Game Informer Interviews Doug Lombardi

[CSN NewsBot]

This would be the third interview with Valve to come out of Germany this week. The Leipzig Games Convention is now starting to wind down, but that doesn't stop the flow of news. As usual, the interview focuses on the big three coming from valve at the beginning of next year. Here's a little something on TF2.

GI: Are most of the classes going to retain the same feature set they had in Team Fortress Classic?



Lombardi: Again, the medic is completely overhauled, and some of them are very faithful. That’s true both in terms of offensive and defensive arsenal as well. In some cases we really saw some opportunities to really leverage the Source engine and to change stuff up. You saw a little bit of that there in the demo with some of his new capabilities, some of the ways he’s able to better interact using that technology. The medic was something that Robin Walker, who’s the co-creator of Team Fortress as you know, was always a class that he frustrated with and felt like the way it had been executed on wasn’t what he and John really had in their brains. So they’ve taken a lot of time on that to change that up, and as you’ve probably noticed that’s one surprised that we’re keeping for later to reveal what that’s going to be about.

I really had a difficult time picking out a quote to use, there's a great deal of information contained in this interview. From the statement of five returning maps from the TFC days, to the mention of the Old Man Murray writers coming on board to craft the narration dialog for Portal. There was also mention of the tie in between Portal and the Half-Life universe and how we'll be seeing more of the main character in Portal. For more interview goodness, look no further.

[Zips]

GI: Can you explain how Portal came together with the DigiPen students who created Narbacular Drop?



Lombardi: There was a group of seven kids, two women and five guys…



GI: You said kids. How old are they?



Lombardi: They’re all barely drinking age.



GI: Oh god. (laughs)



Lombardi: They’re in their senior year at DigiPen, and part of their class project was to make a game. So they made Narbacular Drop, and we’ve hired a couple people out of DigiPen over the years. They’re right close to us over in Redmond so we’re friendly with those guys. They invited a couple of people over to see the senior class showcase, which is what the school does to market the students to people in the games industry. So they invite people over from MGS and Nintendo and whatnot â€" all of the usual suspects in the Seattle area.



Robin and a couple other people went over to visit the senior class showcase and just check out what was going on and they saw Narbacular Drop and thought “Wow, this is really cool.� So they invited the seven of them over to Valve to show it to more of us. We were all in the conference room and they started presenting it and about ten minutes in Gabe [Newell] just stopped the presentation and said, “You all should come work at Valve and build something like this on the Source engine.� And they all were just sitting there like, “Did he just say what I thought he said?� A year later we introduced Portal on the Source engine.



For us, that’s one of the greatest things about our job. People say “Shipping Half-Life 2 must have been one of the most exciting times working at Valve.� And actually for me it was calling up Matt Boone from the Day of Defeat team and saying, “Hey, do you want to bring your team to Valve and work here?� And just hearing the pause on the other end of the phone, and I was laughing in my head like, “This kid must just be crapping his pants right now.� It’s great to be able to give those guys their break, and introduce those guys into the game industry, and bring in that talent. The Portal team, just like the DoD team, they’re incredibly talented folks. And they’re kids of a generation that have been playing games all of their lives. That’s where we look to for how we’re going to innovate is through people and through great minds.

That's just rediculous. I mean, one minute you're just giving a presentation on a senior class project, the next you're hired by the head of a major game developer like Valve.



Don't forget all the little people when you're picked up by a big company there rizzuh.

[ph03nix(k)]

Edited by [user="246117"] @ [time="1156627796"]

"Its not the end of Half-Life, just the trilogy"



"It happens while you’re playing through Portal. And you will play as a new character that we haven’t introduced yet that will have a role in Half-Life games in the future."



This right here kind of worries me, I dont want the half-life series to keep going on and on introducing random new characters, and never ending and getting really stale. I wanted it to end after episode three. Also worring me is that the character you play in portal is apparently going to be joining the half-life universe. I really dont see where or how the portal training facility fits in. It doesnt make sense... and I dont like it. I dont want it to turn into the star wars movies,(which ironically are refrenced in this interview) where after the first 3, they start putting out crap just to continue the series. Half-Life should end after Ep3, world ends, humans win.. whatever.. I dont want it to drag on. Also worring me is the fact they are devloping it for 3 platforms at once... They should have kept it on PC for god sakes.

[DaRk-AnGeL]

Evolution.



You can't keep playing half-life sequel after sequel. The original half-life was the same believe it or not. (Uplink. Opposing Force. Blue Shift. They all played a part as 'sequels')



What is better, to raise the bar a little amount at a time or raise the bar massively without a guaranteed success. (e.g. HL2 development time and costs.)



I'm sure Valve will give us something new to toy with when the NEXT generation swings around. In the meantime, the current products are / will enjoy the same life cycle as their predeccesors.

[ph03nix(k)]

What?? I said I didnt want to play half-life sequel after sequel, I want it to end on a good note.

[entRo]

ph03nix(k) wrote..

"Its not the end of Half-Life, just the trilogy"



"It happens while you’re playing through Portal. And you will play as a new character that we haven’t introduced yet that will have a role in Half-Life games in the future."



This right here kind of worries me, I dont want the half-life series to keep going on and on introducing random new characters, and never ending and getting really stale. I wanted it to end after episode three. Also worring me is that the character you play in portal is apparently going to be joining the half-life universe. I really dont see where or how the portal training facility fits in. It doesnt make sense... and I dont like it. I dont want it to turn into the star wars movies,(which ironically are refrenced in this interview) where after the first 3, they start putting out crap just to continue the series. Half-Life should end after Ep3, world ends, humans win.. whatever.. I dont want it to drag on. Also worring me is the fact they are devloping it for 3 platforms at once... They should have kept it on PC for god sakes.

...so don't play.

[Antinous-ODY]

He has a point, I don't see many people wanting to play an fps as if it were a mmorpg or something with new characters and side stories constantly showing up. I know I don't want to keep playing this forever. The more things you add, the harder it is to keep a person on track. You can't make 15 cliffhanger's that all happen at the same time, that's just ridiculous... I would like to see it end within 3 games. Episodes don't really count as games in my opinion, they're too short, so six episodes maybe or 2-3 HL2 length games.. He isn't saying he doesn't want to play, he's just saying he wants and end in sight.

[Diamond Dust]

ph03nix(k) wrote..

This right here kind of worries me, I dont want the half-life series to keep going on and on introducing random new characters, and never ending and getting really stale. I wanted it to end after episode three. Also worring me is that the character you play in portal is apparently going to be joining the half-life universe. I really dont see where or how the portal training facility fits in. It doesnt make sense... and I dont like it. I dont want it to turn into the star wars movies,(which ironically are refrenced in this interview) where after the first 3, they start putting out crap just to continue the series. Half-Life should end after Ep3, world ends, humans win.. whatever.. I dont want it to drag on. Also worring me is the fact they are devloping it for 3 platforms at once... They should have kept it on PC for god sakes.

I don't see the big deal, star wars wasn't ruined because they decided to make more, Lucas always had that planned. And what does it matter that the prequels stunk, that does not change the previous movies at all. I understand we all don't want valve to stop making new and exciting games but I think we can trust them to do that even if they continue the HL series.



Also someone else mentioned Op force and Blueshift, those are very different from Episode 1 & 2, they were made by gearbox and they didn't continue the story at all they were just small expansions.

[.Sn0w.]

In bigger news, Valve fix numerous bugs and add 20x more.



. people look like they are on the other team when they are not

. alt tabbing when dead reveals where enemy is

. people crash and server lags when players swap teams at half time

. players feel like they are lagging or feel like they are recording a demo

. still no scope in scrtv

[Zips]

.Sn0w. wrote..

In bigger news, Valve fix numerous bugs and add 20x more.



. people look like they are on the other team when they are not

. alt tabbing when dead reveals where enemy is

. people crash and server lags when players swap teams at half time

. players feel like they are lagging or feel like they are recording a demo

. still no scope in scrtv

You're about 2-3 days late.

[DaRk-AnGeL]

Cmon Snow.



Even I have accepted that source is a debacle, and forever will be with these sort of new changes and ideas from the collective pea-brains working on CSS.



I like many others can accept and deal with change, modifying gameplay mechanics and features are recursive and we should expect that the game WILL change.



Just because someone thinks of a new idea however, it doesn't mean that they should implement it for the sake of making them look like they are actually doing something with the game.



On the one hand, CSS should move away from the somewhat restrictive and iron game mechanics we have come to expect from the Counter-Strike series, but I feel they are taking it in the wrong direction. There is a lack of both foresight to create a future for the game and remody the current game bugs. (Which I have reported numerous times using the in-game bug reporting facility since day one of the beta.)



I'm curiously amused to see what they are going to think of next.

[omgomgz]

I approve of TF2 and pluto's rejectance to the solar system hall of fame.

[.Sn0w.]

I dont care about change I like change but I dont like bugs.

[meowmeow]

What's wrong with the medic? He's absolutely dashing in my honest opinion.



P.S. Pluto is still a planet to me, the hell do scientists know, instead of finding cures for deadly diseases, they're surveying lesbians who smoke tobaco.

[Grimbal]

ph03nix(k) wrote..

What?? I said I didnt want to play half-life sequel after sequel, I want it to end on a good note.

They didnt say Half-life was gonna be sequal after sequal......



they said



GI: But if Episode Three is ending the trilogy…



Lombardi: But not ending Half-Life. Just the trilogy.



I can tell you now that i would reckon we will not see half-life 3 till a they make a new engine for the game to play on....



Otherwise the game will be the same as half-life 2 in general same amount of models on screen same physics.. there is nothing to grip the player......



There will be no half-life 3 till the source engine 2 comes out.. But i will put my money on it being "The half-life 3 engine..."



Its revolution to be honest they have to make something better than other developers and now there are engines that are better than the source engine just not in the physics department of there games...



If Valve said "oh half-life 3 is going to be released on the half-life 2 engine" were is the next gen graphics to that... where is the hype to a future game????, There will be computer technology far more advanced then the half-life 2 engine which by that time they cant improve the half-life 2 engine graphics anymore until the point where its gets to where the HL1 engine is now where it cannot be improved apon..., Other than to start again with a brand spanking new engine which improves opon its predocessor (if that is spelt right)



Thats just my saying anyways...



Been out on the p**s so have a good night people!