Happy Birthday Half-life!

Black Mesa Archive News & Developer Updates
#61

One week ago.
Me:"Man I’ve had this Black Mesa game just sitting in my Steam library for a while. I should play it.
Today at lunch with a friend.
Me:“HOLY CRAP! You have to play Black Mesa!!! These guys did an incredible job reworking Half-Life!!! The game is greatness!!”
Two minutes ago. See this Happy Birthday post on REDDIT.
Whoa! =)

#62

New engine? Do you just mean the latest version of source, or…?

#63

I definitely pay for your work guys !
I just have two tiny tiny questions… :3
First, will you deploy the new translations ? A lot of them are finished and even distributed (french, portugese, brasilian, italian, finnish, polish, russian, turkish…).
Then, as TextFamGuy1 join the BM team, will Surface Tension Uncut and On a Rail Uncut be in the new version ?

Thank you !

#64

This sums it up at least for the time being: https://forums.blackmesasource.com/showthread.php?p=559380#post559380 Read his post on the matter of his uncut maps being added.

Edit: I forgot to add, the last time the website had this many visitors, the entire thing crashed and went to a snail’s pace. Hubicorn did it right this time. :stuck_out_tongue:

#65

Hey, this is fantastic news! You guys definitely deserve to be compensated for the (years of!) work you have put in, and the fact that it will let you make an even better game on a newer engine is wonderful.

I am still a bit confused about the engine though. Do I have it right?

  1. You made the original release using the 2007 SDK.
  2. You got greenlit, and had to port the original release the 2013 SDK to release (for free) through Steam.
  3. You reached an agreement with Valve to sell through Steam, but that meant porting again, to an as-yet-undisclosed engine.

And now you will release two more versions:

  1. The 2013 SDK port, which will be free, but not released through Steam
  2. The new-engine version, which will be sold through Steam, and include various additional enhancements over the free version.
#66

I have never seen the Black Mesa forums so busy before.

#67

Mostly correct. We are doing two releases. First release is the Steam (commercial) version which is on the engine we can’t disclose. Second release is the free (source 2013) version which will not be distributed via steam.

#68

Since the Steam version of Black Mesa is using a new undisclosed version of the Source Engine, does that mean that it won’t require a SDK base like the original version and the 2013 SDK port version?

#69

Completely stand-alone running off its own version of the engine.

#70

So happy for you guys! :smiley:

#71

I definitely am going to pay for this and get no free version. These guys deserve money.

#72

That’s great! I can’t wait to give you money, guys.

#73

I always had suspicions this was coming, but now that it is confirmed I can hardly express in words how excited I am. This is incredible news.

Valve knew this would hold us off until Half-Life 3. That’s why they did it, I’m tellin’ ya.

#74

This is awesome news, you’ll have my money the moment I can buy it! Thanks again for all your hard work!

#75

Since it is on it’s own engine, it most likely won’t require anything at all.

#76

First of all let me say that I’d be more than happy to purchase Black Mesa through Steam. The developers of this mod surely deserve to be paid for the blood, sweat and tears that has been shed to accomplish such an amazing feat of re-creating a blockbuster title such as Half-Life.

The non-disclosure agreement about the mod intrigues me however. The fact that Valve is allowing you to sell your game using an intellectual property that they own, and is allowing you to port said game to an undisclosed source engine, is very curious…

Has Valve also been lending a hand on the development of Black Mesa as well? or merely been a channel for distribution?

#77

As others have said, it’s really amazing that Valve has given you the rights for their first hit, and a license to a new engine. Is it a brand-new never before seen engine, or has it been used somewhere else?

#78

Oh and one more little tidbit.

With Valve’s recent push for SteamOS and Linux based gaming, Will Black Mesa also be ported to Linux? (If it already is common knowledge I apologize for the redundancy)

#79

Why do people keep asking the same thing despite an individual already having been told that the details will be revealed at a later date?

#80

Will Xen be available in the free version? I think it would make sense to release the full single-player mode of the game for free while leaving Deathmatch for the paid version, but the decision is ultimately yours. :slight_smile:

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.