Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary [video] • Hacker News Board

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

#111

Post by austin-cheney » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 5:25 PM UTC

So, this begs a rather obvious question. What makes that team different? Is it the talent, the leadership, the focus on product?

As a long time JavaScript developer I honestly believe, and I really mean this, that maybe 4% of the people employed primarily doing JavaScript work actually know what they are doing. Just 4%.

It seems at the beginning many of the early Valve team had a lot of passion but almost no real experience in that kind of code or product. They got a massive springboard with the Quake code and then figured out the rest. They didn't stagnate on the Quake code, but wildly modified it to fit their needs. Most JavaScript people are not capable of this. They just stagnate at their favorite framework and then just spin around code style and process.

What differentiates that early Valve team from all these various JavaScript teams? It clearly isn't education or professional maturity.

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

#112

Post by guyomes » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 5:44 PM UTC

kingkawn wrote: post #98

gattr wrote: post #95

I hope we'll get a screen adaptation of HL/HL:OpFor/HL2, at least as good as HBO's "The Last Of Us" (I loved it, and haven't even played that game).

ill bet after the game of thrones debacle nobody wants to take on IP that doesn't have a conclusion already written.

Marc Laidlaw, who worked on the game's story of Half-life and Half-life 2, published a script online [1] that could have been the outline of the plot of Episode 3. That could be sufficient for a serie.

[1]: https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Epistle_3

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

#113

Post by all2 » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 5:46 PM UTC

kar1181 wrote: post #87

I was heavily involved with the australian team fortress (quake 1 version) community in the late 90s and 'bro' (Robin Walker) and John Cook were gods to us, regularly involved in the RMIT/Melbourne Lan scene and online even when back then mostly it was 28.8/33.6k modems with a few LPBS on East coast uni isdns. The struggle for them to move on from qwtf to 'tf2' was probably for the best as a lot of the lessons they l…

> Also find it somewhat amusing was that TF2 was originally going to be a much more 'realistic' modern miltary shooter before the scope creep killed it.

Instead we got Counterstrike. I'm not complaining as CS:Source is one of those games that I spent hours upon hours honing my skill.

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

#114

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 5:46 PM UTC

austin-cheney wrote: post #111

So, this begs a rather obvious question. What makes that team different? Is it the talent, the leadership, the focus on product? As a long time JavaScript developer I honestly believe, and I really mean this, that maybe 4% of the people employed primarily doing JavaScript work actually know what they are doing. Just 4%. It seems at the beginning many of the early Valve team had a lot of passion but almost no real exp…

[deleted]

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

#115

Post by scriptkiddy » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 5:54 PM UTC

austin-cheney wrote: post #111

So, this begs a rather obvious question. What makes that team different? Is it the talent, the leadership, the focus on product? As a long time JavaScript developer I honestly believe, and I really mean this, that maybe 4% of the people employed primarily doing JavaScript work actually know what they are doing. Just 4%. It seems at the beginning many of the early Valve team had a lot of passion but almost no real exp…

To me it seems like their passion drove them to learn as much as they could. They knew enough to get the job done, but not enough to know that they "couldn't do" the things they wanted to do.

More experienced devs may have thrown out a lot of the ideas the Half Life team ended up implementing as "too time consuming" or "practically impossible". Valve's devs at the time weren't experienced enough to make those assumptions, so they just worked their asses off to figure out how to do it.

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

#116

Post by jimbob45 » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 6:03 PM UTC

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.

no-effort art

In fairness, isn't is specifically meant to look like a ported Italian game with laughably incorrect translations?

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

#117

Post by naet » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 6:04 PM UTC

bejd wrote: post #9

bloqs wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the three lamps?

Not sure if they're being serious, but there's what looks like a "3" on a distant air-con unit, next to left-most tree. If your viewport is narrow you might not see it [0] [0] https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/clusters/sale_autum...

I wonder who did that art, I'd love to hire them for something similar.

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

#118

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 6:05 PM UTC

thinkingtoilet wrote: post #47

Loughla wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think for most hiring, regardless of industry, the secret is searching for passion, focus, (I would add) ability/willingness to learn new skills, and a positive attitude toward other humans. Specific job skills can be taught or learned. If you have the right attitude, positive outlook, and are inherently someone who learns things, you can be very successful in most jobs. Too often, hiring filters for specific job s…

I have built some truly awesome teams and besides a base level of knowledge, the only thing I care about is attitude. Another huge factor is passions, I always ask what they do outside of work. If you are passionate about something you know how to focus and care about the details. This strategy has been very successful for me.

[deleted]

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

#119

Post by pugworthy » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 6:10 PM UTC

all2 wrote: post #113

kar1181 wrote: post #87

I was heavily involved with the australian team fortress (quake 1 version) community in the late 90s and 'bro' (Robin Walker) and John Cook were gods to us, regularly involved in the RMIT/Melbourne Lan scene and online even when back then mostly it was 28.8/33.6k modems with a few LPBS on East coast uni isdns. The struggle for them to move on from qwtf to 'tf2' was probably for the best as a lot of the lessons they l…

> Also find it somewhat amusing was that TF2 was originally going to be a much more 'realistic' modern miltary shooter before the scope creep killed it. Instead we got Counterstrike. I'm not complaining as CS:Source is one of those games that I spent hours upon hours honing my skill.

To be clear, CS was developed independently of TF, and had a different genealogy as it were. Certainly some developer crossover later on, but probably more by people wanting to work on it instead of being told to.

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

#120

Post by pugworthy » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 6:11 PM UTC

kar1181 wrote: post #87

I was heavily involved with the australian team fortress (quake 1 version) community in the late 90s and 'bro' (Robin Walker) and John Cook were gods to us, regularly involved in the RMIT/Melbourne Lan scene and online even when back then mostly it was 28.8/33.6k modems with a few LPBS on East coast uni isdns. The struggle for them to move on from qwtf to 'tf2' was probably for the best as a lot of the lessons they l…

I have seen some early draft designs for a WW2 themed shooter that might have been part of that early TF2 concept. Then Day of Defeat came along and fit the bill nicely.