Valve's Catwalk Conspiracy

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.

if i ever become an architect i will add pointless but accessible catwalks and balconies just for the velve community

The strange catwalks in Portal actually have a good lore reason, too. Cave Johnson was absolutely fucking insane.

This is what a lack of HL2: Episode 3 does to a man's mind.

no cats on cat walks 0/10

Catwalks are just a super easy way to add detail that look nice (and take approximately 4 seconds to make.)

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.

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.

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.

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...

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

4:00 Why isn't connecting two rooms a sufficient explanation for the existence of the catwalk?

It's a little known company secret within Valve - all of their workstations are only accessible via rocketjumping up to a catwalk

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."

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

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.

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.

“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 :))

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.

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