How the game "Half-Life" was created: 11 interesting facts about the cult game (14 photos)

I am sure that I will not be mistaken if I say that one of the most iconic first-person shooters is the game "Half-Life" (1998), where we, playing as physicist Gordon Freeman, must destroy aliens from another dimension. The game became a real hit, and as we know, it was on its basis that the iconic game "Counter Strike" was created.





1. It all started with two employees of the company "Microsoft" - Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, who worked on the first versions of Windows. Gabe Newell had been eyeing the gaming industry for a long time and wanted to implement the ability to install games on their operating system as soon as possible, citing the example of the game "Doom", which at that time had surpassed Windows in the number of installations. But Microsoft was skeptical about this idea.



Mike Harrington and Gabe Newell

And in 1996, a former colleague of Gabe and Mike, who at that time already worked at the company "ID software" suggested that the friends leave "Microsoft" and create their own company, which would be aimed exclusively at computer games. The friends liked this idea and they really left the company "Microsoft", founding their own company "Valve".

2. Gabe and Mike immediately decided that they needed a first-person shooter (This was largely influenced by the success of the game "Doom"). So they decided to go in person to the office of the company "ID software" (this is the company that created such games as "Wolfenstein 3d", "Doom" and "Quake") to ask John Carmack for permission to use his game engine, which he created specifically for the game "Quake".





John Carmack in his youth

John Carmack not only allowed them to use his engine, but even helped them find employees who could work wonders on this engine.

3. After Gabe and Mike formed a team, the work began to boil. They decided to take on two projects at once. The first of them was supposed to be a game with the working title "Prospero", but the developers wanted more than the technical capabilities allowed at that time, so the project had to be curtailed.



But with the second project, everything turned out to be much simpler. According to the developers, this project was supposed to be in the spirit of "Doom" and "Quake", but even better. This project received the working title "Quiver" and the work began.

4. The developers decided that, unlike cult shooters, their game would have a full-fledged plot, so special attention was paid to the script and direction. So, screenwriter Mark Laidlaw joined the "Valve" team, and he took on the plot for the game.



But there were some interesting moments when writing the script. The thing is that it was written on the fly, right during the development of the game.

5. Initially, the main character was supposed to be a brutal bearded man Ivan Kosmobiker, whom the developers called the cyber lumberjack.



But after thinking a little, the developers came to the conclusion that they needed to move away from the standards, where the main character is a brutal and muscular man. Thus, the image of a nuclear physicist in glasses was created.

6. Since the main character was supposed to be a physicist, then he needed a corresponding name. Initially, the hero was to be called Dyson Poincaré in honor of two physicists - Dyson Freeman and Henri Poincaré, but after thinking a little, the hero was given a different name - Gordon Freeman. Here we see a reference to the German physicist Walter Gordon and the same American physicist Dyson Freeman.



7. As for the name of the game, the developers realized that the name "Quiver" was not very suitable for it, so they began to think about a new name. Initially, the name "Half-death" was proposed, but later it was decided to call the game "Half-Life".

By the way, many people think that the name of the game translates as "Half of life", but this is not so. As you can see, the name of the game is written with a hyphen, and in this case the name takes on a different meaning. "Half-Life" is a physical term that means "Half-life".



8. Initially, the developers thought about recording separate videos to introduce the player to the plot, but this idea was quickly abandoned. They decided that it would be much more interesting to immerse the player in the plot right during the gameplay, and this really turned out to be a cool solution that impressed the players.

9. The game "Half-life" was supposed to be released in 1997, but by that time nothing was really ready yet. For several months, the developers had to work 16-18 hours a day. The team members already doubted in principle that their project would be successful.



And so, closer to the end of 1998, the game "Half-life" finally saw the light of day. And it was a real success. Everyone was delighted with the mechanics of the game, the plot, the skeletal animation, the levels. In general, every little thing in the game caused a "Wow" effect. And many gaming publications even recognized the game "Half-life" as the game of the year.

10. The German version of the game was more humane than the original. For example, here you can't kill your allies. After shooting them, they just sit on the floor and shake their heads, because they can't believe that you betrayed them.



Also, human enemies (soldiers) were replaced by robots. All this was done again for humanitarian reasons. In principle, Europe has always been different, since the days of 8-bit consoles. Take at least the same game "Contra", where all the characters were replaced by robots, including the main characters.

11. After the success of the game, several add-ons were released, the events of which unfold at the same time, but we will have to play for other characters:

In the game "Half-Life: Opposing Force" we take on the role of Corporal Adrian Shephard, who, together with other soldiers of the HECU unit, arrived at the "Black Mass" to clean up.



In the game "Half-Life: Blueshift" we take on the role of a simple security guard Barney Calhoun, who is forced to fight his way through alien squads to escape from the complex. By the way, we will meet Barney Calhoun in the second part of the game. By the way, in the game "Blueshift" the developers did not bother, but simply used a three-dimensional model of Gordon Freeman. Yes, we play in the first person, but if you enter a special code to display the third person view, then Freeman will be in front of us.

Well, the third addition is "Half-Life: Decay", where we will have to take on two female physicists. The events of the game take place shortly before the events of the original (on the same day). However, this game was released exclusively on "Playstation 2" consoles, so most gamers have not even seen it.



In addition, the game "Half-Life: Decay" is unique in that it is designed for joint passage of two. The TV screen is split into two parts.

11. There is an alternative ending in the game "Half-Life". As you probably know, the game ends with a mysterious man in a jacket (G-Man) offering us cooperation and asking us to enter the green portal. Gordon enters the portal, and that's where the game ends.



But if we don't accept G-Man's offer and just stand there without entering the portal, the door will close and the stylish guy will say that we will regret our choice. After that, Gordon moves to another dimension, where a bunch of monsters are standing around him. The screen darkens and we understand that now the main character will definitely not survive.