Black Mesa News

[h3]Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Crowbar Collective.[/h3]
My name is Anthony Stone and I am one of the long-standing level designers for Black Mesa. I have worked on much of the AI encounters and logic events across the game as well as building a few of the maps from scratch. I am the team’s encyclopedia of how everything works.

[h3]What was your first experience with Half-Life?[/h3]
My first experience with Half-Life almost didn’t happen. I had no idea what I was getting when I first Installed the game and only installed it because I wanted to play Counter-Strike which was a mod back then. I began the game just to see how the graphics looked on my new PC of the time. I started playing it and was confused at first… a 10 min tram ride and then I arrive at Anomalous Materials and walked around offices with no real gameplay insight. This was very unusual. I put the game down at that point with no real intent to go back to it, but I’m glad I did. The next day I booted it up to show my brother the game I was dubbing the “work sim” when I got to the residence cascade. I was blown away and finished the game over the next day or so.

[h3]What was the most challenging hurdle that was overcome during development in your role?[/h3]
Not the most difficult thing for me personally, but a difficult thing to watch was the differences in opinion on art and style across a group of very talented people. Everyone on the team is super good at what they do and everyone has an opinion of what works and what does not. This tends to do areas over and over again in order to really master the idea the team is going for and can cause a considerable headache if you don’t check your ego at the door. You are going to have to have many hands-on your work and you may see things you really slaved over get ripped out or changed. It could be a hard pill to swallow for some. It can lead to bitter feelings or discontent but in the end, we all just want the best product that flows well in the end.

[h3]How did you resist getting burnt out over such a long development process for Xen?[/h3]
MUSIC!!! LOTS AND LOTS OF NEW MUSIC! Seriously, I can keep working for hours with music I have not heard before. It makes the hours fly by. Just no country music please… and for my wife’s sake keep me away from dubstep.

[h3]When did your interest in game development begin?[/h3]
I originally started making maps for the HL2 leak way back when and then moved into making Counter-Strike Source maps. There was something super satisfying about creating content and seeing how people enjoy it and the way they play it. It also was a great creative outlet for my mind. I always loved to build stuff and this was a great way to take things in my mind and get them into a 3d world I could actually visit.

[h3]Was there ever a time you were close to giving up and quitting?[/h3]
Yes and no. There was a point where we had to choose to release the Earthbound section of the game or keep fighting on to get XEN done as one major release of the game. I was very on the side of we should put out what we have rather than take the additional years to finish the full game with no end in sight. I set an ultimatum for myself. So while it was not giving up… I felt very strongly that we needed to give our fans something. It never came down to it because we did release. Truth be told it probably would not have left anyways…

[h3]How often do you watch youtube videos/Twitch streams of Black Mesa?[/h3]
I am so guilty of this. I love to watch streamers play my work. When it first came out, I would watch a few hours a night. Nowadays I check it once or so a week if I am super bored. I’ll never get tired of seeing people blow themselves up calling the lift up in the trip mine puzzle in Surface Tension.

[h3]Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Crowbar Collective.[/h3]
I’m Nate! Lead Animator, VFX, Simulations at Crowbar.

[h3]What was the most challenging hurdle that was overcome during development in your role?[/h3]
The limitations of trying to make a good looking game in 2020 on an engine that first came out in 2004.

[h3]How did you get involved with Black Mesa (If you joined later on?)[/h3]
I was one of the first 5 people on the team, in early 2005. Back then they had no animators at all so my mere application meant I got accepted immediately haha.

[h3]How difficult was the task of reimagining Xen?[/h3]
The planning did not fall primarily on me, but it was incredibly challenging for all involved. Much of the difficulty was the immovable pillars of the original Xen campaign itself. Jumping puzzles have aged very poorly in FPS games, but we’ve got this long jump module that we have to use. We have to brainstorm emergent gameplay with only like 3 enemies (headcrab, bullsquid, houndeye) that were all early-game enemies that stopped being challenging 10 campaign hours ago. We have to make non-linear and alien-feeling levels without the aid of objective markers, tooltips, cutscenes, or any of the other crutches that modern gamers are used to.

[h3]Any recommendations for people wanting to get into game design?[/h3]
Join a mod project for a game you’re passionate about. They’re full of like-minded people just trying to have fun and make something cool. They’ll let you make mistakes and learn the skills you need while on the job.

[h3]What do you want to improve about Black Mesa?[/h3]
I’m very proud of the end product we shipped and don’t think there are that many areas it could have been better. But parts of the campaign could have been shortened so the whole experience was a little tighter in places. It’s not really an issue compared to so many modern games that pad their campaigns with pointless stuff, but just in further pursuit of a perfect FPS, there are sections of Black Mesa where you’re kinda thinking “how much longer until this part is done?”

[h3]What was the worst part of developing Black Mesa in your role?[/h3]
The Source engine had several limitations that made it very difficult to get the types of animations the Xen campaign demanded. In any game engine, most movement is controlled by “bones”. That’s easy to visualize with a character like a human that anatomically has a skeleton, but bones are also controlling the pieces of a building as it blows up, or the pulsing of a protozoa membrane in Xen. With regards to bones, Source does not support “bone scaling”, it has a 128 bone limit per model, and each vertex in the model is only allowed to be influenced by 3 bones. These are all limitations that modern game engines do not have and it caused a lot of headaches. Many of the bigger destruction models were split into 5-10 “parts” and reassembled back together in Hammer to get around that 128 bone limit. When you’re dealing with something like a barrel cactus swelling up to a huge balloon and bursting, that should be just a couple of bones being scaled up. But Source can’t do that, which means you need “point clouds” of bones all over the model moving outwards to achieve the same effect. Only 3 influences per bone also meant those bone clouds had to be pretty dense or else you would get jagged deformations instead of smooth. I had to develop all sorts of strange pipelines to work around these limits.

[h3]If you had unlimited time, money, and help, what game would you make?[/h3]
I’d love to see a game with the crazy weapons and enemy types of Painkiller combined with the intricate level design of Half-Life. I also think technology is at the point where, with a little engine resource re-allocation and gated level design, we don’t need to have disappearing corpses, we can use bodies and gore as part of the gameplay loop.

[h3]Where did the purple hat come from?[/h3]
That was the result of several inside jokes. There was an application we got early on in development that was over-the-top ridiculous (we later found out it was submitted as a joke). And we started imagining how this applicant might dress himself, and one of the artists whipped up this purple hat. Our Level Designers love to cram their maps full of easter eggs, and then Half-Life 2 Episode 2 with the gnome run gave them the idea to do a hat run.

[h3]Any movies or other games besides Half-Life you took inspiration from during development for your role specifically?[/h3]
Oh, lots. Anytime a good FPS game came out in the last 10 years we’d be like “oh we need X, Y, and Z in Black Mesa!” For the Xen campaign, probably DOOM 2016 was the strongest influence in terms of how to craft cool boss encounters, and lots of sprawling vertical levels with minimal navigation hints (though they did have objective markers like everybody else these days).

[h3]Having now seen Valve’s interpretation of Xen elements in a modern engine (HL: Alyx) are there any elements of this interpretation that you would like to have included in Black Mesa Xen?[/h3]
We knew that our Xen was going to be dramatically different from Valve’s, and in turn both of our versions dramatically different from what Laidlaw originally envisioned. Comparing Half-Life Alyx and Half-Life 1, you can pretty much see how that’s the same artistic vision, despite a 20-year graphics jump. But Half-Life 1 to Black Mesa Xen, absent the iconic Half-Life fauna, you wouldn’t peg those to be the same universe. And we knew that. It was part of our core strategy to break from the original Xen campaign and forge our own path. We didn’t want 6 hours of green-grey levels, we wanted to experiment with distinct biomes and different color palettes, so it was an intentional choice for us.

[h3]Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Crowbar Collective.[/h3]
I’ve been a level designer at Crowbar Collective since around 2007. My first task after joining was to rework Undertow and bring it up to the standards of other multiplayer maps we had at the time, although that version was never released and was subsequently redone again; it was still a great learning experience. Following after Undertow I started work on the later parts of Unforeseen Consequences (the coolant labs & lower canals sections) & then onto assisting with detailing and level design work on a few parts of Questionable Ethics.

Following the mod release in 2012 I & others set about working through the large number of bug reports we had received and endeavored to resolve all possible combined with making level design & visual improvements where possible. A few old blog posts I wrote regarding the fixing endeavors can be found here & here if you are interested in reading more. I also assisted in detailing & optimization work on the multiplayer map Crossfire.

My primary focus for Xen development was assisting in extra detail work that was needed on the Xen chapter followed by early blockout work and assisting in arting sections of the Gonarch chapter; in particular the headcrab canyon and water cave & assisting in detailing sections of Interloper chapter both interior and exterior.

[h3]When did your interest in game development begin?[/h3]
I’d always enjoyed tinkering with map editors that came with games I played like the Age of Empire series & Red Faction, but I think my interest in modding and then subsequently game development stems from being introduced to Half-Life modding by an old secondary school friend of mine. He was part of a modding community called TWHL (The Whole Half-Life) from there I started to experiment & make levels for various competitions they ran and then onto joining various Half-Life and Half-Life 2 mods before joining Black Mesa.

[h3]What was the most challenging hurdle that was overcome during development in your role?[/h3]
I don’t think I could point to one specific thing but trying to figure out creative ways to overcome hurdles that are thrown your way due to engine limitations and such has been the general gist of working as a level designer while on Black Mesa.

[h3]What was the worst part of developing Black Mesa in your role?[/h3]
When the Hammer model viewer would break constantly requiring it to be restarted. But then realizing that I could fix it by simply closing the browser and moving the mouse cursor between the 3D & 2D views to resolve the issue instead of restarting the entire program: that was definitely a boost to my productivity when it came to arting levels and in particular the various parts of Xen.

[h3]Did you go to school for your respective parts of the project?[/h3]
While I didn’t directly study game design, I did however for Graphic Design & Communication which indirectly helped in regards to composition, lighting & detailing among others for my role as a level designer & environmental arting.

[h3]How often do you watch youtube videos/Twitch streams of Black Mesa?[/h3]
I try to watch streams of Black Mesa when I have the chance, usually lurking, however. They’re a great source of seeing a wide spectrum of people playing your game and seeing if something does or doesn't work to perhaps try and improve it. My particular favorite thing to do is watch people's reactions to seeing parts of Black Mesa for the first time, the reveals of Xen & Gonarch and its subsequent chapter-long battle never get old to see.

[h3]Any favorite mods for Half-Life games?[/h3]
Poke 646 is usually one that springs to mind whenever I think of old Half-Life mods that I had a lot of fun playing, But I think special mention should be given to the many multiplayer based mods that I have sunk many hours in to like Day of Defeat, The specialists and in particular Natural Selection which was a personal favorite with its interesting gameplay & setting. In recent years Half-life: Echoes has been a standout, along with Caged, Year Long Alarm & Azure sheep among others.

[h3]Do you accept pineapple on pizza or are you against it?[/h3]
I will always accept pineapple placed atop a delicious pizza, especially on a sourdough base.

Craig Mirfin

[h3]Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Crowbar Collective.[/h3]
Hi, my name is Craig Mirfin and in my spare time, I am a Level Designer on Black Mesa. I joined the team over 5 years ago mainly to work on the Multiplayer map “Bounce” and then moved from multiplayer to start on the daunting task of creating the Xen Levels.

My day job is as a Senior Level Designer at Studio Gobo working on AAA games like For Honor and the recently released Hyperscape. I really do owe this position to working on Black Mesa, not only giving me the chance to work with a great team of people but to prove to myself that I could do level design as a career. It's been a hell of a ride these last 10 years but so worth it…. Crowbar Collective…. About That Beer I Owe You! :)

[h3]What do you enjoy the most about Black Mesa?[/h3]
It allows me to relive Half-Life with a new coat of paint :) Hopefully playing Blackmesa feels like you are playing the old Half-Life with those rose-tinted glasses off, yet still getting the same buzz from the game. It's a testament to the talent in the team to ship what a lot of people thought wasn't doable.

[h3]What was the most challenging hurdle that was overcome during development in your role?[/h3]
When I first started fleshing out the first few Xen maps it was extremely time-consuming with how displacements work and how to smooth “subdivide” them. As Xen is mainly organic, you couldn't really rely on the traditional BSP method of creating environments. We were really just trying to find how far we could push displacements. After the first year of Xen development we doubled the number of displacements we could have, which not only allowed us more flexibility but also kept us away from hitting displacement limits on a daily basis. Also, a huge hurdle jumped was with subdividing displacements. At the start a Xen map would still take 10 hours to subdivide until we began working with Worm Wall which reduced this to minutes, resulting in a huge increase in productivity.

[h3]How did you get involved with Black Mesa (If you joined later on?)[/h3]
I had spent 3 long years prior creating a 5 map L4D2 campaign and after a little break after releasing this I wanted to get back on the Hammer horse and luckily Crowbar were looking for Level Designers, I applied as I love creating maps. It was only after I got the gig that I was told the team had been greenlit to go commercial. I soon moved from multiplayer to Xen.

[h3]What was your first experience with Half-Life?[/h3]
I had just been given a 486 PC from work and the IT guy gave me a copy of this game called ‘Half-Life’... I was hooked. Little did I know that would be my route into Game Dev as a career years later.

[h3]Any recommendations for people wanting to get into game design?[/h3]
I think if you feel it's too late to get into game design then think again. I got into game dev very late in life (I was about 44 :E) If you're passionate about game design then do something off your own back, be it a game jam, modding project, or be actively testing a project. Doors open, you make great contacts and things happen. The key thing is to enjoy what you do and never give up. If someone is better than you... so what.. try and learn, don't be afraid to ask questions and aim to get better. Never let that put you off. Always leave your ego at the door and your passion for what you do will shine through. All the above is still true if you're just starting out… What are you waiting for? They're waiting for you in the Test Chamberrrrr.

[h3]Was there ever a time you were close to giving up and quitting?[/h3]
Yes. Working full time and then in your spare time, takes its toll on your mental health, family, and friends. It's a huge commitment but I hope this has paid off with what the team has achieved.

[h3]When did your interest in game development begin?[/h3]
A very very long time ago. As a kid I was hooked playing games, it was a way to let my imagination go wild. I used to write small games on a ZX81 and then later ZX Spectrum. Got into modding Duke Nukem on the build engine in my early 20’s, then got into the Hammer Editor and never looked back.

[h3]Anything you would want to add to Black Mesa?[/h3]
When designing the temporary science base in Xen map 1, I always wanted to add a tiny glimpse of human life via some kind of transmission from Kleiner on a screen. Just to add a little human narrative in what is a chapter devoid of human contact. Nothing that would outstay its welcome but I felt by the time you got to the polytunnels it would have been a nice call back to the science team on earth. Maybe I’ll add this as a Mod at some point that could lead onto a small side narrative to flesh out the base a little more.

[h3]Any movies or other games besides Half-Life you took inspiration from during development for your role specifically?[/h3]
The science polytunnels were inspired by watching the Martian. I wanted them to have this vulnerability as the film had. It was a simple design that worked well with what shapes I was trying to create. I worked closely with Spencer and luckily we were on the same page with the design. I did intend it to be bigger but it was easy to get distracted from the main star which is Xen. Fun fact, I designed the little white Xen creature containers based on the scene in the film Evolution. That underground cave in the film always reminded me of what Xen should look like and they had cool science gear that fitted well with the black mesa style. Also, the tripods and theodolites are a call back to when I used to be a Civil Engineer as I did a lot of surveying and thought it was the kind of low tech that the science team would have.

[h3]How does the development pipeline work between the LD’s, artists, and audio engineers?[/h3]
I think the Level design on Black Mesa is a little different from a normal industry studio’s approach. Most Level Designers (LD) would only really block out and then pass to Level Artists (LA) but with Black Mesa, there's enough art already in-game that the designers can set dress a level to a very high standard. This is more of a modding mentality that I personally think helps bridge the LD/LA gap. Its something I’ve really pushed for in my daytime LD work which has proven to be a very positive thing.

[h3]Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Crowbar Collective.[/h3]
Hello, my name is Kevin Sisk, and I was initially brought onto in late January 2007 to voice the security guard NPCs in Black Mesa.
Over time, I slowly branched out into other departments and lent a helping hand. Departments such as:

- Audio Editing for the Character(s) Dialog,
- Sound Design here and there for things like the overhead vox systems, the retinal scanner (one of my favs), etc
- Recorded some alien voices/SFX, etc.
- Worked bunch on the in-game scenes /choreography,
- Even have done a bit of 3d modeling for a few things.
Oh yeah, I also voiced the Gman...tee hee.

[h3]What software did you use for your work?[/h3]
For straight-up voiceover editing, I typically used Adobe Audition 3.0, and FLStudio for some of the more electronic-based sound design bits I did on the project.

[h3]Do you accept pineapple on pizza or are you against it?[/h3]
All I know is my gut says "maybe"

[h3]How often do you watch youtube videos/Twitch streams of Black Mesa?[/h3]
Pretty often. I always look for YouTubers who have never experienced the Half-Life saga in any shape or form. I’m always surprised to see when someone decides to play "Black Mesa" first instead of Half-Life then goes straight into Half-Life 2 afterward.

I suppose this is a testament to the good word-of-mouth that Black Mesa gets for being a respectful recreation of the original even though we put our spin on things in quite a few places.

That said, I would encourage ppl to play the original HL at some point, so as to better understand and appreciate the historical significance it brings to the first person shooter genre, and how far the HL series has come since that first outing.

[h3]Any favorite mods for Half-Life games?[/h3]
The Hunger" was a favorite of mine back in the day. Good zany zombie-killing fun.

[h3]What kind of microphones & preamps were used to record your vocals?[/h3]
For Microphones, I used an MXL 990 condenser which currently interfaces with a Focusrite 2I2 USB Preamp.

In the earlier days, the 990 would have instead plugged into a Behringer Eurorack 1202 analog mixer and then that mixer’s output went into an M-Audio Delta 1010LT sound card.

It was good for the regular conversation type vo and shouting loudnesses, but the noise floor on the mixer made the more whispery stuff a little tough to handle in post. Once I got the Focusrite though, the newer recordings had like 15+ dB less noise overall and made my life a lot easier.



BOOM. HEADSHOT.
NOW - ISH (2018)



THEN (2009)