References:Gearbox employee emails

This page mirrors email conversations made between fans and current or former Gearbox employees. The legitimacy of these messages has been verified by OverWiki staff.

Conversations

Matthew Armstrong

On the cut Decay missions

“	There were a few planned and never built. I can't recall anything about them. There were three that were to various states of completion that had to be cut. Interestingly, they weren't the "most incomplete" levels at the time. We were working with Valve, and they were working on HL2 at the time. When we started, the story worked. But as they developed HL2 and we developed Decay, story elements changed. I can't give details on where the story was or how it changed. Sorry to be vague about this, but that's part of the deal when you work with someone else's property. Suffice to say, we had to significantly shift our story, and some aspects of the game didn't work any more and some levels had to be reworked significantly. This was expected and completely reasonable. As I said, they were in development and we were in development, and when you're in development, things shift. All 3 missions could be played from beginning to end with combat and scripted sequences and even some - not all - audio. But the project had a HARD release date and we needed to focus, so something had to go. Mission 6: Central Transit Hub The least "complete" of the missions when cut. It was also the least important from a story perspective. Mostly came from a desire to visit the central transit hub which gets mentioned frequently in HL dialog. There was a Goliath tormenting you and a neat train transfer area in the center. We had a big set piece ending where you use the transit equipment to smash him. We made the hallways weirdly wide to accommodate the co-op combat. Felt a bit aesthetically wonky because of this sometimes. You can see this in some of the shots. The hallways were going to get a texture pass and possibly made narrower. Mission 8: Hangar Hanger was a soldier fighting mission. Rockets and Osprey. Pretty straight forward. Good combat fun. Can't remember why it was cut. Mission 9: Residue Holding (or Residue Collection or something similar) I thought this was the best of all the missions in Decay, but it also was impacted the most by the story changes. You start out sneaking past a tentacle, then Gordon gets saved early on. Then you go through a bunch of co-op puzzle bits where one player is trapped in the conveyor belt of trash destruction devices and the other player has to keep him alive by running through the operating rooms. After that there's a helicopter fight in a scrapyard, and a big crane, and then a shootout with soldiers in a parking area. Second half was similar in tone to "Forget about Freeman" Lots of outside and sunshine. We kind of lost that contrast when this got cut. Kleiner bad guy storyline I can't get into. It ties into HL lore. There's a good chance it's completely irrelevant now, but I have no knowledge of the current state of HL lore at Valve, so to be safe I'm keeping quiet. Suffice to say that yes, he was going to turncoat on you for reasons in earlier story drafts, but that was removed as part of the story shift. Sleader... don't remember. Probably Op4 reference. PS2 was before the days of significant post release content, but we made some efforts to put hooks in so we could possibly bring Op4 or other things to the platform. Unfortunately, the title didn't succeed to the extent that would call for that kind of effort. Don't remember the original character plans for Decay. Okay, rolled up sleeve security guard. Our artists did some amazing art updating assets for the PS2, including the NPCs. But then Valve looked at our art and it was stylistically different than the direction they were going with HL2. So we had to redo the characters to fit between HL1 and HL2 so they felt correct in the universe. I BELIEVE, but I'm not 100% sure, that this is the stylistically incorrect Barney from those early characters. Gamecube port didn't go forward because the belief was that it wouldn't be profitable. Simple as that. Caveat reminder: It's been 15 years, and I could be wrong on all of this, so don't go quoting me. Hope it helps.	”
	– Source  (July 31, 2016)

Stephen Bahl

On his video game work

“	Since our game was about being with soldiers, we took what valve had created and improved upon it with new versions/classes. I was responsible for creating all the soldiers; Medic, Sergeant, Engineer, Saw gunner, and any other variation in the game (it's been a long time since I've played so I can't quite remember all of them). I also made the shock trooper and pit worm boss. As for weapons, I made the m4, displacer cannon, spore launcher, rocket launcher, and a few others, again, it's been awhile. I was also responsible for making higher detail versions of all the weapons and soldiers for the HD packs.	”
	– Source  (November 13, 2009)

On Race X

“	We wanted to add some new creature variety without messing with what valve had already established. Since the black mesa facility was experimenting with portal technology, it made sense that a rift to different dimension other than xen could have opened up to let other creatures in. Not knowing where this rift was, the name "X" was used to define the unknown.	”
	– Source  (November 13, 2009)

On the Spore Launcher

“	Yes, think of it as a tadpole version of a shock trooper.	”
	– Source  (November 13, 2009)

On the fates of Rosenberg, Keller, Gina, and Colette

“	Unknown.	”
	– Source  (November 13, 2009)

Stephen Palmer

On his video game work

“	I built chapter 8, the "laser puzzle". I believe I started work on Chapter 9 (Rift) but handed it over to Matt Armstrong to finish.	”
	– Source  (December 20, 2016)

Kristy Pitchford

On laser guns powered by the crystals

“	The weapons were presumably created by scientists who were struggling to deal with the situation that unfolded. The fate of the scientists who worked on the portal and the Xen crystal powered weapons is unknown, but whatever their sacrifices, it allowed Shephard to use their equipment to save the Earth (at least for a little while longer).	”
	– Source  (September 29, 2016)

Randy Pitchford

On Race X

“	I worked within a framework articulated to me by Marc Laidlaw of Valve that allowed for many alien species to exist in the universe – some intelligent, some not – some with agendas, some without. With what was revealed, you can deduce that the masters of the aliens referred to as "Race X" clearly have some sentience and some agenda and they clearly employ or subjugate other aliens... In that way, they are similar to the creatures that have subjugated the Vortigaunts (and you learn more about that in HL2). Other than that, there is no clear answer to your question given the information that's been revealed by the games..	”
	– Source  (2006)