Dario Casali, who started working at Valve in 1996, has started his own playthrough of the original 1998 Half-Life on YouTube (thanks, Gamesradar). The episodes are coming out at a blistering pace, with Chapters 1 through 8 already released, but the Chapter 1 walkthrough comes front-loaded with a fascinating glimpse into the classic's early development.
"When I joined Valve, the project was named 'Quiver'," Casali explains. "A few other names were thrown around when we were trying to settle on Half-Life." He then presents a list like he's unfurling one of the dead sea scrolls. The kicker? Half-Life wasn't even at the top of the list at the time. Here are some of my favourites, in no particular order.
- Bent
- Pressure Pit
- CrYsis
- Death
- Fallout
- The Pit
- Trash
- Screwed
- Dirt
"I think we should've called it Screwed," says Casali, almost wistful. "That would've been amazing."
- Valve's Steam page currently lists a second mystery game alongside Deadlock, sending Half-Life 3 theorists into another frenzy of speculation
- Valve CMO threatened the company would walk away from games if it didn't own the rights to Half-Life—'It wasn't an idle threat—we weren't going to take on all of the risk to make other people rich'
He then goes on to share a bounty of images from 1996, the "first images I was ever sent", as he was still in the United Kingdom waiting for his visa to go and work at Valve. It shows a peek into the early concepts for a game that, like its sequel, was a few steps ahead of its time.
The pictures feature atmospheric fog which "we obviously couldn't do" and a spiral staircase "we probably could never have built", thanks to the "face" budget for the scene, which just one step would've spent at the time. We've come a long way.
Casali also shares some insights into the opening tram ride, which is like a tour within a tour. "We basically wanted to throw every last feature we had into this, because we were pretty aware that you have most of the players at the beginning of games, and they sort of drop out over time."
Considering we're still eternally waiting for Half-Life 3, kicking the first game off with a bang feels pretty accurate. But just think—we could've ended up pining over the third instalment of Screwed, Dirt, or just… Trash. Quick, someone go back in time and step on a butterfly, I want to live in the Trash 3 timeline.
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