In case you missed the Steam alert already, Valve in their usual discreet and unexpected way, released an update to their original 1998 masterpiece Half-Life for its 25th anniversary. The announcement included most notably
a new hour-length documentary where the original team was brought back together to share their never-before-heard stories behind creating the original game, and challenges they faced as a young game development studio in the 90s.
Additionally, the game itself received some long overdue modernization updates like user interface scaling for higher resolutions, proper Steam Deck support, as well as brand new content, including four new original multiplayer maps by Valve that push the limits of what the original Gold Source Engine can do, and three other multiplayer maps originally released in 1999 as bonus content are all now brought together in this update. Also, the original Half-Life main menu artwork is back to set the mood as originally envisioned.
You can read about all the updates on Valve's
Half-Life 25th Anniversary page here.
If you've been thinking about getting back into, or always wanted to try Gold Source, Source, or Source 2 mapping, you couldn't find a better time than now while the holidays are upon us to download the software developer kit (SDK) for your favorite Valve game and jump right in! Great starting places are the official documentation provided by Valve:
Half-Life (Gold Source) SDK Docs
Half-Life 2 (Source) SDK Docs
Half-Life Alyx &
Counter-Strike 2 (Source 2) SDK Docs
As always, we're eager to show our support and review your maps and mods here on the Pit! Happy 25th Half-Life anniversary, and happy mapping!
