Half-Life 2, Source, Steam, Valve
There seem to be a lot of people confused by the fact that Valve is releasing two separate things for HL2 this fall.
The first is Lost Coast - a 15 minute playable tech demo. This demo is set in the HL2 universe and has actual, official side story based in the HL2 timeframe. It is free and targeted for high-end systems. It was originally going to be a part of the HL2 release, but the developers felt that it did not work with the flow of the story. The demo has a main purpose of showing of the implementation of HDR that Valve is using in the Source engine. If you don't ever play it you won't miss much as it's not insanely important to the overall story - HL3 will still make sense.
The second is Aftermath - a full expansion. My guess is that this will take about 1/2 to 3/4 the time of the original HL2. It will probably cost about $20 from Steam, and eventually may get a boxed release (from interviews it sounds like probably coupled with whatever the next expansion they do will be, incidentally sounds like <i>maybe</i> something with vehicles) for $20-$40 depending on what comes with it. This is an integral part of the HL universe and takes place (from the sounds of it) almost immediately after the original. It will incorporate HDR technology, as will every expansion and HL add-on from Valve from here on out. It will also expand the AI capabilities of the engine.
Why are they doing this? What does this mean for the future of Valve, Source, Steam, and HL2? From the sounds of it every expansion pack will include something to expand the core engine, turning source into an ever-evolving engine that should last for many years. This is a novel approach to the "new engine every three years" development from the past, and quite possibly a brilliant departure. The theory is that by the end of three years Valve will have updated the source engine enough to be considered a new engine - and in fact done even more and better overall updating than if they spent three years working on a new engine. For instance, they are able to concentrate on one thing of the ten that make the new engine better. This one thing takes much less time to do as there are fewer variables changing. This saved time over the course of all ten things they want to do will allow them to make two extra things. At the end of the three years instead of an engine with ten major improvements there is an engine with 12. As an added bonus players get content throughout the life of the product.
Steam makes this possible as each release does not require the consumer to go buy a new box of software. The engine is updated for them, and they only have to buy new content (expansion packs) - but not all content. Valve can release a single "episode" of a new product for free, perhaps demoing new technology (similar to the HDR demo) and get the response of the public before presenting a full retail product. Another option would be to explore a new “world” or game play style without committing a full project. This makes exploring new territory in gaming much less of an investment for the developer – this can only be good for the gaming community.
The last thing I want to point out about Steam is how it fixes what many see as a huge problem with today’s entertainment market strategy. Steam allows the people who conceive of and create the application to get the money for it. Instead of allowing a publisher to have all the rights to their product (intellectual, source code and otherwise) so that they can sell it and only pass on a small percentage of the profit – the developers can now skip over the publisher and host it via Steam. Yes – there will still be a fee. I do not know exactly what the fee structure will be but I imagine it will allow the artist/programmer to actually get something back for all the hard work they put in.
Most of the reference material for this post was the Computer Gaming Monthly and 1up.com interview with Gabe Newell. Very good listen/read.
The first is Lost Coast - a 15 minute playable tech demo. This demo is set in the HL2 universe and has actual, official side story based in the HL2 timeframe. It is free and targeted for high-end systems. It was originally going to be a part of the HL2 release, but the developers felt that it did not work with the flow of the story. The demo has a main purpose of showing of the implementation of HDR that Valve is using in the Source engine. If you don't ever play it you won't miss much as it's not insanely important to the overall story - HL3 will still make sense.
The second is Aftermath - a full expansion. My guess is that this will take about 1/2 to 3/4 the time of the original HL2. It will probably cost about $20 from Steam, and eventually may get a boxed release (from interviews it sounds like probably coupled with whatever the next expansion they do will be, incidentally sounds like <i>maybe</i> something with vehicles) for $20-$40 depending on what comes with it. This is an integral part of the HL universe and takes place (from the sounds of it) almost immediately after the original. It will incorporate HDR technology, as will every expansion and HL add-on from Valve from here on out. It will also expand the AI capabilities of the engine.
Why are they doing this? What does this mean for the future of Valve, Source, Steam, and HL2? From the sounds of it every expansion pack will include something to expand the core engine, turning source into an ever-evolving engine that should last for many years. This is a novel approach to the "new engine every three years" development from the past, and quite possibly a brilliant departure. The theory is that by the end of three years Valve will have updated the source engine enough to be considered a new engine - and in fact done even more and better overall updating than if they spent three years working on a new engine. For instance, they are able to concentrate on one thing of the ten that make the new engine better. This one thing takes much less time to do as there are fewer variables changing. This saved time over the course of all ten things they want to do will allow them to make two extra things. At the end of the three years instead of an engine with ten major improvements there is an engine with 12. As an added bonus players get content throughout the life of the product.
Steam makes this possible as each release does not require the consumer to go buy a new box of software. The engine is updated for them, and they only have to buy new content (expansion packs) - but not all content. Valve can release a single "episode" of a new product for free, perhaps demoing new technology (similar to the HDR demo) and get the response of the public before presenting a full retail product. Another option would be to explore a new “world” or game play style without committing a full project. This makes exploring new territory in gaming much less of an investment for the developer – this can only be good for the gaming community.
The last thing I want to point out about Steam is how it fixes what many see as a huge problem with today’s entertainment market strategy. Steam allows the people who conceive of and create the application to get the money for it. Instead of allowing a publisher to have all the rights to their product (intellectual, source code and otherwise) so that they can sell it and only pass on a small percentage of the profit – the developers can now skip over the publisher and host it via Steam. Yes – there will still be a fee. I do not know exactly what the fee structure will be but I imagine it will allow the artist/programmer to actually get something back for all the hard work they put in.
Most of the reference material for this post was the Computer Gaming Monthly and 1up.com interview with Gabe Newell. Very good listen/read.
posted by Adam Myhr at
11:00 AM
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