It just seemed like a fun thing to do… until I did it.
It was all there when I got there, in embryo.
Originally, Valve planned to tell its story more traditionally through third-person cutscenes.
The main one was simply the chance to not wake you from the dream, Laidlaw says.
In fact, by modern standards, theres very little dialogue in Half-Life.
Lots of traps and detours and obstacles and occasional moments of breakthrough, he says.
Really good level design tells its own story.
You dont need NPCs popping up to tell you what to do if your visual grammar is clear enough.
It solved the problem of how to start the game, Laidlaw says.
The plan up until that point had been to start immediately after the disaster, as the smoke cleared.
Then we just worked backwards from there to flesh out the preceding events.
These were all economical ways of doing storytelling with the architecture - which was my whole obsession.
The narrative had to be baked into the corridors.
Half-Lifes NPCs were primordial.
Besides the G-Man, they were all repeating archetypes - scientists and security guards who shared the same voices.
We had to develop the story in ways that supported all that, Laidlaw says.
More and better dialogue, richer characters.
As a result, the writer and his colleagues welcomed Gordon into the family of Eli and Alyx Vance.
We looked for ways to unify characters and give the experience more coherence, he says.
As we revised our story outlines, lots of characters suddenly ended up related to each other.
The widerBlack Mesascience team became another kind of family, albeit a far more dysfunctional one.
By building a community around him, we were able to give him a shape, Laidlaw says.
Laidlaw doesnt remember any debate about giving Gordon a speaking part as the characters around him evolved.
Rather, the heros peers started cracking jokes about his silence.
We had the example ofDuke Nukem, and wanted to do the opposite, Laidlaw says.
Our original vision for Gordon was that we didnt even want to show him on box art.
That was a recording of Gabe when he was in his Tuvan throat singing phase, Laidlaw says.
He would practice in the elevator and in the parking garage.
Breen was influenced by Father Karras, the sociopathic prophet of Thief II: The Metal Age.
He provides an incredible radio show while youre sneaking around doing thievish things, Laidlaw says.
Im not sure I liked it, Laidlaw says.
Each of those scenarios demands a different kind of strategy - do you converge or do you open up?
The story never drives the tech, Laidlaw says.
It was too early to be building anything in VR, he says.
The crossover between the worlds of Half-Life and Portal wasnt Laidlaws idea.
I didnt want it to go there at all, he says.
It didnt make any sense except from a resource-restricted point of view.
The connection was well-advanced before Laidlaw realised it would have knock-on consequences for the Half-Life universe.
All we could do is then venture to incorporate them somehow, he says.
Laidlaws plan for the rest of Half-Lifes story was, during the Borealis project, very vague and diffuse.
The only way to figure out the story for a Half-Life game was to make the game.
But of course, Laidlaw did ultimately put Episode 3 down on paper - and publicly.
Dearest Playa, it began.
I hope this letter finds you well.
I can hear your complaint already, Gertie Fremont, we have not heard from you in ages!
Today, Laidlaw regrets ever publishing it.
I think it caused trouble for my friends, and made their lives harder.
So what people got wasnt Episode 3 at all.
Instead, it was just a snapshot of where Laidlaw was at that time.
Deranged, he repeats.
Theres really no other explanation.
Laidlaw has otherwise kept his distance from Gordon, or Gertie.
He didnt consult onHalf-Life: Alyx, despite reports to the contrary, but gave its writers his blessing.
I intended to play it at some point but…
I never got a PC, so Im starting to think I probably never will play it.
I dont ever need to see another Combine soldier again, not even in VR.
The last place on Earth hed ever want to go back to is City 17.
They nuked Black Mesa because of me, he says.
Just so I wouldnt have to see it again!
And it was roundly rejected everywhere it went.
Ultimately, Laidlaw self-published on Kindle, to zero notice.
Today, he mostly makes music instead: I cant seem to stop chasing ever smaller audiences.
I only wanted to think about the FPS experience.
