The year is 1998. A previously unknown group of game developers known as Valve Software has just released Half-Life. Of course it becomes an instant hit, entertaining a generation of gamers worldwide. But beyond that, buried away on the CD-ROM inside that ridiculously big cardboard game box is a program called “Worldcraft”. According to a note at the back of the instruction manual (remember those?) this program would allow fans to “create a replica of their garage or a fantastic alien world”. And create they did. With this tool, now known as Hammer, at their disposal, the possibilities have been almost endless. From Counter-Strike to Ricochet, from Black Mesa to deep space to World War II France, the community created a tidal wave of new adventures, far beyond what anyone might have anticipated. Fifteen years later, we show no sign of stopping.

Update: According to Deniz Sezen on the Black Mesa forums, the rumors about Black Mesa being ported to Source 2 are false: “Just to dispel a large rumor (and I know I’ll be viewed as the grinch that stole christmas): We are NOT on Source 2. It wouldn’t make sense for a company to license tech they haven’t proven yet with a released title to a mod team. Our [visual] however, WILL be improved. Don’t get me wrong though, we’d love a Source 2 license but our fans would be waiting another 9 years if we had to port again.”

Can’t say I didn’t warn ya.

Since I am sure many of you will have mixed feelings about the news mentioned in the title, I just want to make it clear right out of the gate that an updated Black Mesa will still be available for free and will be supported!!! Now, onto the details…

Have you ever heard anyone say that ‘such-and-such a mod’ is totally under recognized? There are plenty of talented designers out there, but what is really unfortunate is that many of them get completely unnoticed. Whether it be due to a lack of enough media to show, improper advertising, or simply just getting buried in the forums before anyone had a chance to check it out. In order for designers and developers to truly improve their craft, they need enough people to actually play their mods and give them some proper feedback. Let’s try and mend that, shall we?

Play testing and the process of gathering actionable feedback on game levels can be a tricky thing. Everyone plays games differently, and I’m sure we all know that guy / girl who gets stuck on the most basic puzzle sequence in a level. As level designers we try and limit these progress blockers as much as possible with clear and understandable designs but inevitably some will slip through. But wait, there is hope! A group of individuals exist whose purpose is to test, test, test until these wrinkles are no more. GladOS would be proud of the men and women of the Beta Testers Collective.

Do you want to learn more about Half-Life? To see the obscure? To witness the oddities? Then you’ve come to the right playlist!

The ‘Half-Life Fact Files’ is a small project by Rikki D’Angelo or more well known to the Half-Life community as Marphitimus Blackimus (or Marphy Black for short).

Self-described as “an instalment in this series of Half-Life educational film strips”, the project is focused on exploring the outlandish knowledge, obscurities and fascinations that lie behind the very fabric of Half-Life.

It’s no secret that I am terrible at multiplayer games. Whether it’s Counter-Strike or Team Fortress, I’m often that noob at the bottom of the scoreboard, so it should be no surprise that I stick to the single player side of modding. I occasionally make an exception to that rule though, and I’m glad I did for this mod – because Pirates, Vikings and Knights II is a lot of fun.

As many of you may be aware, PlanetPhillip.com recently held the first of three planned mapping competitions, which would require level designers to create a map in ten days and feature the player being ambushed by enemy forces as the main attraction. “Build a map in ten days? How hard can that really be?” I naively asked myself. As it turns out it’s pretty damn hard! Let me tell you a story…

Isn’t it always the way – you have no Half-Life 2 maps to play and then nine come along all at once!

It can be hard to keep track of things in the modding community. Unlike the multi-million dollar marketing campaigns of triple-A releases, us mappers have to rely on word-of-mouth or places like ModDB to have our creations discovered.

A result of this is that a lot of brilliant releases slip “under the radar” and fade into obscurity. To help rectify this, here is the first of what (we hope) will be a series of articles highlighting smaller maps and mods released recently which we think you should download and try out for yourself. They’re free!

What exactly is The Stanley Parable? It is an indie remake of a Half-Life 2 mod of the same name, but what was that? A story? A game? A serious commentary on the nature of free will, or just an amusing mod? Even the developers make a point of not explaining themselves, preferring to provide one whimsical contradiction after another. One thing that is certain about The Stanley Parable is that it is coming soon on Steam, and you can download a demo right now.