The Cabal: Valve’s Design Process For Creating Half-Life – Game Developer (1999)

TITLE
The Cabal: Valve’s Design Process For Creating Half-Life

AUTHOR
Ken Birdwell

PUBLICATION
Game Developer

YEAR
1999

ARTICLE TYPE
Postmortem

FROM THE ARTICLE
While Half-Life has seen resounding critical and financial success (winning over 50 Game of the Year awards and selling more than a million copies worldwide), few people realize that it didn’t start out a winner — in fact, Valve’s first attempt at the game had to be scrapped. It was mediocre at best, and suffered from the typical problems that plague far too many games. This article is about the teamwork – or “Cabal process” — that turned our initial, less than impressive version of Half-Life into a groundbreaking success.

COMPANIES MENTIONED
Valve

GAMES MENTIONED
Half-Life