests. The lab boys say that might be a fear reaction."
I literally heard his voice in my head while reading this.
Real trauma
@@blazkullevery time someone quotes/makes up a quote that cave johnson would say i usually read it in his voice lmao
“What the Foreman gets to look down on his peasants like some sort of feudal lord”
Yes actually, my dad used to work on reutilizing amazons old Seattle headquarters and there were catwalks everywhere for Jeff besos to stand looking down at everyone until they were removed (also a surprising amount of bullet proof glass in his office :))
Bro Jeff bezos is already like 1 day away from death from old age no way he's worried about being assassinated
also there used to be in some factories catwalk that more or less was only for the foreman and inspector to walk on.
maybe it would also be used for guides during new hires.
(thoes catwalk was before radio and phones was a thing).
so the forman had to shot whit a megaphone from specific location what needed to be done.
or yell that machine 6 feeder had tiped for the 8 time this weak and leaking water everywhere.
It's true, my aunt's cousin's former roommate used to work for your dad
@@redpyre as soon as i saw this comment and started reading he fucking said it in the video
what the fuck
Sounds kinda like the enclosed catwalks (with one-way glass windows) in mail facilities for the postal inspectors to peek down on the shenanigans below...
I've always loved catwalks in Valve games. They do a lot to evoke the feeling that the world you're playing in is much larger than what you're directly able to see and gain access to, which not only makes the world feel real and lived in, but also makes the player feel small, both of which add tremendously to atmosphere of the game. In the cases of Half-Life and Portal, I feel like they also convey a lot about the settings of the games. The fact that Black Mesa and Aperture Science have all these clumsy looking, oddly placed catwalks suggests that the facilities themselves were poorly conceived in a sense, or at the very least were just inefficiently cutting corners in the name of even the most meaningless conveniences. For Black Mesa specifically, I always got the sense that the facility itself originated as something far smaller than what we see in the game, and that over the years it was just haphazardly expanded to fit new needs and testing requirements as time went on, as evidenced by it having an abysmally incoherent overall layout, and, of course, countless meaningless catwalks.
True
Has someone who works in a production plan we have lots of catwalks that are used only from traversing one place to another. For example if you have a warehouse and you add a building to that warehouse to get to that new building you would have to put on safety gear in the warehouse but if you're on an elevated catwalk away from the production floor or the warehouse you don't have to put on safety equipment
Avery Brewing Company in Colorado has an entire second level of catwalks going through their brewery, connecting the front of house to the 2nd floor labs. I wonder if that has similar reasoning. Though they also double as great vantage points for guest tours.
Avery Brewing Company in Colorado has an entire second level of catwalks going through their brewery, connecting the front of house to the 2nd floor labs. I wonder if that has similar reasoning. Though they also double as great vantage points for guest tours.
Avery Brewing Company in Colorado has an entire second level of catwalks going through their brewery, connecting the front of house to the 2nd floor labs. I wonder if that has similar reasoning. Though they also double as great vantage points for guest tours.
haha glasscock
I like to think there's a stark difference between realism and immersion. In cases like this, certain catwalks may not be "realistic" (having a real purpose, connecting to realistic places), but they are "immersive" - a subtle, wordless reminder that the player is in a facility of some sort.
The video doesn't need to exist, just what you wrote.
That and they have a purpose of giving you a well known "ease of access" walkway that YOU can't get to. Which is often where we see the G man walking around. Gives you a sense of "what the fuck, why can't I get up there?" When it's so easy for everyone else to access and it's a purposely made structure that isn't meant for you, it does evoke certain feelings which add to the feel of the game. Like the feeling to unload rounds and rounds of ammo into the people up there only for them to walk on by. In a game where many things show that you did something when you beat on walls, crowbar a corpse into oblivion, or just shoot up the place and something happens like a decal being added or the corpse exploding it feels weird to watch the game ignore you by not giving you access to that little stupid walkway that the storyline characters get to use so readily.
Even in the sense that this topic exists, it evoking a feeling or you wouldn't be making a video about it the hopes of getting views and money. So they indeed have a purpose, you're just purposely ignoring it. It IS level design that is intended to fuck with your mind. This is akin to the asshole in the movie theatre standing up and saying "that's so fake!" No shit? This piece of fiction isn't really taking place? Who the hell would have guessed?
Not a structural engineer, but am still an engineer, and the realistic answer would likely just be that the material cost of catwalks plus the small renovation for is cheaper than constructing a hallway and it probably takes less time to set up too, meaning the area of the building is under renovation for less time, meaning more time is spent witb that area usable.
Lack of stairs or ladders still doesn't make sense.
Map development reason is pretty similar, if you want to add a a walkway, it's easier to just paste a catwalk object there than to model out a hallway and put windows in, plus from a gameplay perspective, it allows a weird camping spot
A seemingly useless catwalk could also have some function it's not serving any machinery but is overlooking something like a turbine hall of a power plant. It could be useful to have a elevated view when servicing equipment.
Tons of these catwalks also overlook things that seem like heavy equipment routes. Manways are a super common sight in industrial spaces, and they usually look weirdly redundant, but keeping personnel out of heavy traffic spaces and away from moving equipment is a super simple and easy way to improve the safety and efficiency of the entire facility.
"We need a vending machine on the third floor"
"Sure thing, just add an electrical outlet in the main hallway and.."
"Nah we're gonna put in a catwalk"
"A.. catwa.."
"A catwalk Steve. It's cheaper"
"Than just adding an electrical ou.."
"Yep"
"Cheaper.."
"That's exactly what I said. What part of 'catwalk to a vending machine instead of just adding an outlet because it's cheaper' are you not grasping here?"
But I do like this explanation, it makes sense.
@@SolidIncMedia my thought for that specific catwalk with the vending machine is that it used to be a hallway to get to somewhere, but the room on the left got closed off for some reason and the door bricked up
and rather than just have nothing there, they put a vending machine where the door used to be.
seen similar things in old buildings that got split into different units
@@solahifuefos9301 Can also act as a break room, put a bench and a table there and you're all set. Since they're underground it's probably nice to watch "out" over something!
i work in industry and honestly most of these are actually realistic enough. i have one that just connects 2 tech rooms. one that goes "nowhere" and is just for observing stuff and even one that just has a row of switching-cabinets on it. i would say the only unrealistic thing is that the doors sometimes have nothing behind it except i have that exact situation with the storage rack bolted to the other side. and even the snack machine cold make sense, water-coolers coffee makers and the likes are placed very methodically to steer communication and access control. this video could have been the other way around and make more sense.
2:52 The fact that that's a real company name is insane.
Every company needs a recognizable name. So the founder must've intended for the company to sound hilarious
You missed an opportunity to do a beta moment on the air exchange, a place where valve truly succumbed to catwalk madness and filled it with so many that it became impossible to tell which one you were supposed to take to progress and would become doomed to wander the catwalks forever
There’s one in trainstation 01, the catwalk at the beginning you see in the video IIRC was the players original route.
@@tech34756 Theres one of those sky walkways covered in windows that you see in big cities sometimes in the beta
After reading this comment I would've mentioned the Half Life 2 Highway 17 bridge, but on that the catwalks make sense. Though still give an eerie vibe due to the far look below.
@@hoovysimulator2518 The Highway 17 bridge has the opposite problem. Why the hell does it have a couple of random shacks under it suspended above the void?
@@IBeforeAExceptAfterK I always assumed it used to be running along the entire bridge, but the rest has already collapsed. In some places, you walk on partially collapsed catwalks.
The admonishment of that one catwalk company was so strong I felt it in my soul.
Hello meme man
As a maintenance electrician one point I can provide is that there are catwalks which you DON'T want to be used by most people in the factory.
There are areas which house dangerous or delicate machines and instruments and thus they are locked off and inaccessible for most workers. There are usually locked doors leading to the catwalks which can be used by us (maintenance). In other places we simply bring a ladder and climb onto the catwalk.
I love the 2 doors marked private that don't have handles on the outside. Because it speaks of a man trying to add a nice cheap passage from one section to another, and two section chiefs getting sick of people using that path, and both deciding to create one way doors, either independently or not. Has a real "I'll show THEM" vibe that fits perfectly into the 'us vs them but both are just us' tone of TF2.
Maybe the one who removed the handles was the Administrator, trying to minimize illicit fraternization between red and blue, after the soldier vs demo war.
I somewhat recently made a portal 2 chamber, set within a ruined chamber. In one area, the ceiling is busted, and through it you can see that there are... two doors connected via a catwalk.
Whenever I try to create something in hammer, I always try to make sense of the place so there wouldn't be these absurd pointless areas and it makes it so much harder than it needs to be so I don't really blame them for that.
this is what makes valve so effective, they care about what matters but don't get stuck in the weeds over things that don't, such as these walkways.
Same here. at one point I had added a catwalk, but debated removing it, because... why does this exist here?
@@Anklejbiter "because it looks cool" is always a valid answer.
Take a while to noclip through Water Hazard. You can convince yourself that it was a real manufacturing area pretty easily. There's clear ports and locks and canals for ships to pass through. The implied water level changes a bunch though lol
At some point, someone made a mod called Minerva metastasis specifically to try to keep the world sensible and got hired off of it.
We use catwalks to isolate dangerous things, such as circuit breaker cabinets, so the workers don't have to walk by them as often.
This is borderline Dunkey levels of discoordination. Thank you.
It's weird quirks like this which make Valve maps feel uncanny. Like something which feels designed "for" humans, but not by humans.
“Designed for humans but not by humans.”
Should be Microsoft’s slogan.
the main one that comes to mind is the catwalk in stanley parable, not an official valve game but very important in the story, especially when considering your analysis: it's the first choice the player has to find themselves, they have to think outside the box and not just deliberately defy the narrators instructions
Great game. I'm currently working on that 5 year achievement.
@@schorschmcgill wasnt it 10? if there is another achievment for 5 you might as well wait some more and get both
@@bbb-dk7pz it's 10 in ultra deluxe and 5 in the original
@@psgamer-il2pt ah alright
I’m a maintenance electrician who’s worked in a bunch of old factories, and I’ve seen all of this stuff in real life. Catwalks to stuff that’s been removed decades ago, important machinery only accessible via an insane series of platforms and ladders clearly planned by a lunatic, and doors that have been chained off because the platform behind it was removed decades ago and now just drops two stories straight down.
There's another, much simpler meta reason for (some) catwalks: they serve as interior balconies, because having a normal ass balcony inside of a building would look weird af. The reachable ones serve as a way to look down or far away from them, and the unreachable ones probably exist to avoid having a weird looking empty space
Kind of surprised you didn't mention Portal 2, around 30% of which consists of walking around on catwalks, many of which are just meandering all over the place over bottomless pits.
but Cave Johnson was a madman, so that would make sence there
@@darkdwarf007 shut your mouth, I know what im doing.
Well PurpleColonel has a weird hatred for Portal 2, so that explains it.
@@gladosbutstupid8807that invalidates anything meaningful he has ever said, including this entire video. your morality is determined on whether or not you like Portal 2
@@KiiBon Lol
My childhood spent on using noclip to get to the out of reach catwalks of portal 2 has finally been vindicated. I can die with a clear consciousness now
Same. My childlike brain was obsessed with getting on catwalks in portal 2. It must be some shared subconscious idea.
Okay cool so it wasn't just me
I always imagined the catwalks in valve games (I did kinda notice their prevalence before) were so they'd /always/ have somewhere for G-man to appear so that you'd always feel like you're being watched. Even if he's not there right now, he could be, just out of sight.
I absolutely love the valve map design. It adds an extra level of mystery to maps that is unreachable.
I noticed this a while ago as well. But, these catwalks are not merely fiction. I discovered several inaccessible catwalks at my university that lead to electrical panels. I really wanted to get up there...
You just reminded me that my university has an entire inaccessible room in plain sight. You had a ground floor, right? And these big pillars around the entrance that also had bathrooms or closets or something inside them. So you could easily see the doors into these closets. And there was a mezzanine floor. And another closet lined up with the mezzanine floor. But the mezzanine floor was on the other side of the room and did not connect to these pillars, so you had doors to nowhere.
@@thewhitefalcon8539backrooms??
The actual reason any would be randomly around is actually pretty simple. In very old manufacturing buildings a lot of things will get constructed to facilitate certsin large scale equipment. As any mfg facility ages so too will the technology, and new wings will be added. Certain machines will sometimes be removed, certsin wings can be neglected. Whole factories can be left vacant as ive seen with tobacco factories down in kentucky, where the new equipment was built into an old uodated husk, next to another factory that was floors and floors stripped bare of any but a few machines. It was a clean job too. Most of the machines that were removed you would never know. So this is actually more common. The silliest part in valve games is when they go nowhere.
Black Mesa was built inside a cave complex; those are notorious for not really going anywhere.
My current hypothesis promotes the idea that Black Mesa (the landform) is an extinct volcano weathered down by the millennia, and the BMRF was built into the lava tubes and magma chambers.
@@Thornbloom the beginning of what you said was actually correct, but everything else is not. Look up deep undeground military bunkers (D.U.M.B)
black mesa had terrible oversight but the resonance cascade was the only reason the facility gets destroyed.
They go everywhere, and are underneath all of America and have been used probably longer than we know. They are incredibly secretive and functional. Last bit of news i heard about them was how much food was getting stored in these bunkers was enough for multiple civilizations to survive off. Im giving myself fallout vibes now..
I actually find the snack machine example in Office Complex to be really neat. There was a similar setup at my old high-school building, since it was shared between two districts. The one I went to actually locked one end of the walkway connecting the two halves and used it as a music room, windows and all. Was a good hangout spot for watching people pass on the street.
All catwalks in valve games are made for G-man to make him easily access any area that he needs to, as we know from the final hours of HL alyx he can also travel through doors sooo
I always saw the catwalks in tf2 and especially Portal as signs of the companies in the games being suboptimal with their design decisions, and unforeseen needs fulfilled by the catwalks. This in Portal 2 specifically shows the lack of thought Cave Johnson puts into the company with his throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks mentality, adding several probably useless catwalks wouldn't that match that mentality?
I really enjoyed learning about this niche part of Valve's level design
I have noticed the copious amount of catwalks in Valve maps. Thank you for validating my conspiracy theories.
7:16 what an epiphany omg
Great catwalk ad, I've already bought fourteen new catwalks for my bedroom 👍
So something funny about the example at 5:54, one could argue that that one actually has an industrial purpose, as evidenced by the suspended barrels right next to it. When I worked in a steel mill we would stand on a catwalk like that and use no-touch tools (pretty much hooks on 8' poles) to help guide suspended loads like that through tight openings, like the one above.
Erect-a-step even came and demoed their products for us once!
The garage we used as our base of operations was an old meat packing pant. It had a couple weird catwalks and a raised room that was only a break room. I miss working with those people.
My head canon is that these catwalks are natural evolutions to the facilities due to unforeseen additions to the buildings. For instance, that windowed catwalk with the vending machine? Mayhaps the back windows once saw outside the facility, lending natural light to the hall through the adjacent windows? Maybe that vending machine is covering where a door once was? Perhaps it lead to an office in what became a different security clearance, so it had to be bricked off? Yes, they could have turned it into a supply closet, but maybe someone decided to place the vending machine there out of a dumb governmental type protest? officials have done stupid things to prove a point. Points that are then ignored and just become more mud in the water. I know I've made my share in the past, though they were of the transitory type.
From "meaning can be found anywhere, even where the author didn't intend" to *G-man spinning in the backrooms* this video was absolutely fantastic. Your narrating voice is really soothing!
This is just pointlessly over-analyzing a detail that, almost certainly, is only as common as it is through incidental design decisions. ...It's great! Please make more X3
Never use that face again or I will kill myself
I think it’s video alike these that over analyze nothing at all that have really soured my liking of game analysis. (Snack machine as metaphor? Come on.)
L furry
@@CursedSFMS 🤡
@Zyko Manam damn im so sad
What a very valid observation. I'll make sure to add twice as many nonsensical catwalks into my future projects from now on!
"Like Black Mesa" had me rolling
I love videos like this, only valve games have such specific and detailed deep dives made about them
"...full of useless dead ends that only serve to confuse the players. Like Black Mesa" With that line, I'm subscribed and you're now my favorite Half-Life UA-camr.
but black mesa is good
@dkskcjfjswwwwwws it's a solid remake for sure, but there are a fair few area with just way too much stuff everywhere, making it close to impossible to actually know where you need to go.
The biggest offender is Surface Tension where there are just random doors leading to tiny balconies EVERYWHERE.
@@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413 It is, but is not perfect, and is nice to see someone that is not just "Everything in Source is the best thing ever" like many others in the community are.
I got intrigued in the part you said that the catwalks can be seen as a virus that have been spread even in other valve adjacent projects and i couldn't think for a better example than INFRA, a source game about being a structural analyst where you take photos and environmental puzzles where a lot of the time you get to walk see and interact with catwalks and other types of dead-end like structures that gives the illusion of a big world, like emergency stairs, closed elevators, broken or locked doors, etc.
I think is something it can be expanded upon on.
Fantastic game. One of the best looking source games.
INFRA is just the best
It's actually really funny to "pull back the curtain" on that game and bind a key to unlock-and-open doors (bind q "ent_fire !picker unlock;ent_fire !picker open"), just to see what's hypothetically behind them. Is it the void? Is it a concrete wall the door gets absorbed into? Is it a tiny little cube room that for all intents and purposes is a closet? Is it the Backroooooooms? (it actually IS at one point in _INFRA: Underground,_ if you're standing in the right place during a specific changelevel)
It's almost like people who've made maps have zero experience in actual industrial settings, but have seen them and thought you include elements from those settings.
Source game map exploration is one of my favorite niche discussions. Thank you for this video
I used to work at a foundry. It was said that in the time of the second world war this waa the location of a p.o.w. work site. In certain areas of the older structures there elevated walkways that were completely fenced off. Apparently those were for the gaurds to watch the interned workers. Heres the kicker, I worked in the tooling shop, a more modern corrugated tin-can. I only ever went to those cat-walks once or twice, because I never had the time to just really check it out. It left me so very curious.
I do enjoy walking on catwalks. The sound effects are pleasing.
lmao I love how you went out of your way to analyze the catwalks with no practical use. made me chuckle.
7:38 English teacher moment
Cat walks in places in games is meant to break up the visual monotony in a room. Instead of having just a plain jane wall there you have some realistic design element to make it look more dynamic and less boring.
I must've picked this up subconsciously because I've been using catwalks to detail my environments for the last few years 😰
I work at a government facility that's been around for ~100 years and we have so many odd catwalks/dead-ends/bricked up hallways/etc. My favorite is this little stairway that goes up to a platform and that's it. The two tunnels that lead to it were completely sealed off, so the stairs and platform are absolutely useless now, but they're not really in the way so there's no point in spending time/money to take them down as well. There are also countless offices that were sealed off in random parts of the building, so you can see their windows from the outside but they're practically invisible inside.
I can hear your fedora.
The instant I saw the title of the video and the thumbnail i was like “yeah.” I just knew. I knew about the catwalks. It was just IN my subconscious, waiting to be pulled out.
I actually do have a REAL reason there are so many inaccessible catwalks in tf2 levels, from a design perspective. A LOT of tf2 map design, boils down to clipping off inaccessible areas but still having open space there, in order to make the playable space feel larger and less cramped than it actually is when they want to put an invisible wall for balance reasons. But, it does actually have real effects on gameplay, such as projectiles not colliding with clip geometry. Also, players typically can’t walk on catwalks, because their surfaces have holes in them and tf2 doesn’t like walkable surfaces that you can shoot through, so it’s also a subtle sort of game-language to silently tell the player “this surface is unwalkable.”
Connection over things like this. That’s what Valve is all about.
All of your rants about the artistic meaning you took away from the catwalks and the fucking soda machine made me feel not alone in my insane obsession with the source engine’s art choices because i literally had the SAME THOUGHT about that area from office complex in my recent blind play through of Half Life, and this has given me the bravery to make videos talking about the deeper meaning i found behind every stupid little detail of video games i play because i am a hyper fixated autistic boy.
I really enjoyed this video. thank you :)
On 2Fort, the metal grating on both bases near the entrance, allows explosives to go through. Not bullets, but it is some damage that goes through something.
@@hoovysimulator2518 Huh. THAT makes no sense. A rocket can fit but a bullet can’t.
oh, not the projectile. Just the blast damage! I should've wrote it better.
@@hoovysimulator2518 Oh. Well that’s weird. But it makes sense. A blast would still hurt you through a grate. But it’s stupid because a bullet would also still hurt you at least sometimes through a grate lol.
Valve has this super unique approach to map design that gives it this weird surreality, and I’m glad other people seem to be picking up on that. It seems like a very deliberate artistic choice, and one that drastically impacts the experience - often without anyone even noticing.
It’s refreshing compared to the rest of the game industry’s boring, bland, and incredibly wasteful approach to map design.
Now I imagine Valve's office as just a plenty of catwalks
Wait “catwalks” “CATwalks” “that cat” it all makes sense now these catwalks are bridges between time and space for that cat to travel between.
"trapped in a dead-end job" is what got me
catwalks make the environments feel a lot less cube-like and are just super easy detail while staying out of reach of the player. If they were walled-off corridors the walls would feel undetailed and unnatural. If they were stairs the player would be tempted to go up them. catwalks are an incredibly good solution to environment detailing.
Catwalk placements in TF2 have always seemed like a strange case to me.
another well written and super interesting banger from the colonel, keep it up👍
Made me laugh a few times, I like your sense of humor
Its a really visually intresting thing, one of the closest things i can think of in real life like is the skybridges, for a video game comparison in the pitt dlc for fallout 3 catwalks made out of construction equipment are used but in concept art you can see they were originally the sky bridges connecting buildings like in the real world, in the plot of the dlc these catwalks are to seperare a upper and lower place but also a upper and lower cast and are necessary to proceed I never really noticed how important catwalks in shooters but their presence is honestly a visually intresting one i always felt it tied into the concrete industiral themes most shooters have as their backgrounds but maybe its more than that
petition to make catwalk% a real portal speedrun category.
I think I just accepted these catwalks overall and never even thought about them, simply because when I was a kid, my school had one of those that lead to a library
4:50 I've been playing Black Mesa lately and this is so true! It's gorgeous how they've expanded some of the environments, but it results in tons of dead ends and rooms that you explore for no reward.
i am going to seriously flip out the next time i see a catwalk in real life
I will take my biggest shit off the live on the next catwalk I see.
It’s because it adds depth to the level detail, as if there are rooms there even though you can’t access them.
And having a useless cat walk is the most important part of every map
I'm disappointed this wasn't about the insanely popular fashion catwalk taunt that Valve refuses to implement.
Why did this video go so deep it’s literally a bunch of random decorative catwalks nothing else lol
You know, I thought it was a little silly to overanalyze a mapping detail like this, but then you showed the glass window catwalk to the vending machine and my mind simply broke. What in the world is even that.
i love pointless spots in maps like those, make you wonder how people used that place, what was it for and how it would look if used again.
this is all much better when these spots are in games supposed to be realistic
so true, always had this feeling like something was always just out of my periphery when alone on empty valve maps
I work in factories that use catwalks like these. They are used to transport heavy objects on a trolly or something similar which would be difficult and time consuming to take down a level and bring back up again. They dont put stairs/ladders on them because the heavy object wouldnt be able to be manuvered up or down them. But dont get me wrong, it is damn annoying when you cant just acess it with stairs/ladders
Purple when map design doesn't imitate real life:
Worse conspiracy is that Valve employers want to work at games like tf2 or hl3 but their supervisors dont see it as "effective work" so they are forced to doing stuff that brings company money
reminder: valve has no real supervisors, only real time that happens is when a project is near completion and needs all the momentum it can get (eg: hla, cs2)
blame valve's desk culture and projects falling apart at the seams lol
They don't seem to realise how much money they'll make if they release Half-Life 3
@@ThermalLabs oh trust me, they know that well
do you know how many hl3 projects have been started and canned due to lack of interest, arguments/disagreements, etc lol
it might not be the full list but the final hours of hla gives a good view of what they've been up to (you dont have to buy it, just watch it on youtube if you want)
@@ThermalLabs all the final hours books prove otherwise LMAO
Valve has no supervisors, which is why HL3 never has happened, if Valve did the supervisors would make FOR DAMN SURE half life 3 would be made, do you know the amoung of sales it would get?
instead Valve has their employees rate each other, so if your the only one working on HL3 people will rate you poorly and youll get fired, if you try and get a team to work on HL3 you risk that not happening and being rated as not productive, so people work on what is safe, counter strike, Dota, and steam
I love those cat walks. You opend my eyes thank you
I’ve never seen a single cat walking on these. Half finished games.
This is a goofy over analyzation, and I love it! Keep up the good work!
I mean technically some of these are balconies
Subscribed, this is great content thanks for making it,!
hooked me up in the first minute.
also great narration!
This entire video was exceptionally well written, really good job dude
Thanks a ton!
I think you might've missed the Risk vs Reward of traversing catwalks. In TF2 for example, the areas the catwalks connect offer some level of indestructible cover. However, as the player traverses the catwalk, it exposes them to some amount of vulnerability where they can be attacked. Conversely, it's possible to attack a wider area from a catwalk; but an enclosed hallway only allows you to attack anything within the hallway itself.
Also, catwalks allow for drop-in points for computer-controlled enemies to appear during in-game events. You've cleared out the areas you've just left, and there doesn't appear to be any enemies ahead of you. But suddenly, enemies are appearing from previously closed off rooms and traversing the catwalks, giving you both the ability to react and shoot at the enemies; but also giving the enemies a vantage point to shoot at you in return. Catwalks add a third dimension to enemy traversal that you have to keep an eye on.
Moreover, there's no denying the industrial, or dystopian vibe that catwalks give off. They give off that aesthetic of cheap, industrial planning; where only function matters, and no thought has been given to form or beauty.
Function is the only thing anyone should focus on, world goes to shit as soon as people go for form over function with their bodies and machines.
We would have been at the stars by now if we went a ubertech dystopia.
You like a utopia? that's a good joke bub, I like answers that cannot be questioned and thirst for power that cannot be quenched.
Functionality is of greater value than form or beauty, if you have a hammer made of gold not only will it be unwieldy, it will break faster than if it were designed with only function in mind.
The world should have no place for art or beauty, only the focus on the anvil of progress.
I despise inhuman thoughts such as yours, you clearly lack the greed in our design, you would never take the stars as your own.
I am disappointed, even if I have no rights to be disappointed.
@@basscat9952get over yourself shithead
@@basscat9952🧐
Great video.
Video games sell an illusion. The artificiality of the catwalks can be found everywhere. Take Gordon's impressive arsenal; none of which is capable of damaging the scenery.
To halt his progress all the Combine would really need is one sturdy door.
In the Stanley Parable, if the player annoys the narrator enough, he'll send them to an endless, poorly lit maze of meaningless corridors, somehow more horrifying than anything in Doom.
On TSP, that "maze" is actually the original map used in the first Stanley Parable, back when it was a mod for Half-Life 2!
I think catwalks are Valve’s universal greeblie of map making
The catwalks between doors are for connecting the doors