Summation #7 - Half-Life²: Raising the Bar

In reading the book Half-Life²: Raising the Bar I wanted to take a closer look at one of my favorite companies and how they were able to create some of the best games on the market. Valve, the developer and designer of Half Life 2 is also know for creating games as Left 4 Dead and Portal, both of which in my opinion were some of the most interesting games to play both because of story, characters, environment, and overall mechanics specific to each game. Valve has a very different way about going about creating games and I feel some of these tactics may be what is needed to push mainstream gaming in an educational direction. Also I feel that the game Portal is one of the best examples of approaching the ideas of divergent thinking in a game which is one of my main focuses.
Through the book different parts of the production workflow are examined and broken down from the concept design all the way up to creation. Mainly I wanted to focus on the two parts that specifically relate to my thesis, which are environments and mechanics. The environments for Half Life 2 when it first came out were absolutely mesmerizing. As you go from level to level you get a real understanding of the connection of style and realism. This connection allows Value to design a believability environment while still being able to stay within the limitations of consoles and PCs alike. Early concepts were able to establish the overall ideas of how transitions between the city streets and other various parts throughout the city.
The other important part of the book I found interesting was the chapter on the game mechanics. Weapons such as the Anti-Gravity gun add a whole new thought process to the game and how the player interacts with their surrounds. These mechanics in Half Life 2 were the beginning thought processes to design future game mechanics such as Portal’s portal gun. Also designs for making rapid movement through portals as well as cinematic transitions making the game have a movie like feel.
Overall Half Life 2 is best able to capture some of the more innovative and widely used techniques in the industry today. These techniques were built on to create many of the games today that are considered to promote the most out of the box thinking available in gaming today.

Works Cited
Half-Life²: Raising the Bar. Roseville, CA: Prima Games, 2004. Print.