ORIGINALLY AIRED: 11/16/2004

Half-Life

Episode #317

Though today Valve is one of the most successful game developers in the business with an only an astonishing few game titles in its collection, the company started off as a software developer's pipe dream back in 1996 when Gabe Newell decided it would be more fun to work on games than operating systems. After becoming friends with the brains at id Software, Newell teamed up with fellow Microsoft operating system developer Mike Harrington and both left the company to found Valve Software in Kirkland, Washington. However, not knowing much about actually producing a game, the duo took a trip to visit John Carmack at id Software in Texas and took home a great souvenir--the Quake engine. The team then decided that they needed to choose what sort of game they would create first, and they had two ideas. One was for a fantasy epic called Prospero, and the other for a first-person shooter called Half-Life. Though they initially began work on both projects, the momentum of the Half-Life project took over and it became their first game project.

From there, Valve had to decide what would make Half-Life a different gaming experience from other first-person shooters such as those from id's own DOOM series. Rather than having the player go through the game as a standard action hero, the folks at Valve decided to make the player play through the eyes of an ordinary scientist who begins his day at work when all hell breaks loose. Apparently, this type of story drew in gamers, who felt truly immersed in the ordinary-guy-beats-the-aliens storyline and who bought the game in droves to the tune of eight million copies worldwide. The popularity of Half-Life mods such as Counter-Strike also continued to add to the company's success.

With their first game a runaway hit, Valve began development on Half-Life 2 as soon as the first game hit the market in 1998. Newell then instructed his time to do whatever it takes to create the best game of all time, no matter what the cost or how much time it would take. Though the Valve team that had worked on Half-Life had perfected their craft, they were aware that they needed more talent and expertise in order to make the sequel a true masterpiece, so they brought in veterans of the film industry to help animate and develop the characters of the new title. When the company announced the title for the first time at E3 2003, they felt confident that they had produced a game that was as close to perfect as they could make it. In an unprecedented move, they announced the release date for the game as September 30, 2003, but they would never make that date.

Shortly after Valve announced the delay of the game's release date, the Valve staff noticed that their security had been compromised. In fact, Gabe Newell's private emails began appearing on websites around the world, and it was revealed shortly afterward that the company's network had been hacked and the source code stolen and leaked to the world. With the help of both the gaming community and the FBI, Valve was able to track down the hackers in Germany and they were arrested. Production for the game was put back on track and finishing touches were put on the game that Valve had hoped would become the best game of all time. It seems as if they may have gotten their wish. A month before the official release of the game, PC Gamer reviewed Half-Life 2 and declared it "the most important game you'll ever play." The game hits stores today nationwide.