To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the release of Half-Life we reunited the original development team to share their memories of creating Valve's first game.
Check out the Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update, restored content, new multiplayer maps, and a bunch of quality of life updates for the original game at half-life.com/halflife25
0:00 - Intro
1:33 - Early Days of Valve
8:29 - Technology & Scripted Sequences
17:06 - Character Design
30:14 - Creating the Opening Levels
37:09 - Weapon Design
39:46 - Sound Design
44:08 - Level Design
51:05 - Narrative & Voice Acting
57:48 - Xen
01:01:12 - Post Release
Produced for Valve by Secret Tape (secrettape.video/)
- Directed & Edited by: Danny O’Dwyer
- Filmed by: Joey Fameli, Danny O’Dwyer, Michael Lewington, Jeremy Jayne
- Colored by: Jeremy Jayne
- Gameplay Director: Frank Howley
- Motion Graphics - Dan Silverstone / Pica (pica.me.uk)
- Production Support: Jesse Guarascia
- Captions by Megan Carnes
Valve actually acknowledging their past is crazy to see
Rockstar fans:....
I think its because it's a good past unlike so many other software companies.
Why? Out of all the big companies today, Valve has a lot more reason to look back and be proud of how far they've come.
@@asagudaBecause they haven't published an original IP in over 11 years.
Every time they release something Half-Life related my heart sinks a little
Dropping a 1 hour long documentary without any announcements or anything for it is the most Valve thing i've ever seen
I guarantee you that Half-Life 3 will just show up on Steam one day without any announcement or marketing whatsoever.
@@wta1518that would break the fucking internet Edit: why did my comment get zero likes lol
@@wta1518ffs i hope so. my grandkids will still be waiting for that game.
Its okay, Im sure Valve will come out with a VR only Half Life 3 so Gabe can do another interview with no shoes in new zealand like he did last launch xD
@@wta1518 i mean does it need marketing at this point? "here it is" in a hour it probably gonna shut down the internet
15:40 this has got to be the best speech on game design, ever
If you are narcissistic control freak who does not listen to other people and who doesn’t care about fans then sure, your cult leader is a fucking genius, whatever weirdo!!!
So many people, both consumers and game designers, have to listen to this. The modern obsession with realism sucks.
50:36 Harry hiding his daughter's portrait in some random destroyed office and John later securing it in the protagonist's personal locker was very lovely. Rather than serving some dark dramatic connotation, she's protected by the main hero Harry could identify with. Quite touching and thoughtful gesture.
25 years and Valve comes out of nowhere with an HOUR LONG documentary. Nice one
Да
classic valve move tbf
Just like everything
Oh yeah they also made Half Life free for a limited time
@@StevieOk-hr8yhI've heard it was a visual bug and no one could get it.
Thank you Valve for one of the defining games of my life. This documentary was wonderful.
Vine my man!!
Half life rly was built different. judging from this documentary they knew that the whole time
Thank you for providing many great live streams of this game.
damn right
hi vinesas
1:03:22 "Excited by the future" "The past are the stepping stones to what we'll be able to do in the future" Half-Life 3 confirmed bois.
Too vague of a statement sadly.
@@jasonvoorhees8899yes that’s the joke
this doc is the kind of think you would commission if you were looking to build preliminary hype for hl3 though...
We got Overwatch and Valorant's aborted Dota bastard child instead
One thing i remember most about Half-Life from those days is how incredible the sound was! Leaps and bounds ahead of anything before. In 1998 i had Altec-Lansing stereo speakers with attached sub woofer and damn did this game CRANK! The explosions were vivid, gunshots raw, and the voices so realistic. The stereo spacial effects were (and still are) incredible, if something was to slightly to the left or directly behind you, it really sounded like that! The echoey footsteps especially on those metal catwalks were just absolutely striking, it really brought you into the game.
don't forget about the absolute banger soundtrack also
"Late is for a little while, suck is forever" - Gaben. Man I love this guy, why can't all game studios have this man.
What makes this even more significant is that this has been paraphrased before, by Sean Murray. He was in the crossroads on whether he should move on to a next project or stay and fix No Man's Sky and he said someone from Valve quoted that line and told him to finish the game. Gabe Newell may be the person who got Hello Games to make NMS the success it is now.
@@StrikeWarlock That's so awesome! Gaben really was years ahead of his time...
isn't this basically the shigeru miyamoto quote
Yeah but… he made me pay 7$ for a hat i don’t use
that's actually copied from Nintendo's CEO
The game was designed to be fun, and it still is
god damn RIGHT
So is they planning to release 3.0?
Most games are designed to be fun
@@Oscaragiousnot anymore yakhi
@@JesusChrist_Denton That's a slight to most indie devs.
It’s so surreal seeing the iconic textures as REAL images
Long long ago, I remember someone drawing a distinction between "realistic" and "authentic". Usually you don't want literal realism. What you want is for the game to feel cohesive and internally consistent. Portals aren't realistic. If we actually had portals like Aperture Science, it would mean free energy. BUT the portals in Portal have an internal logic that's almost entirely consistent across two games. It FEELS real, even though it isn't realistic. That's authenticity.
It would be so cool to see a documentary like this on Half-Life 2
Hopefully for its 20th anniversary next year!
It would cool if we could see a Half-Life 3 documentary.
Don’t count on it
Half Life 2 E3 demo from 2003 is still crazy. People were watching the future.
Just gotta wait another 6 years
Kelly Bailey doing all of the sound, music, and helping design levels. What an insanely talented guy, and the music is forever iconic.
And he never wrote a soundtrack before Halflife Like wot?
@@self-proclaimedanimator I suppose it helps he had played music before but its really such a unique instance where someone truly is really good at making something.
And he knew 0 music making knowledge pre HalfLife, this guy is legendary at music making and didn't know anything.
Exactly what I thought, makes sense why all the sound is perfect. It's because it was made only by one guy, one mind, one vision. And he f******g nailed it!
@@Vektor.666 A lot of it was sound fx and beats from CD compilations but sampled and edited in fitting manner for HL. Just to be clear it wasn't all from scratch
My absolute favorite thing about G-Man was how he always sounds like another entity attempting to replicate human inflection. It's so creepy and immediately suggests he's not what he seems. His character wouldn't have been even half as interesting without that constant rising and falling tone. So good.
16:28 "If I go up to a wall and shoot it, to me it feels like the wall is ignoring me, I get a narcissistic injury when the wall ignores me" It's such a good way to describe it, but damn it sounds like Gaban is just losing to the wall.
Valve is like that distant relative that shows up in your birthday every 5 years, but always brings the best gifts.
Except they haven't shown up in mire then 5 years. But you can have a steam deck!!. So theres that. They need to finish half life. Im not giving them praise for shifting to a money making machine. They have enough resources to try amd fail. They just seem to lack the ambition or maybe talent at this point to craft a good story to finish free-mans story.
@@-redacted_by_youtube Yeah, we can't argue that
@@MarcoAntonioColioGallardo lol Right?
@@-redacted_by_youtube No, they just stopped making games. "Gamers" tend to focus on the games themselves, but very few people acknowledge the decade Valve spent building up steam and generally improving the PC Gaming space in the time that they didn't produce any video games. The modern Indie community only exists because of Valve and steam as the biggest example of this. Now they seem to be getting back into making games directly, but simultaneously Valve seems to be trying to further improve on the broader gaming industry by breaking the Windows monopoly(making tools for Linux to run most games). Basically, Valve stopped making games so they could become a benevolent monopoly, improving all of our experiences as gamers(I hate the way that sounds) in ways that we don't even know to acknowledge.
@@doctordoggo8604 ok cool. Where is half life 3!!!!?!?!?
i love gabe's take "late is a short period, suck is forever" it really somewhat describes valve.
Steam deck and cs2 needed more time in the oven when they launched. The frequent uodates got the deck into a good place at least
@@phoenixvance6642 They felt it was ready to release. You can't find all the problems with a smaller team of people. Sometimes you have to put something through its paces before you know what you need to improve upon or fix
Look at CS2, valve changed their philisophy
Similarly "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad" (attributed to Miyamoto at Nintendo)
@@Nitro2030ce true, has anyone here seen the meme "software tester walks into a bar"? it's a pretty good summary of what software testing is like you put in a bunch of weird inputs, make sure they all work then a normal user says one thing you didn't think of, and, as the meme says at the end, "the bar goes up in flames"
hope they'll make a 20 years anniversary documentary about Half-Life 2.
I'm sure @dannyodwyer will
The part where they talk about cutting aliens from the game due to time constraints (25:00) is something I think acted unintentionally as a strength in the end product. When I think of Half Life the concrete monolithic pillars, metal walls and ambient soundtrack flood into my mind. The monsters and combat are amazing true but the environment really elevated this game above its peers. And with something as simple as an office building, missile silo or warehouse. Thank you to Valve for taking the FPS genre to what I feel was a deeper level!
one hour documentary on a video game 25 years old... unannounced and almost 2 million views in three days. THAT'S how good Half Life was and is.
The remake Black Mesa is also amazing. Definitely did the original half life justice. And the remastered blue shift and soon to come opposing forces as well. So awesome
three did you say three? half life 3 confirmed
And 12000 comments. Even the number of comments is an impressive stat, it's disproportionately high considering view count.
I've never played it and still never will.
@@neyaneya5554 really sorry for you 🤷
The sound effects were so iconic you can still recognize them TO THIS DAY! The fact that this was all done by one person is simply incredible. The gun sounds, reloading, creature effects, crowbar…. It’s all just so incredible.
dude's a genius that's for sure!
a good chunk of it is outright pulled from commercial sound libraries. what ended up in the game is heavily modified, but still...
yeah especially the scientist sound
there are still game released today, 25 years later where the guns sound weak / like shit. Satisfying gun sounds is essential to a FPS.
I was crapping my pants as a teenager when I heard that Houndeye sound effect for the first time.
It's so bizarre that this seemingly random group of people were able to create a game that felt like it had a 100 man team behind it. Truly lighting in a bottle. I never saved any of my old games, but I still have my original Half-Life box and CD from 1998. Just from the train opening alone you knew that you were playing something special, and as the years went by it only became more clear that what Valve did with Half-Life was, and still is, truly unique.
It’s the lightining most of us dream to ride.
I remember how surprised I was when I realised that I could move during the intro of the game. That's when I knew that this was something different.
"Late is only for awhile, but suck is forever". You can tell they invested their hearts into their projects.
"Late is just for a little awhile. Suck is forever." -Lord GabeN
half life 3 might be coming just very late then?
I mean, it does show when you play through these games. Even today.
I feel like all of the original writers quitting is a sign that it's getting too late.
they'll find a way
"late is for a little while, suck is forever" - Gabe N. Proven formula, thank you for making such great games.
It was well worth the weight.
I'll have to add that that was true for games, until Steam hit the market - nowadays bad games can bounce back from the suck, assuming the studio will double down in their effort on improving the game. See Terraria (which wasn't bad, but kinda basic when 1.0 released), No Man's Sky, or Cyberpunk 2077. Before Steam, that 'formula' was _definitely_ true.
@@NostraDavid2 But you can't be a fresh brand studio consisting of a bunch of people who never worked on a single released game, release an unfinished game and expect people to just buy the game when it's ready. Also even for huge studios releasing a broken game will take away the trust from your fans, it's a stain you can't remove with an update patch as much as you try.
Explains why we don’t have HL3 yet
what if late IS forever... *cough* hl3 *cough*
The plot of the Half Life could be a very interesting movie. Great documentary, nice to know about the production and the team behind this incredible game. Props for the documentary and a big thanks to this team who made it possible.
That outro was fantastic. The old credits theme playing made me cry :=
I can't believe all the textures were created by one person and all the sounds and music were created by one person. That's pretty incredible.
Yea crazy, huge talents.
well it makes sence tbh for that stuff to be done by 1 person props to them
The music in Half Life is amazing, especially 'Nuclear Mission Jam' and the main theme.
@@DashMatinlike notch or markus persson who make Minecraft by himself and later create a huge Community also not sence its sense (not a police grammar)
i make music a bit of textures and sounds for my game, it gives me life literally
Valve, this new angle you’ve been going for, willingly being more open with your fans does not go unnoticed. Its a very good break from the radio silence of the recent past. Keep it up.
they probably won't
3 is all I have to say.
"recent past" xD
Y'all really are some heavy dickriders, it's just a fucking video
TF2 community: Are you sure about that?
Im 22 years old, growing up i always saw gmod videos and animations and just loved what i saw this game could do, i didnt have a pc only a ps3 so i never could play, long story short is when i did get to play gmod, i absolutely fell in love with the mechanics of the game, the physics all of it. It was so next gen to me lol,then i started learning about what half life was, and how gmod is a mod blah blah blah, fast forward to today, half life alyx is my first official HL game and i cant get enough of the half life universe, and i need more so here i am playing hl1 and hopefully 2 with a vr mod. And man. Half life 1 with the vr mod is a better vr game than other vr games, like wayyyy better 👀
Mr. Bailey, I'd like to personally thank you for Vortal Combat piece. This one has been my wake up for univesity track for 5 years.
28:42 "late is for a little while, suck is forever" 🙌 just imagine if more developers had that kind of integrity with their product!!
just look at hollow knight community to see where that leads
Imagine starting a video game company with hardly any game developers on staff and then making Half-Life for your very first game.
That is INSANE! Even though they admit it themselves that xen was a bit undercooked, all the other parts are brilliant and the game itself is nothing short of a work of art
However, could you make a game like half life any other way?
Survivorship bias. 95% of new businesses fail. The ones that don't are, by definition, extraordinary. You have to work hard and be lucky. Good on Valve for nailing both.
It's all passion and hardwork, something no gaming company today understands
@frostden especially lucky. there are many many hard workers out there with good ideas even, but they still don't make it.
For me the sound design makes the most of the Half-Life experience and creates the athmosphere so thanks for the one person creating it! :)
Playing it as a child was surreal , gave me the feels , still have vivid memories . Thank you Valve.
i'm so glad they're talking about this, i think people in the industry are finally starting to realize if they don't document these stories they are going to disappear forever.
Do you know the NoClip or Gvmers channels?
Gaming is starting to get old enough to lose the first generation of game designers
@@robuxyyyyyyyyyy4708 first games were made in the 70s, it already happened
There's def a major in,terest in these making of stories as well. Twisted Metal has a great one that came with the stellar Head On Extra Twisted edition on PS2. There's been quite a lot of Street Fighter stuff put out there as well. Wish more stuff of this ilk was made.
“Late is just for a little while, suck is forever” when he said that’s not the company we want to be, it made me choke up because it shows how much they strived to be the best that they could be.
They want to innovate videogames on every half life game launch and try to make all fans happy, you can see why half life 3 may take a life time 😅
still no third game tho, i sad@@scaydsods2844
cs2 cough cough
Came out BEFORE HL3@@ChopTactician
You have been fooled. They do not care.
Thank you Valve for everything you done, your passion and creativity about games is why i become someone who play games still today after so many years
Half-Life was so immersive back then I thought it was real life story. Thank you Valve for being part of my childhood
Valve actually looking back and celebrating how far they've come is unheard of. I want to see more of this Valve, who isn't afraid of celebrating their progress as a means of showing what time, hard work, and dedication gets you, and what that looks like along the way.
I hope they come back to Team Fortress 2 again in 2027 for the game’s 20th anniversary.
Bro if you want heavy update you can just say it lol, kinda preaching to the choir
@TheFace89 I don’t want a heavy update because unlike everyone else, I’m aware that we already had it in august 2008. All I REALLY want is for valve to combat the bot crisis.
@@heavenandhello6629 Honestly we need another Heavy update simply because they said it was going to happen sometime after the Jungle Inferno and it never did. Heavy's also hugely lacking in options that change his playstyle compared to the other classes. Most people say Heavy is boring-- that needs to change!
@@DropsOfMars Well the only reason I think he’s boring is because his old stock minigun viewmodel from 2007-2014 is gone. We also need back every old detail that was shown in youtuber Crowbcat’s “tf2 2007 and now” video. And plus, we shouldn’t have any more major updates before the bot problem is solved. Because for example, even if we had a 2nd heavy update, people would just get turned off from it by the bots.
"late is just for a little while, suck is forever" - amazing quote from Gabe
Gabes precognitive vision was so on point.
mmhmm.. just like episode 3 has been for a little while, and probably will be forever 😭
This is quote is largely attributed to Shigeru Miyamoto. "A Delayed Game Is Eventually Good, a Bad Game Is Bad Forever"
It is true for that era. Sadly, now the patches and updates have become a crutch for developers. It is noticeable, so many developers rely on future patches nowadays. Back in the day it was like the World Cup in Football, one chance every 4 years. Now, it is like the Super Bowl, comes around every year. easy.
@@alittlecreepywhenyou Why don't you give us your viewpoint on precognition? I'm serious!
This makes me want an anniversary documentary about Half Life 2. I would love to hear its development team talk about how hard and exciting it was for them to make a sequel for a game as good as Half Life.
I was not prepared to get so emotional watching this. thanks for the memories Valve
For a 25 year old game it is still really solid.
Facts the first Half Life holds up vary well
its actually not, skyrims better
@@Uncle_Pavelic Nah dude the only reason why Skyrim has aged well is because of mods
hes a troll ...@@The_Blue_Otaku
@@Uncle_Pavelic skyrim is not even the best elder scrolls game.
The fact that Valve even released this video, AND did a major update for Half-Life, makes me so happy.
But they can't count to No.3 or update The Heavy
@@mariobros68they are making half life barney vr game
@@player70477 and the heavy update for tf2 what?
@@mariobros68 they are making team fortress engineer vr game too
Hold up! What update?!
I'm so fascinated by hearing the original devs explain their process on creating my fav game ever. I can still play this game and have a great time, and I'm always surprised by the A.I. it's incredible
It amazes me that, the industry was exactly the same then as it is now. This was an indie dev team, doing their own thing, which is what happens now.
My first job out of college was at Sierra as the assistant brand manager on Half-Life. This game was the starting point of my career and I look back at those days like it was yesterday. I can’t believe it has been 25 years. Where has the time gone?
Waiting for Half Life 3 ofcourse
@@victorn1291 HLA post credits scene
What are you doing now?
@@MacenW Went on to be employee 11 or something at Gearbox, executive produced the original Borderlands ->Quit and started my own studio and ran that for 10 years (working on tons of games) ->Sold the studio to Zenimax and then rolled the studio into Bethesda Game Studios becoming a Studio Director there -> Got acquired by Xbox and shipped Starfield -> Just quit Bethesda and am starting a new studio to make an original game. It's been a hell of a 25-years.
Swallowed up when the G-man took us all as time hostages.
The fact that Valve made a major update, free sale and made this video all just for its birthday makes me happy on a level I cannot describe. Thank you Valve and the designers for making this legendary game.
Update?
What update M?
Update?
The fact that The fact that The fact that The fact that The fact that The fact that The fact that The fact that The fact that
Check your HL copies guys
Thank you to the team who made a game that impacted my life. Excellent work on the Documentary!
Seeing this felt like seeing an old friend & just catching up with where they are today & talking about the good ol days. What a comfy documentary this was to sit through. Half Life was an incredibly fun part of my younger days & the joys it brought me will never be forgotten.
i love the new direction valve is taking to interact with their communities. 10/10
yeah thats because they have some busy years in front of them. with cs2. potientialy a portal 3 or left 4 dead 3 ? they HAVE to be there for their fans.
They dropped the ball on Counter Strike 2's launch.
indeed@@saricubra2867
which was a huge mistake on their part. they should have released the game with a new operation and all the maps.... not with missing trains and cache and cobblestone lol@@saricubra2867
Haha don't get your hopes up
The sound design of Half-Life to this day remains absolutely iconic. I know people in the comments are singing praises already, but Kelly Bailey is an absolute genius. Here’s to 25 years (and more…soon…hopefully) of Half-Life!
He is a master, he make a masterpiece of sound in HL, i listen almost every day to the OST of HL and the ambience. is amazing i love it.
sound design in games fell off hard, but half life was definitely peak
also Morpho is a very funny app, it's a shame it's not on appstore anymore, I used to have a blast making weird faces in it
A big thank you to the sample CDs of that era too
Полностью с Вами согласен, это половина моей любви к ХЛ
VALVE, thank you for your dedication, passion, sweat, tears, sacrifices and time invested in creating my personal life changing experience - Half Life. It is amazing that I was just 8 years old in 1999 when I played HL Uplink for the first time. I will be 33 soon but I still find hard to understand the magic behind HL Uplink/HL 1 that forever changed how I see technology and "magic" it creates. That "magic" helped brighten up some of my days back then growing in post communistic country. I wish you all could experience the "impact" of HL especially in poorer countries in late 90s. I still remember my friends and other kids from "less fortunate" families that could not afford PC but despite that they knew/heard about Half Life and its greatness - literally, everyone back then knew what Half Life is and everyone knew Half Life is pure magic. I do not want to elaborate on HL2 and Alyx as I am afraid I will exceed characters limit ;) VALVE. Never stop what you do and how you do it. I just hope I will still be around to experience Half Life 3. I have house, amazing wife and great job (IT - I also decided to create/maintain the "magic") but my life will be incomplete if Gordon's story is not finished... Forever fan, Dawid
everything about Half-Life fascinated me when I was young but I remember whenever there was a quiet moment in the game I kept looking at those awesome textures and I think that's when i decided to get into computer games creation what a great 25 year anniversary video
After 25 years, this game still holds up.
😂😂😂
maybe, but definitely not visually lol
That's what Black Mesa is for. Old game, fully updated into the new engine. @@zombl337og
@@zombl337og nah even visually it still holds up not with the current graphical standards but as a stylistic visual.
@@zombl337og If you want the updated visuals just play Black Mesa.
It's nuts that Karen was the only one working on textures, that's awesome. They're all so iconic and ingrained in my brain after the 20+ years of playing/modding Half-Life and Half-Life derivative games, mainly in my formative years.
I'd say she influenced the final aesthetic of the game more than anyone, everything avoids being drab like quake or garish like doom. Visual aesthetics of HL1 massively hold up because of this.
inb4 "women ruin everything" banter
@@kuklama0706 seems like i wasn't able to get inb4 someone had to make this comment relate to politics in some way. we get it. women deserve rights. women are humans too. and it's a horrible thing that some people don't agree. but it doesn't mean you should keep saying that on completely non-political comments.
WAMEN ruin good comment threads.@@romancatholicgameing
The red rock texture always stood out to me as one of my favourites once you made it outside.
Still waiting for Episode 3 and HL3 Waiting aside, huge congrats to Valve for creating one of the best (atleast imo the lore is awesome) video game series ever 👍 can't wait for more cool projects and games from you guys
Worthy of every second, right, now ! Amazing graphics even today and action, design, sounds, characters, everything. Such cool engine !!
I'm glad the original team came together to give this beautiful gift to the fans. Even if we wait a thousand years for Half Life 3, we are grateful for what they did.
Yeeeaahhh sell the immortality potion there bud. But yesone of the greats
AI will create every variation of half life 3 possible, for us, in about 30 years, so no need to wait thousands of years my guy.
Walking legends in the flesh.
Would have been great of they came together to finish the GODDAMN STORY!!!
we getting gta 6 trailer before half life 3
Valve would have broken the internet if they put a Half-Life 3 announcement at the end of this documentary. 🤣
I still hope for Half-Life 3 please...
Just Gaben casually raising 3 fingers, I can't imagine the shitstorm it would cause lmao.
It's called Alyx@@vurhn2009
Maybe they are building towards Half Life 3 with the documentary
@@genie4539 That's what I was hoping for too, actually I have been hoping this at least a few times a year for 19 years lol. I think if Alyx had been more successful it would be a more likely release but I'm not sure VR is there yet. The headsets still cost way too much for the average consumer and are too bulky and encumbering imo
Thank you for your masterpieces!! your games are a part of my childhood. I still play them today.
2 mods I played so much : Day of Defeat and FrontLine Force
I really hope Valve does this type of documentary for some of their other games too in the future, I found this so incredibly interesting and would love to hear more stories like this
Next year will be Counter-Strike's 25th anniversary. Something big will happen.
@@OriginalPuromaybe... but I want Alyx!
Would be pretty dope to see docs on left 4 dead and portal, what they used as inspirations n stuff.
I'm fairly certain those games already have a dev commentary and while that doesn't replace this type of thing it would certainly be a reason for valve not to do it@@AlexashaG
I wanna hear the one how they stopped making games because it was easier and way faster to make money selling other peoples games, getting kids addicted to gambling, and loli games. Lots and lots of loli games
Of course Danny from Noclip got to direct this. Bloody legend. Thank you Valve for this amazing series.
I could tell it was NoClip without even looking at the credits, it just felt right. They do fantastic work.
How about that Gameplay Director, Frank Howley? SOMEBODY SHOULD GIVE THAT GUY A RAISE.
Remember when during the 20th Anniversary of _Half-Life,_ Danny O'Dwyer couldn't get a single interview or even an email reply back from Valve for his NoClip documentary? Times have changed.
I still have memories of playing this the summer after my senior year of high school. It was so engaging and fun. I have been enamored with Half-Life and its lore ever since. Best games I've ever played.
This...defined my life 25 years ago. You sirs carry so much monumental weight in the way I still think to-date. Small efforts have rarely demanded such big results. I count amongst the honoured to both witness and appreciate your efforts, no salute would or could suffice. Thanks, is the best I can provide.
I want to give some love to Harry Teasly, working through crunch time on your team's biggest all or nothing project whilst also taking care of a newborn baby girl who had heavy special needs, so much was given by the entire team but I want to give a huge thank you to you and your family for giving a huge part of yourself to make something so life changing not only to you but the entire industry as a whole. My favorite video game of all time, one of my favorite pieces of story telling ever, and some of my favorite video game soundtracks ever. Thank you.
AMEN 🙏
Well said!
amazing guy
Right? As a father myself I really felt for him after he opened up about that. What a guy!
It's not everyday that an upstart studio suddenly redefines a genre. In fact, it's almost unheard of. Valve truly is the studio of innovators, and I am truly amazed at what they have accomplished, and cannot wait to see what the future holds.
Not unheard of. Westwood, Blizzard and several others have redefined or created genres.
@@CoreusSymphonia They weren't upstart studios founded out of the dark, though. That's why they said it was almost unheard of.
they havent touched a relevant pc title since l4d2 theyre busy running their new hentai platform
They are the master of not screwing first sequels. They have yet to make a second sequel
@@susperdis You can't just exclude everything non-pc and say they haven't been doing anything. Specially now that they've just released a steam deck OLED.
I was 12 when Half Life was released, the older brother of a friend got a it and when he was away, we started playing it. That changed everything about gaming for me, there wasnt any other game that was so intense than Half Life for me. Still loving it to play and the remake Black Mesa brought back the feeling from 25 years ago. Thanks for this masterpiece and were is my crowbar ?
The pics in the beginning reminds me of New Mexico/ south west Oklahoma. I had no idea they got their references from Washington area instead of the south west lmao. They really did make it seem like the south west
To this day I still remember that visceral feel of the opening sequence in Half Life 1. The entire opening sequence was such an incredible experience I will never forget.
So glad other people feel the same way. No game for me has EVER recreated that feeling that half-life gave me. Half-life 2 intro was similar.
Had I worked on the development of Half-Life, I'd be the proudest man alive. What an achievement. You guys are true inspiration.
The game has been so influential and important to modern gaming that I play through it at least once a year, hell i started a playthrough on my 3DS of all things.
So much appreciation for the development team that made this game happen and for giving me so many good childhood memories
Half Life 2 still is my favorite game. It was so ahead of it’s time. I remember all my friends in college were playing Halo 2. I showed them HL2 and they were stunned. It seemed light years ahead of everything else at the time.
I love your channel man!
Still looks good to this day.
I played Half Life 2, 2 years ago. And It left me wowed. It's my favorite game, together with Portal! :)
Have you tried Black Mesa? Amazing remake. Xen part is outstanding
Absolutely🧡🧡🧡
This game was such a big part of my childhood. I can't believe it's been 25 years already!!
Kids back then are now adults and possibly married and got family 😂😂😂 yeah that’s how long, half of our lives
damn we are old af rn
Man this game is older than me
We're getting old, my friend.
I have played this game for so many times and I still absolutely love it to the core. Thank you for creating one of the best games in the universe. I wish you good health.
Good to see Gabe both looking and sounding healthier.
56:53 It must have been incredibly hard for Mr Teasley to be away from his daughter when she was so unwell, crunching on the game and not knowing if it would succeed. Im glad they included her picture in the game, where everyone can see it, and that Valve was able to support them.
Always wondered who that baby was
actually it probably helped him get through it as he could focus on something productive he *could* do.
Hearing the story about his daughter really did made me feel sad
@@tc8557nobody relishes being away from their (special needs) newborn and spouse during those precarious first months. The occasional distraction can be good, but crunching to release a game in time when you have a baby at home being fed through a tube? Nightmare scenario
Yes, that was amazing! They made a game about aliens, but it was built on the best humanity has to offer.
Shoutout to Karen Laur for nailing that aesthetic. These massive, monolithic office/industrial complex type building materials/textures. Really made half-life feel a certain way. With the level and sound design, you get this very 90's professional white collar work environment vibes. I was so happy to hear The Mist was an inspiration, because I think the original HL has something so unique going for it.
I had always wanted to play half-life but hadn’t managed to. Just at the end of last year, maybe a week before this documentary dropped, I went and bought the game and played through it, experiencing it for the first time in its full glory. It held up really well. I enjoyed the game more than I’ve enjoyed any other game in a long time. I didn’t anticipate the fact that the public interest in half-life would peak again soon after with the release of this documentary and the new old patch version being rolled out. I’m thinking I should give that patch a shot, now that I’ve seen this video, just to go in there and truly apprechiate everything the devs both did and had to go through during the developement process. Also I love the quote: ”Late is temporary, suck is forever.” Most modern game companies should take notes…
An excellent documentary that reveals the behind-the-scenes of the game development process and highlights the importance of enthusiasm and team cohesion in the work. After watching it, my understanding of the development of Half-Life changed dramatically, I could not even imagine what fundamental work had been done to make the game come out and be worthily appreciated. Thank you, Valve, you did well!
Awesome seeing stuff like this. Please Valve, more of this!
Yep
Facts
and games
Half Life 3 when
I fully agree with you, this stuff if amazing.
What struck me the most was how humble everyone was about their contributions to the game and the industry as a whole.
yes
engineers and creative people vs bragging entrepreneurs.
I swear this game is so well made it feels better to play than most modern games, good job valve
Back in 1998, I'd talk with a kid (loner/geek etc.) in my class now and then. He started telling me about a game that his older brother introduced him to and how it was the greatest game of all time. We were only 12 years old and I had stopped playing games a few years earlier, having moved onto other hobbies/interests. 3 years later, we actually became really good friends and he surprised me. He gave me a burned copy of Half-Life - the very game, he'd told me about 3 years prior. I asked him why he waited this long. He told me that the game was that special to him and didn't know whether I'd appreciate it at the time. When I got to play it, I realised what it meant. Half-life was, is and will always be one of my most treasured experiences as a child.
gay
Absolutely agree.
gold comment
Same. But for me, I bought Half Life on day one. And to this day, it's still my favorite game of all time.
@@chrishayes7771 yeah we gay, keep scrollin
Discovering this as a kid was one of the best experiences of my life. It's sad to think how today there is so much more money, so much more processing power, and so many more software developers, but so much less heart.
Истина ,👍
That's what I felt as well. The games industry is completely different today, the way Half Life came together is totally unique. I don't think theres less heart in it these days. I think there are a lot more passionate and talented people in the industry now than there ever was, and actually making a game is much more accessible for those people today than it was in the past. The big AAA studios are going to pump out soulless games, but there are also a lot of small indie teams out there producing some incredible games that are full of heart. Outer Wilds, Hades, Hollow Knight to name a few.
@@Blazik3n99 I think there is less heart as a fraction of the whole, although the whole has indeed grown. And companies that made great things in the past are always at risk of being infected with the Moneyball virus and focus-group, HR-ified blandness. Watching Blizzard's evolution over the years has really hurt. I recently played Outer Wilds and I agree with you. That game really made me feel something. Not quite as much as Half Life did though.
The mega budgets in triple A games can be the thing that can cripple them as much as help them I guess. So much capital is at stake and games have got sooo comlpex that they sometimes have to play it safe as so much is at stake. Throw in some box ticking, a few loot boxes to squeeze your wallet even more, varying degrees of quality control on launch day, mandatory subscription services etc etc. Back when games were pressed on discs (or cartridges, floppys, tape etc), they had to be essentially water tight, *finished* code - none of this patch it later with multiple GB's worth of data. The thing I also miss is the whole, 'Here's the world, go explore and figure it out..' No dumb highlighted prompts, or arrows just literally telling you where to go. Half Life 1/2 was just a beautiful experience of quiet isolated exploration mixed with full on loud gun fights that was so contrasting but blended perfectly, and all while respecting your intelligence. If you got lost, then you just kept searching. Indie is where it's at for me - crazy ideas, fun, risks taken etc. That's not to say big budget games don't do this either or with less passion as they are all just creative people doing what they love, but I find the idea of Indie devs being the bedroom coder revival of the past. I love this and seeing the explosion of these is heart warming. I played through HL2 recently and It still holds up brilliantly. Yeah, it's a bit clunky here and there but the atmosphere and characters still hit you. I'd forgotten what a good voice performace that the Alyx artist gave - so much warmth in that voice and the ending got me all over again 😂
it s cause modern video game companies are laser focused on marketing. And subtelty does not advertise video games. It is grandiose pursuit. The bombastic orchestral music or intense ecstatic synth. This is like when Tchaikovsky hated the cannons in his music. Because in the end it shouldnt be about being grand and pointless, but human.
The nostalgia coming in waves. Quake was the first fps I played after playing Zero Tolerance on my dads megadrive. Never knew how much Quake was integral to Half Life. Seeing the alphas looking like an old school Quake mod. Amazing
We love you Valve, Gabe, and its associates/team!
25:23 At the time that specific environment absolutely blew my mind. I vividly remember walking down that hallway for the first time, hearing the squeak of Gordon's shoes on the tiles and being gobsmacked at how realistic it was. Might not seem like a big deal compared to today's photorealistic environments, but back then it felt like a game from 10 years in the future.
I to remember this vibe of the game feeling way ahead of it's time, at the time of release. I can't recall any games in 1998 that pushed graphics so far except maybe Unreal 1 but HL still looked better with the level design and enemy interactivity. It was ahead of it's time in many ways, the first "modern" FPS. I remember things coming a year or two after which started to compete, like Undying, Deus Ex, Unreal Tournament, Sin. Really top tier graphics and/or gameplay for their years. But HL1 did it first and a year before.
listen to the abomination of the ada wong phone-in voice work on the resident evil 4 remake.... and making the ashley character look like an old granny? authenticity>technology and `messaging`
@journeytosilius1 both Unreal and Half Life looked beautiful for me
I'll never forget going through the legendary train sequence when I got this game with my first computer in 1998. Thank you Valve.
This game will always be number 1 for me had memories of my brother playing on our ancient packard bell computer and being blown away from the gun sounds haha
Thank you VALVe, for shaping my childhood. Half - Life is one of my most favorite and cherished games.
The sound effects in this game are second to none, truly genius work by Kelly Bailey
Beyond their excellent, genre-defining games, I also appreciate the way Valve operates as a company. Instead of being a soulless, corporate development mill, Valve is to this day a collection of people who are there because they love what they're doing. They aren't forced to churn out annual slop to make the line go up for the investors. Their creative process isn't constantly derailed by corporate ghouls, afraid to take risks because the line might go up less. Valve is an equal, democratic workplace free of corporate pressure, where artists can truly practice their craft. As a result, they've revolutionized FPS games three times already, with Half-life 1, 2 and Alyx. I just wish they finally figured out what's between 2 and 4.
To be fair they screwed up the train level.
@@johanbjorkman1914And Zen level, and Alyx while very good vr game, is not revolutionary.
I just wish they would care for tf2 a little more.
@@n1ColaX it was quite revolutionary for a VR game
Adam, I didn't expect to see you here.
I remember playing it in 2002. It grabbed me instantly. The atmosphere, the sounds, the creatures, the weapons. Wandering around top-secret laboratories, interesting machines, electronic devices, doctors. And then everything is suddenly turned upside down. All the strange creatures, the energy blasts, walking around in ventilation shafts, walking around in radiated facilities and that voice coming from the HEV suit! The tension builds and builds, and it never stops being interesting. Eventually you find yourself in a strange alien environment inside a nebula. Man, it was really an incredible experience for that time!
Thanks for this, Valve. I am a fan of all games of Half Life y and particularly of Keilly Balley for your music for soundtrack of all games. Thanks, and someday I would like to make music for you!! Greetings from Argentina!
That sound designer is a god. Its just pure epic nostalgia. Also the texture lady. Incredible. Saw these sky boxes daily for years playing cs. I will never forgot the excitement of 10 year old me playing half life and tfc on 220 ping on a 56k Modem. Had a Huge influence on me. Half life 3 now
So many games have realistic sound design that perfectly takes advantage of 3d space. But is it catchy and iconic from an artistic standpoint? Not many games pull that off. Half life has some unforgettable sounds
incredible people they are