Current events

ZHLT and CST Updates Avaliable

amckern, the developer of ZHLT and CST, has informed us that he as released ZHLT 3.4 Final as well as CST 1.1. Zoner Half Life Tool's (ZHLT) are custom map compiling tools for Half-Life that increase quality, speed up map compiles, and give you better overall results, Custom Source Tools (CST) do the same but for the Source Engine. If you're a level designer you know these tools are a must have. The updated files are avalaible for download [here.]

Valve at Game Developers Conference 2006

20th Feb: Valve is taking part in four lectures at the upcoming GDC2006 industry event.

• Valve's Design Process for Creating Half-Life 2 [1]
  • Brian Jacobson
  • David Speyrer
• Physical Gameplay in Half-Life 2 [2]
  • Jay Stelly
• What's Next in Digital Distribution & Mainstream Games [3]
  • Gabe Newell
  • Greg Zeschuk (Bioware)
  • Ray Muzyka (Bioware)
  • Greg Canessa (Xbox Live!)
  • Lars Brubaker (Reflexive Entertainment)
  • Thomas Arundel (Introversion)
• The Art of Munging AI [4]
  • Tom Leonard (Valve)
  • Jessica Bayliss (University professor or something)
  • John O'Brien (Red Storm)

Twilight War: After the Fall Resurrected!

17 Feb 2006: The MMORPG Twilight War, cancelled in December of last year, has been brought back to life with new investment, following a deal in which the concept was licenced to IT company General Computers along with a sub-licence of the Source engine. The Twilight War forums remain closed, but original developers Smiling Gator promise to keep supporters informed.

Friends 3.0 beta released

31 Jan 2006: The instant messaging feature of Steam is back in action. Check the beta page for more information.

New category headers

We are testing out a new version of the Source documentation category headers. Please leave your comments! --TomEdwards 12:29, 21 Jan 2006 (PST)

Dystopia Update 4 Released

dys_Silo's missile launch control room

11 Jan 2006: Update 4 for the Dystopia demo has been released. The update includes 2 new levels, dys_Silo and dys_Fortress along with a huge number of changes. You can find a long list of mirrors on the downloads page of the Dystopia website.

See also:

• Full Update 4 Changelog
• New Player Guide
• Update 4 Screenshots
• Dystopia Forums
• Dystopia Player Statistics

HL2: Aftermath Dated: April 24th on Steam and at retail

Doug Lombardi via ModHQ:

"We're currently targeting April 24th for the release of both Aftermath and

Platinum.

Platinum will include HL2, HL2 DM, CS: Source, DoD: Source, and Aftermath."

HL2: Substance v1.2 Gold Released

03 Jan 2006: A new version of HL2: Substance has been released. Go down to: halflife2.filefront.com to download it. Changelist.

New version of Battle Grounds 2 released

01 Jan 2006: A new version of Battle Grounds 2 called BG2 v0.15 has been released

RDKF Demo

24 Dec 2005: A demo for Rag Doll Kung Fu has been released

Available Now: 64-Bit Half-Life® 2 and Lost Coast™

Mistake Of Pythagoras Released

22 Dec 2005: A surprise gift from the author of Sweet Half-Life, the Half-life 2 Singleplayer mod Mistake Of Pythagoras was released after 9 months development. You can download it from ModDB page.

Wikipedia page

Added a page in the Wikipedia for the Valve Developer Community. Why hadn't anybody done this already?

CAD fans rejoice

17th Dec 2005: It isn't every day one of the mist well-known comic artists in the gaming world offer to make textures for a mod. Which is probably why anyone who remembers the classic Rocket Jockey should right now be jumping to attention:

"In fact, now that I think about it, if some independant mod team out there were to tackle this project, were to bring an updated Rocket Jockey to the scene using, say, the HL2 engine, well... I'd have to volunteer to help do the texture work." [5]

Only one question now: any takers?

Combine Destiny Released!

4 Dec 2005: The Half-life 2 Singleplayer mod Combine Destiny is released! Grab the mod at their site

Scaling the Cabal: Valve's Design Process for Creating Half-Life 2

4 Dec 2005: Last month Valve wrote a piece for Game Developer Magazine, Scaling the Cabal [6]. The article covers their unusual system of several tight-knit 'cabal' groups each concentrating on their chunk of the game, rather than the standard system of each developer working on a wide area over the course of development. It also describes the ways in which they overcome the problems cabals present, and how the system changed from Half-Life 1 to 2. A fascinating read, especially having used the Source mod tools.

GDM November 2005

Robin Walker's presentation "Making Mods with Source" available for download

4 Dec 2005: Robin Walker spoke about Mod Development at a seminar hosted by IGDA Kansai (IGDA chapter for Kyoto and Osaka, held in LED ZONE Kyoto (Counter-Strike NEO Arcade center). You can download his slides here (igda.jp). It's a must-read along with Making a MOD.

Press coverages(all in Japanese):GameWatch,IT media +D Games,Robin Walker interview by igda.jp

Additional mirror of the presentation at http://oregonstate.edu/~holtt/ModPresentation_Robin_Walker.ppt

Warren Spector is also coming to Steam!

Oh my.

Junction Point Studios!