Half-Life is 20! - Xen Trailer!

Black Mesa Archive News & Developer Updates
#1

920×215 71.1 KB

Happy Birthday Half-Life! We’d like to thank Valve for creating this masterpiece; an important part of gaming history. Nobody on this team would be where they are today if it weren’t for this amazing, inspirational game. We are lucky to share in a tiny bit of their legacy.

The Xen Trailer

920×215 50.6 KB

“The Specimen will be delivered to you in a few (months)”

To Celebrate Half-Life’s 20th Anniversary, we have something special to share. Our first trailer for Xen! Be sure to go full screen and crank it up to 11!

James McVinnie has once again done an amazing job with presenting our game. Everything in the trailer was captured in-game, and we hope to polish and improve our visuals as we get the entirety of Xen up to our standards.

Xen Timeline

920×215 50.8 KB

“Morning, Mr. Freeman. Looks like you’re running late.”

Our goal is to release Xen on Steam in Q2 2019. This will allow us to finish Xen to a place where the entire product is stable, smooth, and most importantly…fun! We are already happy with the design state of Xen as it stands currently: almost everything is design locked and functioning as intended. We are going to be using the remaining time between now and launch to bring it up to our art and polish standards.

Playtests show that all of Xen will take roughly 6 hours to complete; longer for those who like to explore. The levels and design for Xen are largely original work (with cues taken from Half-Life), rather than just simply a remake of Xen.

We are extremely proud of what we have created, and will be showing off some of our deep graphics and NPC changes later in December, as well as a breakdown of where each of the chapters stand.

Thank You

920×215 34 KB

“Thanks, Doc.”

As always, thank you to our incredible community. The positivity and support is what keeps this team going. I got to go the Retro Game Con here in Syracuse, New York, and it was amazing to meet people who have stuck by our game since the mod days. I really cannot express how it made me feel to have people come up to our table and thank us for our work, and encourage us to keep going. Retro Game Con was a great reminder of just how supportive and positive our community is. Let’s keep that going, not just on Steam or the internet, but everywhere!

960×746 159 KB

Again… a huge thank you to all our fans who have stuck by us through all these years.

Xen WILL be out in 2019, Half-Life will turn 21, and we can finally buy it that beer we owed it.

5 Likes
#2

Just dies.

The trailer, I see new enemy types, new mechanics and just epicness that is xen.

Yeah that is going to be a wait but I have waited what 8 years what is a few more months.

1 Like
#3

Damn, that looked better than I expected.

You could legitimately release a standalone version of Xen with all the work you put into it.

Also, after you’re finally done with BM, you should give serious thought into developing a new IP, perhaps a spiritual successor to HL.

1 Like
#4

Uh As they have license to use half life’s IP they wouldn’t need to make a spiritual successor when they can make an actual one. Though as cool as it would be, I think the devs have earned a break once xen is out. Who knows how much stress it has caused.

#5

All looking nice and fancy and alien. You guys’ lighting and color direction is fantastic, it gets me really excited. And those levels are so densely packed w/ geometry, even with it all mesh-based I’m impressed if it runs half smooth. Pretty neat to see more original stuff cropping up, too, even though I’m not sure I buy the explosive houndeyes to any degree. I trust it’s fun mechanic at least! Overall the bits we saw are v cool and felt super alive. And the trailer’s production was super cool! You could tell it was from the same mind as the other trailers, their work has a charm to it and it was good presentation. Best of luck to you all on Do or Die Take 2! Or 3? 2? Whatever, I look forward to it.

#6

Do or Die Take 2? Haha, oh man I like that one! I think we’re gonna have to use that one!

#7

Love you too, kiddos <333

#8

Do they actually have the HL license or just valve’s permission to make a commercial remake of HL1?

Either way, I’d prefer if they could have complete creative and ownership control of their own original IP.

#9

We’re not doing more HL stuff, post-Black Mesa. We couldn’t, and wouldn’t want to anyway. We want to move onto new things.

#10

Fuck! I mean FUCK! Xen looks simply breathtaking. Incredible job, guys!

#11

xmulu1f6urt11.jpg
“trailer intensifies”

It’s sooo preettyyy!
You guys, i can’t believe it takes 6 hours plus to lose oneself in the other dimension! I am so hyped now again!!

Q2 2019. Honestly i think that is a good date. Keep up the good work CC Team!

#12

Will you continue using and further developing your own branch of Source or will you also be moving to a new engine.

You don’t have to explicitly answer this but you may subtly tap your fingers on the table, one tap for yes, two taps for no.

#13

Likely a dumb question/request.

Can we get the first level of xen in the beta branch before the end of the year? Like as a christmas gift to tide us over and give a taste.

#14

…no. That doesn’t make ANY sense.

#15

Though a little unhappy that Xen won’t come out this year……

But the trailer is wonderful, amazing work, guys! I really can’t wait to travel through the time!

So Chon, you’d better revise the Steam Shop about the old “We plan to have the game out of Early Access in 2018.” in time to avoid the unnecessary misunderstanding for you real timeline for Xen since not everyone will see the news!

#16

Xen looks really good! (I wonder whether my computer will still be able to run it…)

Thanks for putting this trailer together, it’s very professional and it’s got me excited! It’s a tiny detail but I love how the gunshots at 0:46 line up with the drum beat :slight_smile:

#17

You should talk to debeerguy and have him do a few more barney lines in Office Complex. One where he is on a rampage with you “do or die” and then when you two fail, he says it almost shyly do or die take 2?

#18

Fantastic stuff, looking forward to play it next year. I wonder what’ll come next for you folks after this.

#19

Absolutely gorgeous!

#20

Jesus holy bouncy ballsack!

That looks so fantastic! Really hyped for Xen (always was, but now even more so).

I was trying to not watch the trailer in order to being spoiled to much, but I only managed to resist for like 10 minutes. No regrets!

Trying to see positives in the Q2 2019 though (after all, worst case scenarios could be another seven month of waiting) I am kinda relieved to have enough time to research and buy a new laptop before xen releases. Funny story: I bought this laptop that i’m using nowadays right when BM mod-version released in 2012, mainly because i reeeeaally wanted to play it. I tweaked it a bit since then (new ssd harddrive, new ram, new keyboard), but it’s pretty much the same since then. Now I need a new one and it will coincide with the release of xen.

Love you guys! <3 Thank you so much for keeping the franchise alive and kickin’!

also, i’d love to see this reference ingame:

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.