Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Content

[DO NOT SHARE PLEASE, NOT LIVE UNTIL MONDAY! xxx]YOUTUBE LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpBXy7A7GxU

Hey Early Access Patrons!

This is probably the earliest we've given access to one of our docs pre-release but I wanted to do it for two reasons. First, to thank you all for allowing us to work on it for a little longer than we usually do. And secondly, because this video is one hour and forty seven minutes long so you'll likely need all weekend to find a slot to squeeze it in.

The documentary dives into the design of Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike, Black Mesa Source, Project Borealis and a number of other projects. But aside from that it's a look at the influence of the game on designers, and an analysis of the transition of ownership that has happened over the past ten years. It features interviews with a number of industry luminaries, and some wonderful people you may or may not have heard from before.

I'm really proud of this one. It feels more like an actual documentary than anything we've ever done before, and I'm just happy that I got to make a film about my favorite video game. I hope fans of the game enjoy it and those unfamiliar with the series come to understand why it's so influential.

If you have any notes or spot and issues in the video I'd love to hear about them too. I may tweak some elements today as I prepare for Monday's launch. So please share them in the comments if you have them.

Enjoy the show!

Danny

NOTE: As this is the earliest we've given early access to a project of this scope in a while, I will be keeping an eye on the views and killing the video if it leaks. If that happens expect a new link to appear a few hours later. It hasn't happened yet but you never know if somebody will sign up to snipe the link. Just wanted to be clear up front.

Files

[Early Access Patron Version] Half-Life Documentary

Enjoy :)

Comments

Dennis Vinterfjärd

Oh Danny, perfect timing. Was just looking through Netflix for a movie to watch, you've given me a much better alternative!

Callum Moorin

So excited to watch this over the weekend!

Mark_deLight

Hi Danny, new Patreon here. IMO, this is your best work to date! I've been so hyped over this doc in particular for a long time, and it delivers on all fronts. Great stuff! Now, if you'll go back and talk to Randy and team for another week or two and do the complete Borderlands doc, that'd be my second most wished for work from you! :)

/noclip

Thanks so much Mark! That's really kind of you to say, it means a lot. And yea, I think we made a few friends on this trip so hopefully we can revisit them at some stage :)

Landon Robinson

Seriously cannot wait to watch this Danny. Always did want to go back and finish those games. Now I likely will.

humantree

Was going to mention a weird graphic that popped up for a frame, but then I checked the time stamp. Touché. 😊 Absolutely loved the documentary!

Arran Walker

Just finished watching. This was so well done, I absolutely loved it. Well done - and thank you - for creating this.

Adam Shimi

Very nice doc! Just a little "typo" I noticed: while mentioning the holy trinity of id software FPS at 52:00, you put images of Duke Nukem instead of Wolfenstein 3D.

/noclip

Well spotted! Thanks for the heads up, I'll re-render it now :)

Adam Shimi

Glad to have been useful. :D

Shotgun Anaconda

magical! Reminds me of your earlier docs (like the ones on secrets and easter eggs). These documentaries are so important for the culture.

Roli Thaler

Hey I'm new here on Patreon for noclip. Love your work. It's basically my dream of what I would love to work on. Anyway, only thing I would have done different, is when they talked about the HL demo, they were referring to Half Life Uplink, right? I would have loved to see that in the doc. It was such a great demo. Because it was kind of a playable trailer. It put the entire story of Half Life into one mission, starting with a short section in a lab, where stuff goes wrong, then the marines swoop in and so on. Loved it. Also, if you need a guy who knows his way around editing and filming a bit, and especially around Austria :D hit me up @rolitheone. <3

YakovlevArt

Noticed an error, the guy that spread HL 2 was called Axel Gembe and he's German.

/noclip

OH boy, yeah I actually reached out to Axel for this but didn't hear back. No idea why I said Russian (damn current events probably). Thanks for the heads up!

/noclip

Thanks so much for the support Roli! Actually Uplink was a demo that came out about 6 months after the game's release, the OEM demo was the first few chapters of the game was available (and leaked) before launch. Uplink is rad, but we had to skim a lot of out the story sadly and it didn't make the cut!

Roli Thaler

Ohh, I just had to double triple check that. This completely messes up my timeline haha. I totally remember in my head how me and a friend fell in love with that demo and then on the release date(of the german version here in austria back then), me and him both walked into our game shop after school and we saw they had exactly one copy. So we both ran there and I won lol. Just can't trust these memories I guess. :D

Matthew Roberts

Hi Danny. I think this is a fantastic documentary. My only criticism would be your personal anecdote about getting high. I think it not only ruins the pacing of that section, but also doesn't realy fit stylistcally. For something like The Point it would be great - because it's a good story - but I didn't think it worked here. It's fine in the narration etc saying this is a passion project for you - because that's why we fund you - but it felt maybe a bit self-indulgent to have a section like that in the doc?

Aymon Cresswell

I disagree with Mathew completely I think it was a great story and tied in with impact HL had on peoples lives over the last 20 years. HL wasn't a game that you just played and moved on to the next thing it stayed with people for decades after.