do you think VALVe has had the story planned out all along

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or are they adding on to the plot as they go along? what do you guys think?
 
Similiar to the "Gearbox-canon" thread, this was already answered by VALVe themselves.

In short...

NO. They write is as they go. Kinda' like with Lost.

-- Mikael Grizzly
 
HL1 was made with no notion of a continuation of the story. HL2 might have been made with the episodes in mind, we don't know. The story of the remaining episodes is probably planned fully already although it might be altered based on fan reaction.
 
ríomhaire said:
HL1 was made with no notion of a continuation of the story. HL2 might have been made with the episodes in mind, we don't know. The story of the remaining episodes is probably planned fully already although it might be altered based on fan reaction.
Click to expand...

I'm fairly certain that by the time HL2 was out, they knew somewhat where the story was gonna go (probably not in which form though). But during HL2's development they were changing the story so much I doubt the episodes were being considered.
 
The end of HL2 seemed to suggest that Half-Life 3 would involve you being re-commisioned by the G-Man to destroy the Combine homeworld that we catch a glimpse of through the portal. The story direction and everything up until that point seemed to be building towards it.

Then I think Valve realized they hadn't capitalized enough off of their current tech and instead of creating regular expansion packs decided to directly continue Gordons story. Hence the somewhat cheap feeling of being left at this epic cliffhanger ... only for the Vortigaunts to randomly jump into stasis and rescue you about five minutes later, starting you off really close to where you were pulled from. I didn't like that very much, and think they should have saved Gordon for the full games in the series and used secondary characters for the episodes/expansions.
 
They probably had a bunch of rough story ideas going around HL2's release... Kinda sucks :(
I wish they had known what they were doing with the story right from the start, because I bet the overall presentation of it would have been a lot better...meh.
 
I always remember English teachers telling the class never to make up a story as you go along.
 
They make it up as they go along, mostly. I'm sure they have at the very least a hazy idea of where it is going though.
 
Samon for the first time I have to agree with you, as it is a shock to me that I agree with you.

Basically they know where they're going with it, but the fine details that's cast in shadow and it's up to the holy story writer to full in the blanks. ;)
 
That's usually how one would write any story. Start with the ending and the beginning in mind and then fill in the middle as you go along.
 
I think Laidlaw was asked one time, "Can you give us any details about the G-Man? What are his motives, etc...". This was pre-hl2 stuff anyways. He said that he didn't even know what to do with him either and it was a major problem. Valve basically didn't have a story after Half-Life, they wanted to see if their first game was a success. Why invest in more games if the first game is bad? So now I think the G-Man has a pupose now. But I think the story changes and evolves in accordance to the public's likes and dislikes. Thats why they arn't making platformer puzzles like ZEN because most people hated that section (even though I liked it).
 
Even Hideo Kojima makes it up along the way. Heck, most of the writers do it!
I'm not surprised.
 
Newblade said:
Even Hideo Kojima make it up along the way. Heck, most of the writers do it!
I'm not surprised.
Click to expand...

The difference is that when Kojima writes as he goes, he takes a left turn down a ****ing mountainside and dashes his passengers across the rocks.
 
they've probally made up some parts and gone along with some other parts , imo
 
(first Post) I think they had a vague Idea and then went along and added little details... I bet they had half-life 2 planned out just after HL1 hit the shelves, but because of the success... they decided to expand on Black Mesa first rather than starting HL2... it could also be that Valve didn't have the software to make the concepts of HL2 a reality just yet...
 
According to Laidlaw, the initial sequel ideas were spun off into OpFor and Blue Shift.
 
hool10300 said:
I think Laidlaw was asked one time, "Can you give us any details about the G-Man? What are his motives, etc...". This was pre-hl2 stuff anyways. He said that he didn't even know what to do with him either and it was a major problem. Valve basically didn't have a story after Half-Life, they wanted to see if their first game was a success. Why invest in more games if the first game is bad?
Click to expand...


If so, how do u explain the famous quotes from Nihilanth and the Vortugans. I think it was more like Harry Potter, where the basic plot was made at the begining and the details are made along the way, so if hl would be a succes they would be able to expand somewhere.
 
susko said:
If so, how do u explain the famous quotes from Nihilanth and the Vortugans.
Click to expand...

It's called keeping your options open. They designed the first Half-Life with enough future working room so that, if the game warranted a sequel, they wouldn't be written into a corner.

A lot of the "hints" in HL1 were pretty vague, you know. Valve most likely included them just so they could expand in any direction they saw fit.
 
Absinthe said:
It's called keeping your options open. They designed the first Half-Life with enough future working room so that, if the game warranted a sequel, they wouldn't be written into a corner.

A lot of the "hints" in HL1 were pretty vague, you know. Valve most likely included them just so they could expand in any direction they saw fit.
Click to expand...

Right, it's possible they had some notion on where to go next, like maybe the vortigaunts getting freed by the death of Nihilianth and joining the humans was concieved early on and thusly some room was left open for that storyline via Nihlianth's quotes and the Vorti's odd behaviour in HL1.
 
hool10300 said:
I think Laidlaw was asked one time, "Can you give us any details about the G-Man? What are his motives, etc...". This was pre-hl2 stuff anyways. He said that he didn't even know what to do with him either and it was a major problem. Valve basically didn't have a story after Half-Life, they wanted to see if their first game was a success. Why invest in more games if the first game is bad? So now I think the G-Man has a pupose now. But I think the story changes and evolves in accordance to the public's likes and dislikes. Thats why they arn't making platformer puzzles like ZEN because most people hated that section (even though I liked it).
Click to expand...

Proved wrong in the VALVe email thread. I have to go now, but do a search and you should find it pretty quick.
 
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