It’s a documentary about the development of the original Half-Life game. It was released on November 17th, 2023, the 25th anniversary of the game’s release. The documentary is available on YouTube.
You can watch it here
My first encounter with Valve’s Half-Life was through Counter-Strike. At the time, I didn’t know it used the same engine as Half-Life. I was just in 7th grade when I saw kids from my school playing it in an internet cafe. This cafe also sold office supplies, like pens. I needed one, so I went there to buy it. As I was paying for my new pen, I heard loud screams behind me. The kids were yelling and cursing at each other. Curious, I went closer and saw them playing as terrorists, switching between grenades and knives. I wasn’t impressed – the graphics didn’t look that good. I had a PS1 at home and wasn’t familiar with the concept of online gaming.
A couple of years later, I heard about Half-Life again. It was featured on a local TV program about IT, showcasing its cutting-edge graphics and physics for the time. The segment mentioned they spent four years developing it behind closed doors. That impressed me, but I knew that even if I managed to get the game, there was no way my machine could handle it.
Watching this anniversary video resonated deeply with me. It was revealing to hear about Valve’s struggles with:
- Cohesion
- Vision
- Balancing innovation and realism
- Creature design
- Creating seamless transitions
- Scripting
- Time constraints
As someone who works in web development on a daily basis, I can definitely relate.