RtB 2?

[losttheskyagain]

Will we ever have a Raising the Bar 2 or something similar? HL's tenth anniversary is about a year away...

 

[Narvi]

Don't see the point, what with the developer commentary and all.

 

[kupocake]

Don't see the point, what with the developer commentary and all.

Raising the Bar is about 10% developer commentary, 90% printed game art, so I don't see why that should hold it back. However, RtB 2 seems unlikely now for two reasons:

1) Call me blasphemous if you will, but there simply isn't anywhere near the ammount of new content being created for the Half-Life series that there was in the Half-Life 2 development period (not in a bad way necessarily, since a lot of content in RtB is the stuff that simply wasn't worth putting in the game).
2) The Orange Box strategy guide contains (small) sections devoted to concept art for the 'Black Box' games. Probably not the entire development concept catalogue, but surely a reasonable chunk of it.

There may be enough content for a RtB 2 someday, but I don't imagine it will be someday soon. Treat yourself to a lithograph in the meanwhile.

 

[Planetary]

No need for another. A novel wouldn't hurt, though.

 

[Druckles]

If they wanted to release art, then they can release art. There's little point in producing an entire book on it. Raising The Bar was based on Developer Commentary. Sure, the actual space taken up in the book might've been majoritively Art, but the content was majoritively Commentary.

 

[kupocake]

If they wanted to release art, then they can release art. There's little point in producing an entire book on it. Raising The Bar was based on Developer Commentary. Sure, the actual space taken up in the book might've been majoritively Art, but the content was majoritively Commentary.

It really doesn't sound like you have the book. Or if you have it, that you actually appreciate or understand it.

Sure, the actual space taken up in the book might've been majoritively Art, but the content was majoritively Commentary.

That's so daft it gets quoted twice.

 

[Narvi]

It really doesn't sound like you have the book. Or if you have it, that you actually appreciate or understand it.

That's so daft it gets quoted twice.

You don't need a book for the art even. Just include the image files in commentary and you can display it in-game as a decal or something. Anybody interested in detail could just go look through them in the files.

Of course, this would never happen.

 

[kupocake]

If you think having art on a computer screen is anything like having a book full of it, then you are too.

 

[Narvi]

If you think having art on a computer screen is anything like having a book full of it, then you are too.

You probably don't like online short stories either.

 

[kupocake]

Indeed. Your meaning?

 

[Narvi]

Indeed. Your meaning?

It's the same thing. I'm assuming you (like the majority of people) don't like it because you like the feel of physical books. I like physical books as well, but it doesn't mean that online publishing magically makes the words worse.

Online publishing is really the future for short stories, since all the magazines are gone and compendiums are fairly rare. Niche comics in the form of web-comics are nice as well, unless you feel they are inferior because they aren't printed.

 

[kupocake]

It's the same thing.

Not so. Marks in a book or online have the same substance because the marks form together to form words and meaning. There is nothing important about the quality of that marks' reproduction between the two extremes of legible and illegible. Artwork is tied to whatever it is displayed on, and the scale at which it is displayed. I wouldn't take the digital release of artwork over a RtB style release in a million years, but I wouldn't take the release of the artwork on greying, grainy paper inside a paperback, tiny volume either. If I had a 42 inch wonder screen to look at the artwork on I may just have a different opinion. But until I'm a millionaire (with a suistainable power generator too. Deforestation is at least in theory suistainable), Having a book is infinitely less extravagant and suits the style of being something you flick through randomly as a little time-waster.

That and the main difference is that 'Internet' and 'Short Story' lead my mind instantly to 'Fanfiction Subforum' and 'For the love of God NO'.

 

[Shift]

Probably not, but I like the Half-Life novels idea. Like they did with Star Wars, some of those were very intruiging, seeing what happened before and after certain events.

 

[Narvi]

Not so. Marks in a book or online have the same substance because the marks form together to form words and meaning. There is nothing important about the quality of that marks' reproduction between the two extremes of legible and illegible. Artwork is tied to whatever it is displayed on, and the scale at which it is displayed. I wouldn't take the digital release of artwork over a RtB style release in a million years, but I wouldn't take the release of the artwork on greying, grainy paper inside a paperback, tiny volume either. If I had a 42 inch wonder screen to look at the artwork on I may just have a different opinion. But until I'm a millionaire (with a suistainable power generator too. Deforestation is at least in theory suistainable), Having a book is infinitely less extravagant and suits the style of being something you flick through randomly as a little time-waster.

That's a bit of a misnomer. An HD image on a 42 inch screen would be generally superior in image quality to anything printable on a commercial book. You'd be able to zoom in too, to a degree you wouldn't be able to with a book, though it'd be of rather... limited use.

Anyway, what kind of crappy monitor do you have? Most monitors nowadays tend to be wider than your average book, so I don't see what the difference would be in image quality. You can just scroll down for taller images. Raising the Bar is only about eleven inches tall, your average monitor is around that height anyway.

That and the main difference is that 'Internet' and 'Short Story' lead my mind instantly to 'Fanfiction Subforum' and 'For the love of God NO'.

Fair point.

Ever read the short stories that guy who runs the "How To Destroy The Earth" site wrote? They tend to be quality work.

Probably not, but I like the Half-Life novels idea. Like they did with Star Wars, some of those were very intruiging, seeing what happened before and after certain events.

I like this idea. Set it before the Seven Hour War, about the aftereffects of the Portal Storms.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Will we ever have a Raising the Bar 2 or something similar? HL's tenth anniversary is about a year away...

When I saw the title I thought you meant "Rush to Berlin 2" :E