Jay Stelly

For other uses, see Stelly (disambiguation).

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Jay Stelly
Biographical information
Occupation(s)	Senior Software Development Engineer for Half-Life Software Developer

 

Jay Stelly holds the position of Software Developer with Valve since May 1997. Stelly's surname appears in Half-Life as an Easter egg on a Sector C locker.

Biography

On Valve's official website, his function was described as follows: "Jay joined Valve from Tetragon where he was lead engineer and 3D engine developer of Virgin's Nanotek Warrior. Before that, he developed titles for Sony Playstation & 3DO. Way before that, he wrote his first computer game (at age 9) and had a game published in a magazine (at age 15).

A native of Cajun Country, Jay finds Northwest buildings too hot (what, no air conditioning?) and the food not hot enough."

In an interview, his function was described as follows: "As lead systems programmer at Valve on Half-Life, I was responsible for the engine architecture changes, as well as the seamless level transition system, save/restore, and work on the physics system. Along with Steve Bond, I built the AI system architecture and I coded the AI for a few of our creatures. I also did the technology behind the visual effects in the game like the beam effects, tracers, sparks, lenticular halos, and decals. And if anyone asks, I did eat those pop-tarts in the kitchen. I thought they were for everyone."

He worked on graphics effects for Half-Life, including fog and water.

According to Jay Stelly, all Half-Life maps were designed ahead of time on paper by a "Cabal" consisting of level builders, animators, programmers, and anyone else needed for their creation so the team ensured all the available technology was being used to its fullest potential throughout the game.

September 2002: Improved trailer is shown to Jay Stelly; he is unimpressed. As a result, the team works overnight to improve it. The next day, the new trailer is shown and impresses both Stelly and Newell.

Was the project lead on the Xbox version of Half-Life 2

In the 5th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards he win the category Best Game.

Complete gameography

• Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller (1994)
• NanoTek Warrior (1997)
• Half-Life (1998)
• Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999)
• Half-Life: Blue Shift (2001)
• Half-Life 2 (2004)
• Counter-Strike: Source (2004)
• Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006)
• Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (2006)
• Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007)
• Portal (2007)
• Left 4 Dead (2008)
• Left 4 Dead 2 (2009)
• Alien Swarm (2010)
• Portal 2 (2011)

References

External links

• Vodooextreme interview
• Physical Gameplay in HL2
• Jay Stelly interview on YouTube (from Half-Life Preliminary Findings)
• 2005 interview about Half-Life 2 on YouTube
• Jay Stelly on LinkedIn