It has been over 15 years since Valve developed the GoldSrc engine. As a result of this, and the subsequent release of the Source Engine in 2004, there is an insane amount of community-created maps and mods out there, each showcasing amazing talent, ability and creativity.

We haven’t featured many modding projects yet on our weekly ‘Community Spotlight’ feature, so when it came to choosing a single project to feature, it was a difficult decision. However, even after completing so many different maps and mods over the years, there are always certain projects that stand out and Focalpoint by Dimitri Vujicic is certainly one of those.

My name is Jim Partridge and I’m a modder primarily for Half-Life 2. My previous work includes Half-Life 2: Deep Down, Half-Life 2: Daylight and numerous PlanetPhillip competition entries. I decided to join LambdaGeneration this year as a contributor for the site’s Modding & Development section. My primary interest is in level design with a focus on gameplay, I’m a gameplay nerd in fact… Join me in my nerdiness!

PlanetPhillip has updated his ‘MapTap’ software to make it even easier for you to install and run single-player maps for the Half-Life and Portal series.

The free application, now updated to version 2.5 (release candidate 1), allows anyone to download, install and run hundreds of maps made by the community.

A proposed Russian magazine entitled ‘LambdaPreviews’ is looking for people to help kick-start what could be an interesting community project.

Managed by PivotBot a.k.a ‘John Freeman’ of the VK Half-Life Community, ‘LambdaPreviews’ aims to showcase the works of the Valve community via a free online magazine.

Despite the age, Half-Life is a game that many set their sights on, mainly for the challenge that is speedrunning. You know, the thing where people try to beat a game as fast as humanly possible, with or without scripts. And loads of bunny hops and grenade jumps. Loads of ’em.

Using a mod that restores Half-Life to its original 2001 version, a group of people has after 4 years of preparation and practice managed to beat the world record speedrun of 27 minutes, with a whopping 20 minutes and 41 seconds clear time.

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.

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.

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!