I’ve been designing video games for nearly 30 years. Half-Life was the first game I worked on when I joined Valve in November 1996. To celebrate its 25th birthday, I dug up old diary entries, screenshots, photos, documents and memories from the late 90s when Valve was just a collection of strangers, most of whom had never shipped a video game before. I’ll take you through the game sharing stories of what life was like at Valve back then, and what it was like working on and building Half Life, the game that put Valve on the map.
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Thanks again for making his series of videos, I've found them wonderfully entertaining because of the stories you told about Valve's early years and your constant struggles with the game because you guys really wanted to make sure hard difficulty lives up to it's name I guess. Also, thanks for your contribution to a game I've gotten so much enjoyment out of over the years. I really can't express my appreciation enough.
This was a ton of fun to watch! Thanks Dario for all the great maps over the years, whether they be from Doom, Quake, or Half-Life, it's always top tier stuff and this commentary has been supremely entertaining. I hope you and some other Valve alums will do some Half-Life 2 commentaries when that anniversary comes around, especially since it's the one Source-era valve game that didn't have a built-in commentary
When are you going to update mannpower again? Lmao
Thanks so much for doing these, Dario!
I like Kelly Bailey's office!
It's amazing you could safely delay a game by an entire year back then. Sure, it's "only" a year. But also: Game tech moved FAST back then. I remember how often I would be blown away by each and every new game, and also by the fact that we were always having to upgrade the PC to cope. It's quite surreal that today we only ever get console-bound generational leaps, and even then, frankly the needle rarely moves… is e.g. Far Cry 5 really that different to 3?
I'm glad Half-Life managed to move that bar as well, and it did it so well, but that that email about crunching is you describe as a message of motivation, but from the POV of a 9-5 software engineer, I'd describe it as toxic. It's an email of exploitation relying on your desire to work on a game, rather than a spreadsheet package, as a reason to sacrifice your entire life to make Gabe rich. Sure, working on games is fun, but you guys also have a life. I suspect that email didn't come from "the top" but from a fellow grinder, but those can be just as dangerous because if they're willing to grind their life away, why can't you? I guess when there's a bunch of 20 something's egging each other on it's hard to resist. I notice the date is 11/5/97 — did you guys just crunch for a year solid? Or did you relax once the shipping date was missing?
(edit: Nope, In the noclip documentary Harry Teasley says they crunched for a year solid, all whilst getting no sleep due to a newborn with special needs 🙁 )
(Plus, crunch and high stress environments are great places to miss details, and in SW that means a huge amount of bugs. Most games, especially then, were release and done. HL1 had a massive long tail due to the mod scene, I imagine a lot of crunch-induced bugs were causing problems long after the game had shipped!)
I like the idea of a "Valve motivation boat ride". "We're 20 miles out, it's international waters, SHIP OR YOU'RE OVERBOARD!".
This has been a lovely series to watch so far~! Thank you for taking the time sharing all your experiences during it's development.
I remember around '99 I got the GotY Edition big cardboard box and for the longest time I could only play the Hazard Course lest my computer just crashed. I still have my CD, I used to make DM maps as well but nothing that ever got onto planethalflife. These days on my youtube channel here I've been playing around with SEGA Genesis development~ What a great inspiration you have been a part of creating, thank you again very much!
Well it's been certainly a small journey through Half-Life with you Dario. I've enjoyed every part of it. Thank you so much creating all of these gameplay and telling stories from your work back at Valve.
What a joy it was to binge watch this. I loved to get to know you and your work. Your insight has been amazing to hear and the videos are entertaining on its own. I hope you'll cover the next games too. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this commentary, I've only just finished my first time playthrough and it's incredible to get such great enjoyment and sense of atmosphere from a game older than I am! Your insights have been equal parts funny, emotional and wise throughout and I'm glad to finally be getting into the half-life series. Surface Tension was easily one of my favourite chapters and I really admire your skill in level design, so once again thank you so so much Dario and the excellent Valve team!!
Love that Gabe's email was sent after 10 PM on a Saturday. Shows what kind of working hours were common at that time in HL's life.
Hello Dario! Could you play Redneck Rampage please
Dario thank you for being part of making one of my favorite games of all time. I've been playing this game since I was 7 on my dad's PC, who still loves to hop on this game with me to play some deathmatch on crossfire time to time. This game was actually my introduction to PC gaming, having my steam account, and basically years of memories and making friends in games like TF2 or counter-strike. massive thanks to you and everyone at valve for basically creating my childhood and my teen years.
Thank you again for doing this. Look forward to your future commentaries. I will quickly reiterate my interest in seeing your impressions of Black Mesa, if not the whole game, choice sections. Though maybe you are less interested/comfortable commenting on other's work, even if it relates to your own. Either way, can't wait for more.
If you want Guthrie to feel the pain of his own traps, i have a modded version of the game (modified skill cfg file) that makes the game a Lot harder if you play it like one would typically play Half-Life (cheese tactics dont work anymore)
This whole game is like some horrifying fever dream.
Will you be playing Black Mesa? I think it would be awesome to see it from your perspective.
The credits song is definitely one of those endings where i felt the end of a journey the devs went through as much as the player. Played this back when I was 7 and with my step dad, lot of good memories trying to figure out each set-piece.
This was an amazing series you made, the stories you told about the development and how you took us through the game. It really brought me back to the days when I first played Half-Life, being very young, this game was extremely hard. It took me and my friends from school months to get through it. But we enjoyed every second if it and we had the most epic adventures. And after that the game still brought years and years (already at 25) of fun.
Your playthrough made me remember that, how the game outsmarts you in every step you take. It formed me as a gamer, Half-Life taught me how to run, think, shoot and live. With the emphasis on think.
In anticipation of HL2 I joined a forum and to this day these people are still my best friends. For me (and many others) Half-Life is more than just a game. It's hard to describe in words, so I won't even try it.
I just want to thank you and your (ex)colleagues at Valve for making Half-Life, I hope you understand you guys are absolute legends!
Hi, Dario. Do you watch Freeman's Mind?