Development of Half-Life
From Combine OverWiki, the original Half-Life wiki and Portal wiki
< User:Barnz | Sandbox
Timeline[edit]
1996[edit]
- Valve was founded by two Microsoft veterans Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington in Kirkland, Washington in August 24, 1996.[1]
- Quake engine license was acquired from id Software. At first, Valve assumed that they would be developing their own technology... The production began on a shooter codenamed Quiver, inspired by Stephen King's novella The Mist and Doom.[1][2]
- The production began on Valve's second game Prospero.
- After a series of meetings with the publishers, Sierra Entertainment becomes the publisher of Half-Life in November 1996.[3] 3d shooter genre - sierra
1997[edit]
- Half-Life was announced on May 27, 1997.[4][5] The initial target release date was November 1997, holiday season. GameSlice (Geoff Keighley's website) posts their Half-Life preview on the same day.[6]
- Worldcraft was acquired. Ben Morris (the creator of Worldcraft) and Marc Laidlaw joins the development team.[7] Marc was originally hired to work on Prospero and was asked by Mike Harrington to help with Half-Life for a week before its release in 1997.
- By late September 1997, near the end of the original development schedule, most of the work on the game had been done. After an internal review, the game deemed not good enough to ship. The decision was to start over and rework every stage of the game.[8]
- Soon, Half-Life absorbed the whole company and Prospero was cancelled.[8] Some of the ideas ended up being incorporated into other Valve games, including Half-Life.
1998[edit]
- Half-Life: Day One, the OEM version was bundled with selected hardware products. This version, which consisted the first three chapters of the game, was leaked on the internet and downloaded by gamers. It was never intended for public distribution. It was a huge hit.
- Half-Life has gone gold on November 9, 1998.[9]
- Half-Life was released on November 19, 1998.
The biggest changes as the game evolved, were to move in a more photo-realistic direction with the textures, and to stay away from a cartoony look for some of the characters.[10]
next generation 052
hired people from the mod community
half-life was to be a total conversion for Quake, class B-game
page 28, 34, 40
Gallery[edit]
First two screenshots (1) "halfldoctorback" (or describe the pic?)
First two screenshots (2) "reservoirdogs"
External links[edit]
- The Final Hours of Half-Life on GameSpot (1998) (archived)
- The Cabal: Valve’s Design Process For Creating Half-Life on Gamasutra (December 10, 1999) (archived)
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Interview with Gabe Newell on Silent News (1999) (archived)
- ↑ Gabe Newell of Valve Software gives us the Half-Life tour on Voodoo Extreme (November 3, 1997) (archived)
- ↑ The Final Hours of Half-Life on GameSpot (1998) (archived)
- ↑ News Archive on Blue's News (May 27, 1997)
- ↑ Sierra On-Line Secures Rights for Half-Life on Official Sierra website (May 27, 1997) (archived)
- ↑ Special Preview of Half-Life on GameSlice (May 27, 1997) (archived)
- ↑ Press release on Blue's News (July 14, 1997)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Valve's Handbook for New Employees on Valve's official website (2012)
- ↑ News Archive on Blue's News (November 9, 1998)
- ↑ Arcade magazine, Issue 2 (January 1999)
