Good morning, and welcome to the Developer Quotes for the searchless thread.
Release time!
So? So?
cman2k:
We’re freaking out over here! It is so exciting to share this news with you!
You can now Download the Black Mesa Soundtrack, courtesy of our very own Joel Nielsen, at the very generous price of whatever you want! Enjoy and share!
In the near future you’ll see our Website, Wiki and Forums all taken down temporarily for renovations.
On September 14th you will see the first release of Black Mesa! This will include our re-envisioning of Half-Life all the way up to Lambda Core. We believe this is a great way to provide a complete-feeling 8-10 hour experience with a solid ending, make our fans happy and help us make the best overall game possible.
We are still working hard on Xen and BMDM, but instead of making you wait we are giving you Black Mesa as soon as it’s ready! We’re doing our best to help bring the immense vision of this project into reality, and we are very excited for what the future brings!
High-Fives Yo,
Won’t your servers die under the traffic?
What’s the size of the upcomming download?
Would having recent HL series games be enough, or should we also download and install Source SDK 2007 explicitly ?
Raminator:
The SourceSDK Base 2007 is the only thing you need to have installed. If you don’t have it installed when you try to launch Black Mesa, Steam will download it for you.Base , which is a stripped-out version of the engine that any mod can use to launch its own codebase. It only contains the core executables and shared assets.
Would Xen be completely removed?
Is Xen gonna be a separate game?
Will Xen be released with Deathmatch?
When can we expect Xen?
Raminator:
It won’t be this year.
Will we see a bit of Xen during resonance cascade?
Raminator:
Yes
Was the decision to release Xen later made years/months ago, or just weeks/days ago?
Would here be subtitles translations?
Will we be able to use the mod’s assets in G-Mod?
Will there be a port to the Xbox 360?
Raminator:
No.
Will there be a port to Linux version of Source?
Will Black Mesa’s assets be made available for lesser modders?
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Older stuff: https://www.wiki.blackmesasource.com/Special:NewFiles
A dev portfolio with some new stuff:https://www.oggyart.com
JamesKane keeps a blog with occasional updates here:https://www.gnosistheprogrammer.com
Is this facebook stirring the build-up thingy you’ve been talking about? (2012-june-12)
Then why did it die out? (2012-aug-08 )
CatzEyes93:
Just so everyone is clear, the “campaign” will not be moving forward. When Carlos posted the screenshots and hinted that there would be more to come, there was some backlash from the community because screenshots were released instead of the game itself. Apparently at this stage, folks want the release and ONLY the release. Nothing else will do.
Raminator:
Nothing was cancelled as a result of “community backlash”. Our plans have changed recently, but those changes had nothing to do with people complaining about Facebook or Twitter, or us releasing screenshots instead of the game. We’re not reading too much into any negativity that may have been generated, and we’re not giving up because someone on the internet said something mean about us. I think there’s just been a miscommunication somewhere at some point.
What about that gameplay video all over the net? (2012-aug-08 ) https://forums.blackmesasource.com/showthread.php?t=12124
Are you going to release Black Mesa on Christmas 2011?
Will Black Mesa be released early to reviewers?
Why are there no official updates?
Raminator:
That’s the thing, we’ve already tried all of this, and it got us nowhere. We tried doing frequent news updates; people complained. We tried doing large new updates; people complained. We tried setting up a devblog; people complained. We tried releasing video trailers; people complained. We tried setting up a YouTube channel; people complained. We tried setting up a Twitter account; people complained. Do you see where this is going?
No matter what we do, people are going to complain, so it makes the most sense to do nothing. We can’t keep everyone happy, and it’s a waste of development time to even try, especially at this late stage. We have more important things to do.
Why not even update the website, remove the inactive pieces like twitter feed?
Raminator:
I don’t think it’s accurate to say that we don’t want to keep the page updated, but at this stage the slightest change kicks up way too much hype. Did you see how many people flooded the forums a few weeks ago thinking the mod was about to be released just becase Hubi added a few pictures to the front page? There’s no sense in creating a stir about the mod until it’s ready to be released, or we’ll just end up disappointing people. Announcing we’re still alive and working is pretty much cold comfort, and the end result isn’t any different to where we are now.
Any chance of release in 2011?
JamesKane:
It is possible, but there is no guarantee.
I have been working on BM daily and will continue up until school starts in late September. I know others will be making a push as well but not as many as I would like.
2009 release failure reasoning:
Raminator:
When we made the trailer, we had every intention of releasing in 2009; it was an aggressive deadline, but at the time we were confident that we could make it. We were making good progress, but we had no way of knowing how the events of the following year would play out. We tried our best, but the game wasn’t finished. Sure, you can get all butthurt about how we lied to you, but the fact of the matter is that not making 2009 was as big a surprise and disappointment to us as it was to all of you.
Everyone underestimates how important their real lives are (or how important other people’s real lives are to them). We’ve lost a lot of manpower over the last eighteen months because most of the team are busy at work, have assignments at school, have family commitments, are seeking employment, are raising children, renovating their homes… the kind of unexpected things you can’t ignore because they’re up there in your face. They have to take precedence over something you do on your computer in your spare time, and it makes it very difficult to maintain enough manpower to finish such a large and ambitious mod in a timely fashion. We’re not slacking off, we’re not wasting time, we’re not delaying out of spite, we’re not incompetent. We’re trying.
Was there a chance of release back then?
Raminator:
Near the end of 2008, we figured that if development continued at its (then) current rate, we’d be able to wrap up the remainder of the game in about a year’s time, maybe a little more. As 2009 wore on, it became increasingly apparent that that wasn’t going to be the case, for reasons we’ve already explained. We spent a little time re-evaluating our position and goals, setting up a series of internal deadlines leading up to a release date later on. So far we’ve been hitting those milestones reasonably consistently and we’re still on-track to meeting our release date.
Now what?
Raminator:
A variety of things, really. We weren’t able to keep up the pace to finish the game for our 2009 deadline, mostly due to family/work/school commitments. We’ve been using the extra time since then to improve the mod, reworking large segments of it, going over a lot of the core stuff; all on a smaller team than before. There’s not a lot left to go, we’re basically just fixing and improving things.
Raminator:
In December 2009, we re-evaluated everything we’d accomplished up to that point. We decided that a lot of what we had wasn’t up to scratch anymore, and we’ve spent a lot of the intervening time redoing or improving things that were already deemed complete. The Black Mesa of 2011 is a much, much better game than the Black Mesa of 2009 in every sense. I’ll be grabbing some 2009/2011 comparison screenshots in the lead-up to the release, just to put the delay into perspective.
Raminator:
Real-life commitments delayed us to the point that a 2009 release just wasn’t possible; after that we re-evaluated where we were and where we wanted to be, and we realised that some of the stuff we’d deemed complete was no longer up to the standards of the rest of the game. We’ve spent a lot of the intervening time replacing and improving large chunks of gameplay and assets; the current version of Black Mesa is a much better game than the Black Mesa that could have been released in 2009.
“When it’s done”
Raminator:
Black Mesa does have an internal schedule and development pipeline, it has for many years now. The operative word there was “internal”; the community is not privy to this information because of the way these things are always twisted and misconstrued. We adjust goals, targets, areas of focus, etc. to keep up with where development actually is, not just where it’s meant to be.
That’s why we set the 2009 deadline, that’s why we re-evaluated where the mod was and where we wanted to be when we missed that deadline. We keep these milestones and dates to ourselves because they’re obviously a bit plastic. “When it’s done” isn’t an internal development philosophy, but it’s a bit more polite than saying “we know, but we aren’t telling you because we don’t trust you to not flip out”.
Promise from 23-06-10, and it’s dismissal on 01-02-11:
What is being worked on, as of 11-02-11:
JamesKane:
Since it has been said, we are in the later parts of development. Most of the work now is piecing together finished assets, rebuilding broken mechanics, and fixing up bugs ( Each are quite time consuming ). Some developers have extra time, while waiting on another task to be finished, so he can do his job. His extra time will either be used to work another task or fix/update stuff on a list we have of things to do but not required. The developer may work from the list because those tasks are usually more refreshing and allows the developer to have fun so he wont get burnt out.
Why there are no job requests for translations (04-05-11):
JamesKane:
We did not start editing the file [english text strings] until recently. Organizing information needed took months. Actually adding the information and correcting the the spelling/grammar is taking time. We have to not only add dialog but add all the new sounds we have added. Slow process.
It currently has 3k lines. I’m not sure what is left as it is not my department.
Soundtrack and release binding (11-03-11):
Website updates and release binding (16-04-11):
From Steamcast, august 2011
How often do you guys cycle through playtesters? They must get bored and less useful at some point. (29-09-11):
Is current build playable from start to end? (19-10-11):
JamesKane:
pretty much
What is the state of affairs on 06-11-2011:
JamesKane:
Here is what known:
I cannot comment on what levels are exactly finished nor an estimated release. However, you can play from start to what we consider to be the end in our plans for the first release.
The creatures and humanoids all work and will be constantly updated up to release using suggestions from the forums and ideas on the wish (but not required) list.
Remaining tasks include but are not limited to bug fixing, fixing choreo, improving sounds, improving performance, finishing scripting sequences, fleshing out lighting/textures/animations, and so on.
The 2010 and 2011 “release” were never official even though a team member may have been cocky and said otherwise. The entire team must be on board with releasing any information on the release.
Development is slow. However, sometimes a team member may not be able to work until another member has finished a task. So while waiting he may work on experimen4al ideas or improvements.
I have plans to post different information tidbits up until release, but with work, school, and BM development it is hard to make time.
We are constantly letting family, friends, and co-works try out the mod. We use this information to improve it if possible. I even took my laptop to comic con and let a few folks play office, wgh, and some test levels.
A statement of the mod being very much alive (comment about lack of April 1st 2011 jokes on the site), approximation from my memory:
Plus a couple in post #2 .
I hope this compilation will reduce the stream of identical questions somewhat.
