![]() When I took the original brief for ‘Xen,’ I made the decision to redesign it from scratch and create a unique version of the borderworld. What did you do to improve them, and what about these sections do you think players appreciate about the way you handled them? Retaining the nostalgia of the original, while introducing the improved gameplay of Half-Life 2 was the main goal.Ī lot of people have been talking about how much improved the game is in later sections, particularly the Xen areas. We also updated a fair few gameplay mechanics to better blend with those found in Half Life-2, such as HUD Hints on gameplay actions and built in training sections of maps, instead of an entire hazard course map to teach the player before they started the game. It seems obvious to state the visual upgrades, but the key difference was the fidelity of detail in the locations you visit that help set the world's atmosphere for the player. I think primarily we improved the environmental storytelling contained within the chapters, not just with an increase in NPC interaction, but an overall more realistic structure to the game. In general, how does Black Mesa improve upon Half-Life which for all its virtues, is 22 years old at this point, and was released in a vastly different gaming landscape? Valve then contacted us in 2013 to propose a commercial license, it was a refreshing change from the industry norm. As previously mentioned, before the commercial offer the only time we had been officially contacted was to remove the title “Source” from the project name. We generally didn’t have a lot of contact with Valve. How did you get Valve to go along with the project instead of shutting it down (as is depressingly common with fan projects)? I don’t think we thought the Source engine would still be relevant by this time, instead we constantly pushed to keep it relevant to our goals, by updating it and polishing it where needed. Level complexity in the new Xen maps was significantly higher than in previous Earthbound levels, sometimes going to three times the amount of assets in a map, which lead to increases in engine limits being needed: this was something we couldn’t have done with an unlicensed version of Source. Something our coders managed to do with an obsessive zeal considering the age of the underlying engine. One of the biggest challenges at this point, was updating the game to be visually relevant. I took over as lead level designer in 2012, and we divided the workflow up into engine porting, improving the mod levels and creating a decent multiplayer mode for the commercial release, while work went into creating the style guides and blockouts based on the original Xen plans I created back in 2013. In addition to which we still had Xen to make on top of porting and multiplayer. Originally I think some of us suspected that porting the mod version of the game to a new engine would have taken a fair amount of time by itself, but porting a mod to a commercial version with new features and improvements would take even longer. Did you think it would take as long as it has? What issues have caused delays? In an industry where technology dates rapidly, did you think that Source would still be relevant this far out? It's been eight years since the original Black Mesa mod was released. After a successful year or so of development, and a popular first trailer, we received a request from Valve to remove *Source* from the name, as our project was getting mistaken for an official Valve product, and so (around mid 2006) the project became Black Mesa. These efforts were started due to a general disappointment in the simplicity of the Source engine port of Half-Life and the belief that the original game could be brought up to a higher standard than just a simple engine port.Įventually the two groups joined forces and announced a new name for the project in about mid 2005, Black Mesa: Source. ![]() At first the two groups were independent, announcing in September 2004 on the Leakfree forums and October 2004 with the Half-Life Source: Overhaul Project. When and why did you decide to try remaking it yourself?īlack Mesa began originally as two separate collaborative efforts, made up of volunteers from the Half-Life community. ![]() ![]() Half-Life is regarded as a landmark game, and one that Valve themselves remade using Source. ![]() We spoke with Black Mesa lead designer Chris Horn to learn more about re-imagining the classic 1998 FPS. With critical acclaim and substantial sales, Black Mesa is a bona fide hit after 15 years in development. Its fan-made Half-Life remake, Black Mesa, finally released in March this year with the blessing of Half-Life creator Valve Software. But Crowbar Collective has been more fortunate. ![]()
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