Page 11: The Devil Is in the Details
The summer of 2002 was a tough slog for the team. Until a new proof of concept was completed, there was no knowing when--or if--the project would get back on track. But one thing was for sure: Expectations were sky-high for the sequel to Half-Life. And after more than three years of hard work, the team wasn't about to let the fans down.
By early September, the team had completed what it judged to be a greatly refined proof-of-concept reel. The tools for both level design and character animation had improved, so it was now easier to prototype gameplay ideas. The reel included new and improved gameplay sequences: A buggy race along the coast of City 17, an encounter with headcrabs on a pier, and the pièce de résistance, a strider attacking the downtown area of City 17. Many of the gameplay sequences were actually refined versions of what had been shown in March. The sequence in Dr. Kleiner's lab was still included, but it was now just a few minutes long.
The new demo was set to be presented on a Monday in September. The weekend before, the team worked around the clock to pull it together. Yet by Sunday night the team started getting cold feet. No one was quite sure if the reel was going to be good enough. When Jay Stelly left the office around 7pm on Sunday, he remembers being uncertain whether the new proof of concept would pass muster. "When I left the office the strider was shooting at a bridge and there were explosions," he recalls. "It looked OK, but I didn't think it was that impressive."
Fifteen hours later, the team presented the new proof-of-concept reel to Newell. Stelly was amazed at what had changed overnight. "Now the physics of the bridge breaking were in, the people were running across the catwalk, and the strider was ducking under the bridge as it attacked," he recalls. "It just seemed like we finally had a game and it came together overnight." The rest of the team--including Newell--agreed with Stelly's assessment. The game was back on track.
Newell briefly toyed with announcing the game in the fall of 2002 to celebrate the fourth anniversary of Half-Life's release. But those plans were called off because he didn't want to announce the game until he had a ship date. As a result, the employees went through another holiday season without being able to tell their relatives what game they were developing. "When I went home for Thanksgiving, my relatives asked me, 'So how did that game you were working on last year turn out?'" Stelly says. For the fourth consecutive year, he had to admit he was working on the same game. And he couldn't even tell them the name of it.
The secrecy around Half-Life 2, however, would soon be lifted. Valve was about to move into full-scale production. Newell assembled the team in October of 2002 and delivered a rallying call: "We have to prepare to announce the game at E3 and get it out by the end of 2003." There was no turning back now.
More Features
Games you may like…
-
Half-Life 2: Episode One
(PC) -
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
(PC) -
Half-Life
(PC) -
Half-Life 2: Episode 3
(PC) -
The Orange Box
(PC)
Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.
See More Similar Games