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| − | The "Pre-pitch" era of Half-Life 2 is presumed to be the earliest collection of ideas (assembled as-then unofficially by company employees) under the project that continued on to become HL2.
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| − | == Summary ==
| + | * New City? |
| − | This era started immediately after ''Half-Life'' was released, and largely consisted of pre-pitch designs before Half-Life 2 was inaugurated as an "official" Valve project in June 1999<ref name="tfhohl2">[https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-final-hours-of-half-life-2/1100-6112889/ The final hours of half life 2]</ref> (when it was presumably pitched to the rest of Valve). It consisted of mostly exploratory world building through writing and keyart, with very few assets or maps made - the concepts and assets intended for this era were later utilised or retooled for later eras, as by the time they were completed the context of the game had changed.
| + | * Old City? |
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| − | <blockquote>
| + | get hospital prop textures |
| − | It was with those six words that Gabe Newell launched the development of Half-Life 2 in June 1999. Yes, you read that right--1999, only six months after the original Half-Life shipped.</blockquote>
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| − | === ''Development Background'' ===
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| − | Once Half-Life hit store shelves on 19/11/1998, there were immediate roundtable-style thoughts about a sequel with a much larger scope, teleporting Gordon across planet to planet around the galaxy and defeating the invading Xenians on each. The early discussions over these ideas served as the starting point to slowly reduce and refine the game's scope, as this concept ultimately presented issues of continuity between game levels.<ref name="tfhohl2"></ref>
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| − | The game was initially thought of as dark rather than action adventure (the team gradually moved towards the latter by the end of development). The design philosophy did not include a visible end goal (like the Citadel) that you could see from each level,<ref name="rtbup">[https://archive.org/stream/HalfLife2RaisingTheBarUncorrectedProof/Half-Life-2-Raising-The-Bar-Uncorrected-Proof#page/n209 rtb uncorrected proof: Head East Freeman]</ref> instead it was on a smaller scale where each level or set of levels had an easily identifiable goal.<ref name="rtbupGordonedoff">[https://archive.org/stream/HalfLife2RaisingTheBarUncorrectedProof/Half-Life-2-Raising-The-Bar-Uncorrected-Proof#page/n205 rtb:uncorrected proof gordoned off: abandoned ideas]</ref>
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| − | It is this initial start to development that provided the basis for Half-Life 2's design philosophies when the game formally began development.
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| − | == Known information ==
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| − | While much of the content in this era never had assets made, there were writings and concepts in-planning, of which describe 3 main alien races occupying the earth that had presence in the plot:
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| − | * A race of Giant Primitive Tribal type insectoid aliens out in the Middle east that used hollowed out caterpillar subway as transport. (possible influence over dropship design in concept art)
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| − | * A Warrior alien race that utilised Weaponized aliens, the weaponised aliens were homogenised under the name "the hoard". one of their creations is the sack ticks (inspired the headcrab canisters) which had hoard markings on them for task group and delivery vehicle, they were eventually modelled and programmed as an entity in the hyper era.
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| − | * Gman was given his own Spy race with a citadel in a Prague-like city.
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| − | === ''Plot'' ===
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| − | Much of the plot devised at this point in production is unknown, however it is known that the player was to start the game as gordon freeman who had been forced into working as an agent for some alien body (presumably gmans race) and as such you are wearing an unfamiliar more sinister stealth suit with an unfamiliar voice system rather than the hev suit.<ref name="marcEmail">[https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/References:Marc_Laidlaw_emails#On_the_black.2C_leather_suit an email from Marc Laidlaw]</ref>
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| − | [[File:Rtb_hospital_Breakout_stealth_p205-206.png|thumb|300px]]
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| − | One of the introductions mentioned for this era was where you were waking up in a hospital before being broken out by rebels possibly inspired by jacobs ladder.<ref name="rtbupGordonedoff"></ref>
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| − | The only other information about the plot and its locations comes from the overlap with the next era the [[Hyper_Era]].
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| − | === ''Locations'' ===
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| − | While this era was scaled down from the initial galaxy spanning adventure, it was more focused on different places all around the planet, seemingly thrown together from a list of "cool" places to have the game.
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| − | Many places in different countries are visited, although they might not have had a story line devised to link them together as of yet: [[File:David_speyrer_skyscraper_email.png|thumb|300px|]]
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| − | * Chicago (sky scraper took place here)
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| − | * Arctic base?
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| − | * Cairo
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| − | * Weizmann institute of science in Israel, defending it from aliens<ref name="rtbupGordonedoff"></ref> [[File:Weizmann_institute_of_science.jpg|thumb|300px]]
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| − | * kraken base (probably not named this at this point, was just an undersea base)
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| − | * Prague-like alien city with a citadel
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| − | * New City
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| − | * Old City
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| − | == Inspirations ==
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| − | some kind of inspiration was taken from the work of brothers quay<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Quay the Quay Brothers]</ref>,
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| − | the dark city seems to have played a role in the early visual tone of the game and the design of the stealth suit<ref name="marcEmail"></ref>,
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| − | Jacob's Ladder<ref name="marcEmail"></ref> (hospital introduction, get textures)
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| − | David Speyrer mentioned that they took influence from a film called 'The Pianist' which took place in Warsaw Ghetto [[File:David_speyrer_Pianist_emil.png|thumb|300px]]
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| − | the manchurian candidate seems to have been used as inspiration for the background story between the player and the gman-like race, Main character is abducted before being trained and conditioned to be an assassin or special soldier to act as an agent for a country.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate_(1962_film) The Manchurian Candidate]</ref>
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| − | <ref>[https://archive.org/stream/HalfLife2RaisingTheBarUncorrectedProof/Half-Life-2-Raising-The-Bar-Uncorrected-Proof#page/n199 rtb:uncorrected proof page 199]</ref>
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| − | == Speculation ==
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| − | === ''Characters'' ===
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| − | I. A. Latham
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| − | * Possible early alyx
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| − | * Based off hl1 assassins and could probably go invisible(next version of alyx mentions invisibility in the small story outlines and the animations for her model include the hl1 assassins animations)
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| | == Key dates and info == | | == Key dates and info == |
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| | 11/11/1999 to 18/11/1999 dynamic dialogue odell, player interruptions(https://valvearchive.com/mail-vault/laidlaw/) | | 11/11/1999 to 18/11/1999 dynamic dialogue odell, player interruptions(https://valvearchive.com/mail-vault/laidlaw/) |
| | * Stealth suit Gordon mention? Somehow assures that you are part of the resistance | | * Stealth suit Gordon mention? Somehow assures that you are part of the resistance |
| − | <references />
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| − | {{PNSections
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| − | |title=HL2 - Eras
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| − | |before=None
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| − | |after=[[Hyper_Era|Hyper Era]]
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| − | }}
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| − | [[Category:Eras]]
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| − | [[Category:Half-Life 2]]
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