![]() ![]() According to former Valve writer Marc Laidlaw, it began when a programmer implemented a new type of game object called a ‘func_tracktrain’. The chapter was pitched initially as more of a tech demo than a bit of subtle atmosphere. ![]() It is an iconic and oft-imitated stretch of scene-setting. The Black Mesa facility swirls to life around your monorail: co-workers run late to work, forklifts rush through maintenance tunnels, an idling helicopter waits for passengers. Half-Life begins with a seven-minute work commute. Half-Life is not a game about Black Mesa, Gordon Freeman, headshots or puzzles. Half-Life’s guts influence what Half-Life can show you and what Half-Life can do.Īnd what Half-Life’s guts say is that everyone else is wrong. How big can a Half-Life level be, how many colours and shapes can it have, what can it look like? Well, it depends on how much texture memory and 3D map geometry memory you’re allocating in the engine. ![]() Game developers must make millions of small decisions all the time, and each decision is in conversation with a million other decisions. More cynically, Half-Life is just another game about jumping on things and shooting things in the face to get to the next level.īut as a longtime Half-Life modder and game developer, I also know Half-Life in a very different way: in its map logic scripting, SDK source code, 3D models and animation events, 2D skins and texture flats-I’ve even studied the way Valve named the individual game files and folders. For others it’s about a mute sociopath who murders anything that moves, as he bunnyhops (always hopping) with bloodlust. For some people it’s about Gordon Freeman, an everyman physicist who struggles to survive the inter-dimensional alien invasion of a secret government research facility. It's reproduced here, for Half-Life's 20th anniversary, with author Robert Yang 's permission.Ģ0 years ago, Half-Life was released to a rapturous commercial and critical reception. This article was originally published in PC Gamer UK 262, back in January 2014. ![]()
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