Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary [video]

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 163 posts

Re: Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary [video]

#71

Post by chungy »

Goronmon wrote: post #51
eur0pa wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is with these "AAA" games. I've spent a dozen years having great fun with perfectly enjoyable and memorable 7/10 games. Nowadays a 7/10 is a death sentence for a gaming studio. The industry is poisoned.

"Poisoned"? Or just more competitive? If you thought Half-Life was a "7/10" back in the day, what would you play instead? Quake? Unreal Tournament? Both were mainly multi-player games and not really a direct alternative.

Unreal Tournament didn't exist yet, and both Quake 1 and 2 were very much single-player focused games.

Re: Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary [video]

#72

Post by devnullbrain »

eur0pa wrote: post #46
AndriyKunitsyn wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because technically, they didn't. As they say in the documentary, the version of the game that they made after the first year or so was bad, and they acknowledged it, and they changed their processes and introduced the "cabal" - so they basically paid that first year to gather experience. And what's important, their publisher Sierra was okay with it. I don't see that happening today, to be honest, in "AAA" titles at…

The problem is with these "AAA" games. I've spent a dozen years having great fun with perfectly enjoyable and memorable 7/10 games. Nowadays a 7/10 is a death sentence for a gaming studio. The industry is poisoned.

I see it as overspecialisation. When GTA 6 costs 10 years and a billion dollars, it needs to be an unmatched hit. But what if it's just bad on a conceptual level? More money can create more models, textures and 'content' but it can't create fun. For GTA 3, it would have been a setback for a year. For GTA 6, it could be fatal.

Re: Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary [video]

#73

Post by chucky_z »

hypercube33 wrote: post #15
willis936 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That coupled with the fact that the talent pool and tooling for game development were limited. Having id at your back was a superpower (which is arguably still true today when you compare their tech to other engines). DYKG recently did a video about Ken Sugimori (the Pokemon guy). He is an overly harsh critic of his own skills, but I think there is a kernel of truth in this insight: "It's kind of embarrassing to admi…

There is a video somewhere where gaben is really self destructive about how half life 2 turned out and I think it's why we don't see half life 3 or any other new games - I think he's overly critical about his work. Watching this 25th documentary really felt like the team had a nostalgia trip making it and fond memories of the game. I wonder if the spark is gone with that teams weird dynamic.

As someone who just got the OLED Steam Deck the spark is not gone!! Valve is still the same company, they’re just succeeding in very different ways.

I think this is the benefit of not being a public company. They’ve pivoted over and over and over. They’re still in the same space (video games) and the breadth of the areas they’re in are immense!

Re: Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary [video]

#74

Post by thrdbndndn »

capableweb wrote: post #62
billfruit wrote: post #58

Recently tried to re-play HL2. Found it was highly motion sickness inducing, possibly due to unnaturally fast change in perspective when turning. Had to give up very soon. Newer games tend to fare better in that respect.

> possibly due to unnaturally fast change in perspective when turning Couldn't you just move the mouse slower so the turning is slower? Or lower the mouse sensitivity?

As a person who almost can't play any 3D first-perspective (shooter, action) games due to serious motion sickness, I'd say a slower cursor doesn't really make much difference. If you're not used to it (due to being different from your desktop environment), it probably would make it worse.

To me, the biggest factors to (worse) sickness are

1. Narrow FOV: usually the bigger the FOV, the better. But when it starts to have too much of "fisheye" effect, it can be detrimental.

2. How "fluent" your character moves -- if you have to stop/decelerate constantly (for any reason: interact with objects, clash with walls, sharp turns), it induces sickness very quickly.

Third perspective games are typically much better, but if it's in a confined space (like in a room) for extended time, it's as bad as FPS.

The best FPS I've played in term of having close to no motion sickness is Overwatch. Apex Legends is pretty good in this regard too.

Any Valve title is a vomit festa.

Re: Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary [video]

#75

Post by devnullbrain »

Goronmon wrote: post #51
eur0pa wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is with these "AAA" games. I've spent a dozen years having great fun with perfectly enjoyable and memorable 7/10 games. Nowadays a 7/10 is a death sentence for a gaming studio. The industry is poisoned.

"Poisoned"? Or just more competitive? If you thought Half-Life was a "7/10" back in the day, what would you play instead? Quake? Unreal Tournament? Both were mainly multi-player games and not really a direct alternative.

Other games that released in 1998:

- Ocarina of Time

- Final Fantasy VII

- Baldur's Gate

- Starcraft

- Metal Gear Solid

- Resident Evil 2

- Pokemon Yellow

If only it was as competitive as 2023, in which some of the top games were:

- A Zelda game

- A Final Fantasy game

- A Resident Evil remake

- A Baldur's Gate game

Re: Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary [video]

#76

Post by _cenw »

account42 wrote: post #65
_cenw wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's obviously someone at Valve having fun, unlike y'all down this comment chain.

"Remember that game we promised then never oficially canceled and instead gaslit you over and still refuse to talk about? Funny, right?"

That happens to games all the time. This is one very unique grudge to hold. I'd be happy that Alyx happened at all. Valve could never live up to expectations for Episode 3 / Half Life 3 anyway.

Re: Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary [video]

#77

Post by devilbunny »

rib3ye wrote: post #63
eur0pa wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is with these "AAA" games. I've spent a dozen years having great fun with perfectly enjoyable and memorable 7/10 games. Nowadays a 7/10 is a death sentence for a gaming studio. The industry is poisoned.

Somehow audiences will respect effort vs resources as long as there is community outreach and the price makes sense. There are a lot of 5/10 games that are successful on Steam because the devs set the right expectations for the experience. Recently Vampire Survivors comes to mind. Definitely a 6/10, but something about the balance of no-effort art and masterful game tuning makes it VERY sticky.

Goat Simulator is not a good or deep game, but I definitely got my $3 or whatever I paid out of it. It’s just mindless fun.

Re: Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary [video]

#78

Post by bombcar »

AndriyKunitsyn wrote: post #24
epolanski wrote: post #2

One thing I have found extremely interesting was how Valve hit the jackpot with many early hires. It was literally people that often didn't even have a CS or let alone gaming background and yet so many of them proved to be relentlessly resourceful, creative and hard working. The guy who wrote most of the HL code wasn't even a developer and at the time was studying to become a lawyer or accountant iirc. I can't but th…

Because technically, they didn't. As they say in the documentary, the version of the game that they made after the first year or so was bad, and they acknowledged it, and they changed their processes and introduced the "cabal" - so they basically paid that first year to gather experience. And what's important, their publisher Sierra was okay with it. I don't see that happening today, to be honest, in "AAA" titles at…

Reading the Factorio blogs shows their progression from "developer" to "game developer" to "top-tier game developers" - it took years.

You could likely do the same today, but the key would be finding someone (like Gabe) to fund it whilst it got off the ground.

Re: Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary [video]

#79

Post by bzzzt »

bena wrote: post #48
hello281237 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sierra is an interesting company. In the video game industry has very few well known female game designers, and that was even more true back then. Yet the adventure game genre had several - Roberta Williams, Lori Cole, Jane Jensen, and Christy Marx (not as well known, but her games are well regarded), all of whom worked for Sierra. One has to wonder if Roberta Williams being co-owner of the company (and the designer…

If you're the only one willing to tap into a talent pool, you get to pump that resource as much as you want. So if Sierra is the only company really willing to hire female game designers, they really get to take all the best.

I don't think others were not willing to hire female designers; some Infocom games from that time also had female authors. I think it's more to do with the time they started. Somewhere during the 80s the 'white male nerd' stereotype became a self-reinforcing thing which scared a lot of women away from everything computer-related. Also, I don't consider Sierra games 'the best designed'. Some of their games have lots of 'personality' and they were first with many innovations, but it's clear everyone was still figuring out how to design games at the time.

Re: Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary [video]

#80

Post by masklinn »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #55
AndriyKunitsyn wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because technically, they didn't. As they say in the documentary, the version of the game that they made after the first year or so was bad, and they acknowledged it, and they changed their processes and introduced the "cabal" - so they basically paid that first year to gather experience. And what's important, their publisher Sierra was okay with it. I don't see that happening today, to be honest, in "AAA" titles at…

> I don't see that happening today, to be honest, in "AAA" titles at least. Thanks for adding that caveat; it's an unfair comparison IMO to compare the well-selling games of 25 years ago with AAA games of today. Half-Life was built by a team of about 80 people according to a quick Google, and there wasn't the ecosystem of tooling, resources and outsourcing that we have today, versus hundreds if not thousands of peopl…

> Anyway, 80 people is pretty substantial even at the time; for comparison, indie hits like Hades had ~20 people working on it

I wouldn’t call Hades an indie hit in the classic sense. Bastion was an indie hit, but by Hades supergiant had releases 3 acclaimed games.

That’s not to detract from the well deserved success of Hades, but SG was damn well established by then.

Post reply on HN