Background (pictured in 2013) was the project lead for
Alyx.
Half-Life 2: Episode One was released in 2006, followed by
Episode Two in 2007, which ended on a
cliffhanger.
Episode Three was scheduled for 2008, but was canceled. The designer
Robin Walker said that Valve uses the
Half-Life series to "solve some interesting collision of technology and art that had reared itself", but had failed to find a unifying idea that provided a sense of "wonderment, or opening, or expansion" for
Episode Three. After the release of
Left 4 Dead in 2008, Valve abandoned episodic development and made
several failed attempts to develop further Half-Life projects. They decided to complete their new engine,
Source 2, before beginning a new game, as developing
Half-Life 2 and the
Source engine simultaneously had created problems. In 2016 and 2017, the
Half-Life writers
Marc Laidlaw,
Erik Wolpaw,
Jay Pinkerton and
Chet Faliszek left Valve. Coupled with Valve's support for their other franchises, journalists took the departures as an indicator that new
Half-Life games were no longer in development. Walker blamed the lack of progress on Valve's
flat management structure, whereby employees decide what to work on themselves. The team decided they would be happier if they worked together on a large project, even if it was not everyone's preferred choice. By 2013, Valve was experimenting with VR using
Half-Life 2 as a basis. In 2015, they collaborated with the electronics company
HTC to develop the
HTC Vive, a
virtual reality headset released in 2016. In 2016, Valve released
The Lab, a collection of VR minigames, and recognized that many players wanted a more ambitious VR
AAA game. Walker wondered if they could develop a VR "
killer app" equivalent to the influential FPS
Doom in 1993. Finding that the portal systems of their puzzle series
Portal were
disorienting in VR, they settled on
Half-Life.
Half-Life: Alyx entered development around February 2016, and entered full production later that year. was the largest in Valve's history, and included
Campo Santo, a studio Valve acquired in 2018. To disincentivize players from quickly teleporting through levels, Valve filled areas with elements to capture their attention and slow them down, such as threats, collectables, set pieces, or other points of interest. They found that players did not notice this discrepancy as they were focused on moving to their goal. The crowbar, an iconic weapon from previous
Half-Life games, was omitted as Valve could not make melee combat work in VR, and because players would accidentally catch it on objects in the game world as they moved, creating confusion. Additionally, players associated the crowbar with
Gordon Freeman, the protagonist of previous games. Valve wanted to create a different identity for Alyx, portraying her as a "hacker and tinkerer". Other discarded weapon concepts include a trip mine, slingshot, shield, and rocket launcher.
Jeff Jeff, a blind monster in chapter seven, came from the idea of forcing the player to share space with a frightening entity in VR. The team created several versions, including a Combine robot, before settling on a horror-influenced creature. Valve forced players to do things they did not want but still found enjoyable, such as leading them to the realization that they had to release Jeff after trapping him. They also gave the player more opportunities to escape when Jeff caught them, as near-deaths were exciting and too many deaths proved frustrating. Combat sequences with other enemies, designed to demonstrate Jeff's strength, were removed as they distracted from the tension. The chapter contains more physics objects than the entirety of
Half-Life 2, and was set in a distillery to explain the abundance of bottles the player can throw to distract Jeff. It includes alien spores that cause Alyx to cough, drawing Jeff's attention. After playtesters instinctively covered their mouths, the team implemented this into the design. This also added strategy, as players have to keep one hand free to carry a bottle. At the end of the chapter, the player traps Jeff in a trash compactor. Most playtesters chose to activate the compactor and crush him. Akagha avoided using irritation in her performance, as "you don't want someone in your head that sounds irritated with you". Shapiro recorded his lines in one 20-minute take, with pickups in 2019.
Writing The former Valve writers Erik Wolpaw and Jay Pinkerton turned down invitations to return to Valve early in the
Alyx development. Marc Laidlaw, who retired in 2016, denied reports that he had provided consultation, saying he had confidence in Pinkerton and Wolpaw and that he did not want them "second-guessing" him. The new writers identified three problems. Third, the game had to end with the powerful G-Man giving Alyx something for freeing him. Having Alyx and the G-Man travel forward in time and rescue Eli at the end of
Episode Two was suggested by the character artist Jim Murray. They added radio dialog between Alyx and Russell as a simple way to "bring the energy up" whenever needed. The final script ran to 280 pages, compared to 128 pages for
Half-Life 2 and 18 for
Half-Life. == Release ==