GPhys Developer Community - User contributions [en-gb]

File:Strider.png

2026-06-01T22:16:18Z

Rhosyn Celyn: Rhosyn Celyn uploaded a new version of File:Strider.png

2026-05-31T23:42:35Z

Rhosyn Celyn: Created blank page

File:GunShip.png

2026-05-31T23:41:38Z

Rhosyn Celyn:

Gunship

2026-05-31T23:38:33Z

Rhosyn Celyn:

= GPhys.Types.Objects.FlyingNPCs.GunShip =

[[File:GunShip.png|thumb|right|300px|Gunship]]

The Gunship is a powerful flying GNPC in GPhys. It is equipped with a rapid-fire machine gun and a devastating belly cannon, and features advanced AI for patrolling, hunting, and attacking targets.

== Accessible Variables ==
; Max Speed (maxSpeed)
: Maximum flight speed. Default: 25.
; Acceleration (acceleration)
: Acceleration rate. Default: 6.
; Turn Speed (turnSpeed)
: How quickly the Gunship can turn. Default: 0.08.
; Detection Range (detectionRange)
: How far the Gunship can detect targets. Default: 300.
; Attack Range (attackRange)
: Maximum range for attacking. Default: unlimited.
; Machine Gun Damage (machineGunDamage)
: Damage per bullet. Default: 8.
; Hover Height (hoverHeight)
: Preferred altitude when hovering. Default: 30.
; Min/Max Flight Height (minFlightHeight, maxFlightHeight)
: Altitude limits for flight.
; Obstacle Avoidance (obstacleAvoidanceRange, obstacleAvoidanceForce)
: Range and force for avoiding obstacles.
; Boundary (boundaryMin, boundaryMax, boundaryForce)
: World boundaries and force applied to stay within them.
; Is Live Event Ship (isLiveEventShip)
: If true, triggers network events on spawn.
; Don't Play Music (dontPlayMusic)
: If true, disables music on spawn/death.

== Inputs ==
; SetTargetPosition <Vector3, float>
: Overrides the Gunship's target position and speed.
; HandleForceChangeState <string>
: Forces the Gunship into a specific state (Patrol, Hunt, Attack, Dead, BellyCannonAttack).
; AddSequence <GunShipSequence>
: Adds a custom AI sequence to the Gunship.
; TakeDamage <float>
: Applies damage to the Gunship.
; Destroy
: Destroys the Gunship.

== Outputs ==
; OnBellyCannonHit
: Fires when the belly cannon successfully hits a target.
; OnDie
: Fires when the Gunship is destroyed.
; OnTakeDamage
: Fires when the Gunship takes damage.

== Dedicated Console Variables ==
; sk_gunship_burst_rate (float)
: Minimum time before attacking again. Default: 0.01.
; sk_gunship_burst_rate_max (float)
: Maximum time before attacking again. Default: 0.03.
; sk_gunship_burst_size (int)
: Number of bullets per attack burst. Default: 35.
; g_debug_gunship (int)
: Enables debug information for the Gunship. Default: 0.
; gunship_omniscient (int)
: If enabled, the Gunship always knows the player's position, even through walls.
; gunship_blindfire (int)
: If enabled, the Gunship will shoot at the player's last known position after losing sight.

Gunship

2026-05-31T23:35:18Z

Rhosyn Celyn: Created page with "= GPhys.Types.Objects.FlyingNPCs.GunShip = Gunship The Gunship is a powerful flying GNPC in GPhys. It is equipped with a rapid-fire machine gun and a devastating belly cannon, and features advanced AI for patrolling, hunting, and attacking targets. == Accessible Variables == ; Max Speed (maxSpeed) : Maximum flight speed. Default: 25. ; Acceleration (acceleration) : Acceleration rate. Default: 6. ; Turn Speed (turnSpeed) : How qui..."

= GPhys.Types.Objects.FlyingNPCs.GunShip =

[[File:GunShip.png|thumb|right|300px|Gunship]]

The Gunship is a powerful flying GNPC in GPhys. It is equipped with a rapid-fire machine gun and a devastating belly cannon, and features advanced AI for patrolling, hunting, and attacking targets.

== Accessible Variables ==
; Max Speed (maxSpeed)
: Maximum flight speed. Default: 25.
; Acceleration (acceleration)
: Acceleration rate. Default: 6.
; Turn Speed (turnSpeed)
: How quickly the Gunship can turn. Default: 0.08.
; Detection Range (detectionRange)
: How far the Gunship can detect targets. Default: 300.
; Attack Range (attackRange)
: Maximum range for attacking. Default: unlimited.
; Machine Gun Damage (machineGunDamage)
: Damage per bullet. Default: 8.
; Hover Height (hoverHeight)
: Preferred altitude when hovering. Default: 30.
; Min/Max Flight Height (minFlightHeight, maxFlightHeight)
: Altitude limits for flight.
; Obstacle Avoidance (obstacleAvoidanceRange, obstacleAvoidanceForce)
: Range and force for avoiding obstacles.
; Boundary (boundaryMin, boundaryMax, boundaryForce)
: World boundaries and force applied to stay within them.
; Is Live Event Ship (isLiveEventShip)
: If true, triggers network events on spawn.
; Don't Play Music (dontPlayMusic)
: If true, disables music on spawn/death.

See also: [[Generic Keyvalues, Inputs and Outputs available to all entities]]

== Flags ==
; None specific to Gunship.
: Standard entity flags may apply.

== Inputs ==
; SetTargetPosition <Vector3, float>
: Overrides the Gunship's target position and speed.
; HandleForceChangeState <string>
: Forces the Gunship into a specific state (Patrol, Hunt, Attack, Dead, BellyCannonAttack).
; AddSequence <GunShipSequence>
: Adds a custom AI sequence to the Gunship.
; TakeDamage <float>
: Applies damage to the Gunship.
; Destroy
: Destroys the Gunship.

See also: [[BaseNPC Inputs]]

== Outputs ==
; OnBellyCannonHit
: Fires when the belly cannon successfully hits a target.
; OnDie
: Fires when the Gunship is destroyed.
; OnTakeDamage
: Fires when the Gunship takes damage.

== Dedicated Console Variables ==
; sk_gunship_burst_rate (float)
: Minimum time before attacking again. Default: 0.01.
; sk_gunship_burst_rate_max (float)
: Maximum time before attacking again. Default: 0.03.
; sk_gunship_burst_size (int)
: Number of bullets per attack burst. Default: 35.
; g_debug_gunship (int)
: Enables debug information for the Gunship. Default: 0.
; gunship_omniscient (int)
: If enabled, the Gunship always knows the player's position, even through walls.
; gunship_blindfire (int)
: If enabled, the Gunship will shoot at the player's last known position after losing sight.

Cut Content

2026-05-29T02:18:30Z

Rhosyn Celyn: Created blank page

ZlothY

2026-05-08T00:48:02Z

Rhosyn Celyn: Created page with "==Overview== '''ZlothY''' (GitHub: [https://github.com/ZlothY29IQ ZlothY29IQ]) is a Gorilla Tag modder and software developer primarily known for creating and maintaining Hamburbur, a cheat and utility menu mod for Gorilla Tag. By their own description, ZlothY rarely builds things from scratch, instead preferring to fork, fix, and improve upon existing projects. ==Development Style== ZlothY primarily codes in '''C#''', which aligns with the majority of Gorilla T..."

==Overview==
'''ZlothY''' (GitHub: [https://github.com/ZlothY29IQ ZlothY29IQ]) is a [[Gorilla Tag]] modder and software developer primarily known for creating and maintaining [[Hamburbur]], a cheat and utility menu mod for Gorilla Tag. By their own description, ZlothY rarely builds things from scratch, instead preferring to fork, fix, and improve upon existing projects.

==Development Style==
ZlothY primarily codes in '''C#''', which aligns with the majority of Gorilla Tag modding work, and also works with Python, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, and C++. Their toolkit includes Unity, Blender, Git, Rider, WebStorm, and IntelliJ IDEA. ZlothY has described their own approach to development humorously, noting that they mostly fix and improve other people's work rather than producing entirely original projects. They have also joked that if their code works on the first try, something must have gone wrong.

==Projects==

===Hamburbur===
Hamburbur is ZlothY's flagship project and the mod they are best known for. It is described as the cleanest and highest-quality cheat menu available for Gorilla Tag. (Which, is a little biased) See the [[Hamburbur]] article for full details.

===ZlothY Nametag===
[https://github.com/ZlothY29IQ/Zlothy-Nametag ZlothY Nametag] is a nametag mod for Gorilla Tag featuring custom icons that display information about notable or special players. ZlothY notes that the mod was originally made for them rather than by them, and that their version is a fork with additional features added on top.

===WalkSimulator===
[https://github.com/ZlothY29IQ/WalkSimulator WalkSimulator] is ZlothY's fork of a mod created by KyleTheScientist, which allows players to interact with Gorilla Tag without the need for a VR headset. It is one of their most starred repositories on GitHub.

===Dingus===
[https://github.com/ZlothY29IQ/dingus Dingus] is a fork of Gizmogoat's original dingus mod, to which ZlothY added networking functionality.

===TooMuchInfoHanFork===
[https://github.com/ZlothY29IQ/TooMuchInfoHanFork TooMuchInfoHanFork] is another forked and modified project pinned on ZlothY's GitHub profile.

==Links==
* [https://zlothy.uk Official Website]
* [https://hamburbur.org Hamburbur Website]
* [https://github.com/ZlothY29IQ GitHub Profile]
* [https://ko-fi.com/zlothy Ko-fi (Support)]
* [https://discord.gg/hamburbur Discord Server]

[[Category:Gorilla Tag Modders]]
[[Category:Developers]]

Hamburbur

2026-05-08T00:40:44Z

2026-05-03T21:49:13Z

Rhosyn Celyn:

'''''Black Mesa''''' is a fan-made remake of ''[[Half-Life (video game)|Half-Life]]'' (1998), developed and published by [[Crowbar Collective]]. It rebuilds the original game from scratch in the [[Source (game engine)|Source]] engine replacing every texture, model, piece of voice acting, and sound while keeping the structure and story of the original largely intact. The biggest departure from the source material is its complete redesign of the game's final chapters, set in the alien dimension of '''Xen''', which were widely considered the weakest part of the original ''Half-Life''.

''Black Mesa'' began as a volunteer fan project in 2004, driven by disappointment with ''[[Half-Life: Source]]'' Valve's own port of ''Half-Life'' to the Source engine, which many players felt did little more than move the original game to a newer engine without meaningfully improving it. The project spent eight years in development before releasing as a free mod in 2012. It later moved to Steam, entered commercial early access in 2015, and fully released on March 6, 2020 fifteen years after development began. Valve approved the commercial release and the game was greenlit through the Steam community.

''Black Mesa'' received widespread critical acclaim upon its full release, with 100% of critics on [[OpenCritic]] recommending it. A Valve designer working on ''[[Half-Life: Alyx]]'' publicly remarked that he had given up replaying the original ''Half-Life'' for research and switched to ''Black Mesa'' instead, finding it a more enjoyable experience.

== Background ==

When Valve released ''[[Half-Life: Source]]'' in 2004 a port of the original ''[[Half-Life (video game)|Half-Life]]'' to their then-new Source engine the response from the community was largely underwhelming. The port brought improved water effects, lighting, and ragdoll physics, but the levels, textures, models, and gameplay were essentially unchanged from the 1998 original. Players who had seen what Valve could do with Source in ''[[Half-Life 2]]'' felt the original game deserved a more thorough remake.

Two separate community teams had the same idea and began working independently. Both announced their projects on modding forums in late 2004. They eventually found each other, recognised they were working toward the same goal, and merged into a single team. Around mid-2005, the combined project was given the name '''Black Mesa: Source'''. As the project grew and gained attention, Valve privately contacted the team and asked them to remove "Source" from the name the project was being mistaken for an official Valve product. The name was shortened to simply '''Black Mesa''' around mid-2006.

== Gameplay ==

=== Overview ===

''Black Mesa'' covers the same ground as the original ''[[Half-Life (video game)|Half-Life]]'' nineteen chapters following [[Gordon Freeman]] through the Black Mesa Research Facility and eventually into the alien borderworld of Xen. The player fights through underground labs, desert surface sections, military-occupied areas, rail tunnels, waste processing facilities, and finally across the alien dimension itself. The weapons, enemies, and general chapter order are all preserved from the original.

However, Crowbar Collective made significant adjustments throughout. Levels were reworked to be less tedious, with areas that dragged in the original particularly the long ''On a Rail'' chapter shortened or restructured. The team applied what they saw as Valve's design philosophy from ''Half-Life 2'': when a new mechanic is introduced, it is first presented in a low-stakes situation so the player can learn it safely before it is then used in a genuinely dangerous encounter.

Enemy AI was improved across the board, making both human soldiers and alien creatures more responsive and harder to exploit. Combat spaces were redesigned to give the player more options cover, flanking routes, environmental hazards reflecting how level design had evolved in the decade since the original game.

The game runs to approximately 15 hours with the Xen chapters included, significantly longer than the original.

=== Changes from Half-Life ===

While ''Black Mesa'' is faithful to the spirit and structure of the original, Crowbar Collective made a number of deliberate changes:

'''Levels''' were rebuilt entirely. No assets from the original game were carried over. Textures, models, and geometry were created from scratch. Environments that were sparse or boxy in the original were expanded with more environmental detail, more logical layout, and a stronger sense of physical place.

'''Voice acting''' was completely replaced. The original ''Half-Life'' had minimal dialogue scientists and guards had a handful of repeated lines. ''Black Mesa'' introduced fuller, more varied performances with new dialogue that acknowledges characters and lore introduced in later ''Half-Life'' games. Scientists who appear early in the game are retconned to be [[Eli Vance]] and [[Isaac Kleiner]], as ''[[Half-Life 2]]'' later established that both were working at Black Mesa before the incident.

'''The soundtrack''' was composed from scratch by Joel Nielsen. Rather than using or adapting Kelly Bailey's original score, Nielsen created an entirely original soundtrack that fits the aesthetic of the series while standing on its own. The soundtrack was released separately and is available to stream and purchase.

'''Xen''' was rebuilt completely see the section below.

'''Small narrative additions''' were made throughout. A brief reference to the Aperture Science long-fall boots from the ''[[Portal (video game)|Portal]]'' series was added, acknowledging the shared universe that ''Half-Life 2'' and ''Portal'' established after the original game was released.

=== Xen ===

The most significant change in ''Black Mesa'' is the complete redesign of its final section, '''Xen'''. In the original ''Half-Life'', the Xen chapters were considered the weakest part of the game a sudden switch from the facility-based first-person shooter gameplay to low-gravity platforming on floating alien islands, with poor jump controls and frustrating encounters. Most contemporary reviews docked points for Xen, and many players still consider it the one part of ''Half-Life'' that did not hold up.

Crowbar Collective decided not to simply clean up the original Xen they rebuilt it almost entirely from the ground up as an original work, using only the broad strokes of the original as a starting point. The resulting Xen is one of the most ambitious parts of the game and took years longer than any other section to complete. It was the reason the Steam Early Access version, released in 2015, shipped without Xen at all the team felt it was nowhere near ready and would rather release the rest of the game than delay indefinitely.

The redesigned Xen transforms the alien dimension from a series of bleak brown floating rocks into a dense, vibrant alien world with lush vegetation, strange biomes, bioluminescent environments, and a strong sense of being somewhere genuinely foreign. Unique visual effects were built for it that hadn't been seen in the Source engine before, including god rays, large-scale alien flora, and complex dynamic lighting.

The four Xen chapters are:

* '''Xen''' the opening section of the alien world, focused on traversal and environmental puzzles. The player crosses vast distances toward a distant objective while exploring alien biomes and encountering creatures from the dimension.
* '''Gonarch's Lair''' a chapter built around the '''Gonarch''', a massive creature that serves as a boss. In the original, this was a brief encounter. In ''Black Mesa'', it becomes a full chapter with multiple phases and a large arena. The Gonarch pursues the player across several connected environments rather than staying in one room.
* '''Interloper''' a Combine facility operating within Xen that manufactures alien soldiers. This chapter was the most extensively redesigned, with large, complex environments and multiple open areas to navigate.
* '''Nihilanth''' the final boss of the game, a powerful alien creature that has been controlling the Xen dimension and directing the alien invasion of Earth. The fight was largely preserved from the original but made more spectacular, with the Nihilanth hurling chunks of the Black Mesa facility at the player during the encounter.

== Development ==

=== Origins (20042009) ===

Development began in 2004 when Carlos Montero, known in the modding community as '''cman2k''', had the idea of completely rebuilding ''Half-Life'' with updated visuals, voice acting, and gameplay using Valve's Source engine. He posted about the project on the Leakfree modding forums in September 2004. Separately, another group announced a similar project called the ''Half-Life Source: Overhaul Project'' in October 2004. The two teams eventually became aware of each other, recognised that they shared the same goal, and merged.

The merged project announced itself as '''Black Mesa: Source''' in mid-2005. A popular teaser trailer followed, and the team continued to grow through volunteer contributions. The project attracted modellers, level designers, artists, voice actors, and composers who worked on it in their spare time without pay.

A release date of "late 2009" was announced in early 2009. The team missed it. The date was changed to '''when it's done''' a phrase that became something of a running joke in the broader gaming community, as the project came to be associated with long delays and uncertain timelines. The team was genuinely trying to reach a quality bar they kept raising as they improved, and the scope of rebuilding an entire game to a professional standard without any budget or structure kept expanding.

=== The Mod Release (2012) ===

On September 1, 2012, project lead Carlos Montero announced that ''Black Mesa'' would release in twelve days and posted a countdown on the official website. On '''September 14, 2012''', after eight years in development, ''Black Mesa'' was released as a free mod requiring Valve's Source SDK.

The release did not include the Xen chapters. The team felt the Xen sections required a complete rethink rather than a straight port, and releasing without them was preferable to delaying further. The mod covered everything up to and including the Lambda Core chapter the full Earth-based portion of the game.

The response was immediate and positive. ''Black Mesa'' was downloaded heavily and won '''Mod of the Year''' on ModDB. PC gaming publications covered it widely and praised it as a remarkable achievement for a volunteer team. It was submitted to Steam Greenlight Valve's then-active community voting system for deciding which games should be sold on Steam and was accepted.

=== Steam Early Access and Commercial Release (20152020) ===

On '''May 5, 2015''', ''Black Mesa'' launched on Steam Early Access as a paid product, priced at $19.99. This version ran on an updated version of the Source engine and included improved visuals, new voice acting, Steam Workshop support, Steam achievements, and deathmatch multiplayer maps. The Xen chapters were still listed as a work in progress with no release date.

Xen proved to be the most difficult and time-consuming part of the entire project. The team publicly committed to a December 2017 release for Xen, which they missed. A public beta of some Xen chapters was released in June 2019 for stress-testing. The full Xen chapters were released on '''December 24, 2019'''.

On '''March 6, 2020''', ''Black Mesa'' left Early Access and was declared version 1.0 fifteen years and six months after development first began. A further '''Definitive Edition''' update (version 1.5) released on November 25, 2020, consolidating all improvements to audio, visuals, and gameplay into a single version. An additional '''Necro Patch''' in April 2024 added Vulkan renderer support, improved controller compatibility, and various bug fixes.

=== Working Method ===

Because the team was volunteer-based for most of its history, the project had an unusual development structure. In the early years, each level designer was assigned one or more entire chapters and was responsible for taking them from blockout to finished art, creating assets specifically for their sections. This decentralised approach gave individual chapters a distinct character but made cohesion harder to maintain.

As development continued and the team grew especially during the Xen period the process became more structured, with separate roles for level designers and environment artists. Early access revenue allowed Crowbar Collective to bring in paid contributors and outside help for the final push.

A '''Surface Tension Uncut''' update released in 2016 restored parts of the ''Surface Tension'' chapter that had been cut from the original mod release because the developer responsible had left before finishing his work. A community modder named Chon Kemp had already completed this content independently; Crowbar Collective hired him to bring it into the official release.

In April 2021, Crowbar Collective released a free '''Xen Museum''' add-on a virtual museum within the game that documented five years of the Xen development process, showing art, models, and design decisions that didn't make it into the final game.

== Reception ==

=== Critical Reception ===

''Black Mesa'' received very positive reviews across both its 2012 mod release and its 2020 full release.

On [[OpenCritic]], the full 2020 release was recommended by '''100% of critics'''. ''PC Gamer'' called the project a professional-grade work, praising the redesigned Xen sections in particular as providing more closure than the original game's ending ever did. ''Eurogamer'' described it as feeling more like an '''evolution''' of ''Half-Life'' than a straight remake noting that Crowbar Collective's decisions to trim tedious sections and expand others made the game feel like what the original might have been with a few more years of development. ''bit-tech'' said that the Xen section alone was "one of my favourite parts of any ''Half-Life'' game."

The redesigned Xen received especially strong praise. The original Xen was one of the most widely criticised parts of ''Half-Life'' clunky, abrupt, and underdeveloped. Reviewers who had expected the ''Black Mesa'' version to simply be a cleaned-up version of the same thing found instead a full alien world with its own visual identity, biomes, and structure. The Gonarch's Lair chapter in particular was praised for turning a brief boss encounter into a full chase sequence across multiple environments.

Dario Casali, a level designer at Valve who worked on all the mainline ''Half-Life'' games, said publicly that while preparing for work on ''[[Half-Life: Alyx]]'' he attempted to replay the original ''Half-Life'' for research. After five hours he gave up and switched to ''Black Mesa'' instead, which he found far more enjoyable.

=== Community Mods ===

''Black Mesa'' ships with Steam Workshop support, and the community has produced a range of additional content for it. Notable community releases include:

* '''Black Mesa: Uplink''' a remake of the original ''Half-Life: Uplink'' demo, built to match the style and quality of ''Black Mesa''.
* '''Black Mesa: Hazard Course''' a full remake of ''Half-Life''{{'}}s tutorial chapter, which Crowbar Collective had omitted from the base game. Developed by PSR Digital and released in December 2015, it was eventually added to the Steam Workshop in 2020.
* '''Surface Tension Uncut''' an expansion of the Surface Tension chapter restoring areas that were cut from the original mod release. Eventually officially integrated into the main game.
* '''Further Data''' an alternative remake of the ''Uplink'' demo released in December 2020.

2026-05-03T21:29:31Z

Rhosyn Celyn: Created page with "The big gabe"

The big gabe

Half-Life 1

2026-05-03T21:29:24Z

Rhosyn Celyn:

'''''Half-Life''''' is a 1998 [[first-person shooter]] (FPS) developed by [[VALVe]] and published by Sierra Studios for Windows. It was Valve's first game and the start of the ''[[Half-Life (series)|Half-Life]]'' series. Players control Gordon Freeman, a physicist trying to escape the Black Mesa Research Facility after a science experiment goes badly wrong and lets in a flood of aliens. The game mixes combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving throughout.

Valve wanted to make something more interesting than the shooters that were already out there less of a "shooting gallery" and more of a real world to explore. The game runs on [[GoldSrc]], a modified version of the Quake Engine. Science fiction writer Marc Laidlaw was brought in to write the story. One of the things that made Half-Life stand out was that the player rarely loses control of Gordon the story plays out around you rather than through cutscenes.

''Half-Life'' was widely praised for its graphics, gameplay, and storytelling, winning over 50 "Game of the Year" awards. It sold more than nine million copies by 2008 and is still considered one of the most important shooters ever made. The game was later ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2001, and to macOS and Linux in 2013.
== Gameplay ==
[[File:Halflife ingame.jpg|thumb|left|The player fighting soldiers, a helicopter, and a gun turret in the chapter "Surface Tension"]]

''Half-Life'' is a first-person shooter where you fight enemies and solve puzzles to move forward. Unlike most shooters of the time, it tells its story almost entirely through scripted events that happen around you rather than stopping the game for cutscenes. You play as Gordon Freeman from start to finish, and he never speaks or appears on screen you see everything through his eyes.

The game has no traditional levels. Instead, it's split into chapters whose names pop up briefly on screen as you progress. Each area flows directly into the next, keeping things feeling continuous.

Along the way you'll run into puzzles things like finding a path through conveyor belts, stacking boxes to climb somewhere, or turning a valve to blast an enemy with steam. Boss encounters aren't really about direct fights; they usually ask you to use the environment cleverly to bring something big down. Towards the end, you get a long-jump module for your suit, which is needed for the jumping sections in the alien world of Xen.

Security guards and scientists sometimes help you out, either by fighting alongside you, opening locked doors, or passing on information about the story. The alien enemies include headcrabs, vortigaunts, bullsquids, and zombie-like creatures, while you also go up against soldiers and black ops assassins.

== Plot ==

Gordon Freeman works at the underground Black Mesa Research Facility as a theoretical physicist. During a routine experiment on a strange crystal, something goes horribly wrong a "resonance cascade" tears the facility apart and starts pulling in hostile aliens from another dimension.

When Gordon makes it to the surface, he discovers things are even worse: the US military has been sent in, not to rescue anyone, but to cover up the whole incident by killing everyone left alive. A surviving scientist tells Gordon he needs to reach the Lambda Complex to stop the alien invasion.

Gordon fights through rocket test chambers, waste facilities, alien-specimen labs, and the facility's surface, eventually making it to the Lambda Complex. Scientists there tell him a powerful alien creature is keeping the portal open. They send him through to the alien world, Xen, to deal with it.

In Xen, Gordon battles through strange landscapes, kills a massive creature called the Gonarch, and eventually finds and kills the Nihilanth the alien keeping the invasion going. Immediately after, a mysterious suited figure known only as the GMan appears. He claims his "employers" want to offer Gordon a job. If you accept, Freeman is put into stasis. If you refuse, you're sent to your death.

== Development ==
[[File:Gabe Newell - 2002 (cropped).png|thumb|Valve co-founder [[Gabe Newell]] in 2002]]

[[VALVe]] was founded in 1996 in [[Kirkland, Washington]] by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Their plan for their first game was a horror-themed first-person shooter. Rather than building a new engine from scratch which would've been too much work for a small team they licensed the Quake Engine from id Software and built heavily on top of it. Newell later estimated that around 75% of the final engine code was written by Valve themselves.

''Half-Life'' drew inspiration from Doom (1993) and Quake (1996), Stephen King's novella The Mist, and a 1963 episode of The Outer Limits (1963 TV series). The working title was ''Quiver'', taken from the military base in ''The Mist''. The final name, ''Half-Life'', was chosen because it fit the scientific theme, wasn't a cliché, and had a natural visual symbol: the Greek letter λ (lambda), which represents the decay constant in the half-life equation.

Finding a publisher was tough; many thought Valve was too new and too ambitious. Eventually, Sierra On-Line signed them for a single-game deal, giving Valve around $1 million upfront in exchange for 30% of revenue. The rest of the development was funded personally by Newell and Harrington. The game was first shown in early 1997 and made a good impression at E3 that year.

By September 1997, though, things weren't going well. The game had interesting pieces, but felt scattered and wasn't fun to play. Playtesting got mixed responses. Sierra wouldn't give more money, so Newell took out a personal loan to fund more development time and push the release date back.

Valve's solution was to have a small team build a single prototype level containing every type of thing the game needed sort of a 'Die Hard meets Evil Dead experience. When the rest of the team played it, everyone agreed it worked. They figured out three things that made it click: the player controlled the pacing, the world reacted to everything the player did, and dangers were always telegraphed rather than sprung without warning.

To lock in a unified design, Valve formed a group called the "cabal" six people from across different departments who met for six hours a day, four days a week, for six months. They were responsible for designing levels, events, enemies, narrative, and how gameplay elements were introduced. Mini-cabals would then form within specific departments to carry out whatever the main group decided. Membership rotated to manage burnout.

The cabal produced a 200-page design document and a 30-page story document. Sci-fi novelist Marc Laidlaw was hired to help with the script. He described his job as bringing "old storytelling tricks" to the team's bold ideas, working alongside them rather than handing down a finished story from above. The opening train ride, for example, came about because an engineer had already coded a working train for something else.

Valve originally planned to use cutscenes, but switched to a continuous first-person perspective because they ran out of time. They ended up preferring it it created a stronger sense of immersion and made the loneliness and danger feel more real.

Playtesting was built into the process from an early stage. The cabal would watch players silently, note down anything confusing or broken, and fix it in the next version. Eventually they added tools to track player behavior statistically and fine-tune levels based on the data.

One awkward footnote: about two to three months before release, Valve's source control system crashed and destroyed much of the development history. Code had to be recovered from individual machines. Despite this, the revised version shown at E3 1998 picked up awards for "Best PC Game" and "Best Action Game."

== Release ==

''Half-Life'' launched on November 19, 1998. Valve's marketing chief Monica Harrington pushed Valve's profile in the industry with conference talks and press coverage, including a piece in the Wall Street Journal. When Sierra made clear it wasn't planning to do much promotional work after launch, Harrington threatened to go public about it. Sierra responded by reissuing the game in a "Game of the Year" edition, which helped sales. By 2001, Valve had renegotiated with Sierra and gained full control of the ''Half-Life'' intellectual property and online distribution rights.

Two playable demos were released. ''Half-Life: Day One'' covered the first fifth of the game and was bundled with certain graphics cards. ''Half-Life: Uplink'' came out on February 12, 1999, with original content not in the main game. A short film of the same name was also made by a British marketing agency, following a journalist who sneaks into Black Mesa.

In Germany, ''Half-Life'' was censored to comply with local media regulations around violence human characters were replaced with robots that spilled oil and gears instead of blood. In 2017, the game was removed from the German censorship list, and Valve released a free patch called ''Half-Life Uncensored'' to restore the original content.

== Reception ==

=== Critical reception ===

''Half-Life'' landed with near-universal praise. On [[Metacritic]], it holds a score of 96 out of 100 for the PC version.

''[[Computer Gaming World]]'' called it "not just one of the best games of the year" but "one of the best games of any year" and "the best shooter since the original ''Doom''." ''[[IGN]]'' described it as "a tour de force in game design, the definitive single player game in a first-person shooter." ''[[GameSpot]]'' said it was the "closest thing to a revolutionary step the genre has ever taken." ''[[Next Generation (magazine)|Next Generation]]'' wrote that it "brings the very idea of adventure on a PC out of the dark ages and into a 3D world."

Reviewers repeatedly pointed to the level of immersion as the game's biggest achievement. ''[[AllGame]]'' said it had "totally revolutionized an entire genre."

The one part of the game that consistently drew criticism was Xen, the alien world near the end. The jumping puzzles there were difficult because the GoldSrc engine didn't give players very precise control in the air, leading to a lot of frustrating falls. ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'' later described Xen as "an abbreviated, unpleasant stop on an alien world with bad platforming and a boss fight against what appeared, by all accounts, to be a giant floating infant."

At the AIAS' 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, ''Half-Life'' won "Computer Entertainment Title of the Year" and "PC Action Game of the Year."

''[[PC Gamer]]'' named it the best PC game of all time in 1999, 2001, and 2005. In 2004, ''[[GameSpy]]'' readers voted it the best game of all time. ''[[Gamasutra]]'' gave it their Quantum Leap Award for the FPS category in 2006. [[GameSpot]] added it to their Greatest Games of All Time list in 2007. IGN wrote in 2013 that the history of the FPS genre "breaks down pretty cleanly into pre-''Half-Life'' and post-''Half-Life'' eras." The ''[[the Guardian|Guardian]]'' ranked it the third-greatest game of the 1990s in 2021.

=== Sales ===

Valve originally expected ''Half-Life'' to sell around 180,000 copies total a modest target. It blew past that quickly. By the end of 1998, it had sold over 212,000 copies in the US alone and brought in $8.6 million in revenue. Global sales passed 500,000 units by January 19, 1999 just two months after launch.

By April 1999, global sales were approaching 1 million. By July 2001, they had reached 2.5 million. By late 2004, eight million copies had been sold, and by 2008 the number was 9.3 million. ''[[Guinness World Records]]'' recognized it as the best-selling first-person shooter of all time on PC in their 2008 Gamer's Edition.

The PlayStation 2 version earned a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, indicating at least 100,000 copies sold in the UK.

== Expansions and sequels ==

''Half-Life'' was followed by two expansion packs developed by [[Gearbox Software]]. ''[[Half-Life: Opposing Force|Opposing Force]]'' came out in November 1999, putting players in the boots of a marine sent into Black Mesa who ends up fighting alongside Freeman's former enemies. ''[[Half-Life: Blue Shift|Blue Shift]]'' followed in June 2001, telling the story through the eyes of a security guard named Barney Calhoun. A third expansion, ''[[Half-Life: Decay|Decay]]'', was made exclusively for the PlayStation 2 port a co-op campaign following two Black Mesa scientists.

''[[Half-Life 2]]'' was announced at E3 2003 and released in 2004. Set 20 years later, it follows Freeman in a city under alien occupation. Two episodic follow-ups came out: ''[[Half-Life 2: Episode One]]'' in 2006 and ''[[Half-Life 2: Episode Two]]'' in 2007. After a long gap and several cancelled projects, Valve returned to the series with ''[[Half-Life: Alyx]]'' in 2020, a VR-exclusive prequel set between the events of the first two games.

[[Category:1998 video games]]
[[Category:First-person shooters]]
[[Category:Valve Corporation games]]
[[Category:Windows games]]
[[Category:PlayStation 2 games]]
[[Category:MacOS games]]
[[Category:Linux games]]
[[Category:Science fiction video games]]
[[Category:Video games about alien invasions]]
[[Category:GoldSrc games]]
[[Category:Half-Life (series) games|1]]
[[Category:Single-player video games]]
[[Category:Multiplayer online games]]
[[Category:Video games developed in the United States]]
[[Category:Video games set in laboratories]]
[[Category:Video games set in New Mexico]]

File:Gabe Newell - 2002 (cropped).png

2026-05-03T21:28:56Z

Rhosyn Celyn:

2026-05-03T21:10:46Z

Rhosyn Celyn:

{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em; width:300px; text-align:center;"
|-
! colspan="2" style="background:#1a1a1a; color:#ffffff; font-size:1.2em;" | GPhys
|-
| colspan="2" |
[[File:GPhysSource.png|200px]]
[[File:GPhys.png|200px]]
|-
! Developer
| [[Lambda Reclaimation]]
|-
! Team
| [[QuantumLeap Studios]]
|-
! Genre
| Sandbox, Campaign, Utility
|-
! Platform
| [[Gorilla Tag]]
|}

==Overview==
'''GPhys''' is a mod for [[Gorilla Tag]] that takes the game to a whole new level. It's created by [[Lambda Reclaimation]], a su of [[QuantumLeap Studios]], which focuses on projects inspired by Half-Life. GPhys pulls in elements from well-known [[VALVe]] games like [[Half-Life 1]], [[Half-Life: Alyx]], [[Black Mesa]], [[Portal]], and more, mixing them into one big modification.

This mod works as a '''sandbox''', '''campaign''', and '''utility''' mod, aiming to provide the Gorilla Tag experience that many players have been looking for: fun, full of content, and endlessly replayable.

==Features==
GPhys brings an incredible array of content to the Gorilla Tag platform, including:

* '''100+ Objects''' - A massive and ever-growing roster of spawnable items, props, and tools drawn from across the Half-Life and Portal universes.
* '''NPCs''' - Enemies, allies, and ambient characters sourced from Half-Life 1, Half-Life: Alyx, and Black Mesa, each bringing their own behaviours and interactions.
* '''Vehicles''' - Rideable and interactive vehicles that expand movement and gameplay possibilities beyond the base Gorilla Tag experience.
* '''Campaign Mode''' - A dedicated narrative-driven mode set within the GPhys universe, offering structured gameplay distinct from the open sandbox.
* '''Sandbox Mode''' - A freeform environment where players can spawn objects, NPCs, vehicles, and more to create their own experiences.
* '''Utility Tools''' - A suite of in-mod utilities to assist players in building, testing, and exploring custom scenarios.

==Content Sources==
GPhys pulls its content from the following VALVe and VALVe-adjacent properties:

* [[Half-Life 1]]
* [[Half-Life: Alyx]]
* [[Black Mesa]] (the remake developed by [[Crowbar Collective]])
* [[Portal]] series
* Various other [[VALVe]] works

==Development==
GPhys has been in active development for over '''18 months''', continuously receiving updates, new content, and refinements. The mod is maintained by [[Lambda Reclaimation]], a specialised sub-team within [[QuantumLeap Studios]] that focuses exclusively on Half-Life styled projects for Gorilla Tag.

==Developer==
GPhys is developed by [[Lambda Reclaimation]], a sub-team of [[QuantumLeap Studios]] that specifically works on Half-Life styled projects.

==See Also==
* [[Lambda Reclaimation]]
* [[QuantumLeap Studios]]
* [[Gorilla Tag]]

==External Links==
* [[QuantumLeap Studios]] official page

[[Category:Gorilla Tag Mods]]
[[Category:Sandbox Games]]
[[Category:Half-Life]]
[[Category:Portal]]
[[Category:VALVe]]
[[Category:QuantumLeap Studios]]
[[Category:Lambda Reclaimation]]

File:GPhys.png

2026-05-03T21:10:05Z

Rhosyn Celyn:

File:GPhysSource.png

2026-05-03T21:09:44Z

Rhosyn Celyn:

GPhys

2026-05-03T21:09:29Z

Rhosyn Celyn:

{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em; width:300px; text-align:center;"
|-
! colspan="2" style="background:#1a1a1a; color:#ffffff; font-size:1.2em;" | GPhys
|-
| colspan="2" |
[[File:GPhysSource.png|thumb|center|GPhys Icon]]
[[File:GPhys.png|thumb|center|Alternative GPhys Icon]]
|-
! Developer
| [[Lambda Reclaimation]]
|-
! Team
| [[QuantumLeap Studios]]
|-
! Genre
| Sandbox, Campaign, Utility
|-
! Platform
| [[Gorilla Tag]]
|}

==Overview==
'''GPhys''' is a mod for [[Gorilla Tag]] that takes the game to a whole new level. It's created by [[Lambda Reclaimation]], a su of [[QuantumLeap Studios]], which focuses on projects inspired by Half-Life. GPhys pulls in elements from well-known [[VALVe]] games like [[Half-Life 1]], [[Half-Life: Alyx]], [[Black Mesa]], [[Portal]], and more, mixing them into one big modification.

This mod works as a '''sandbox''', '''campaign''', and '''utility''' mod, aiming to provide the Gorilla Tag experience that many players have been looking for: fun, full of content, and endlessly replayable.

==Features==
GPhys brings an incredible array of content to the Gorilla Tag platform, including:

* '''100+ Objects''' - A massive and ever-growing roster of spawnable items, props, and tools drawn from across the Half-Life and Portal universes.
* '''NPCs''' - Enemies, allies, and ambient characters sourced from Half-Life 1, Half-Life: Alyx, and Black Mesa, each bringing their own behaviours and interactions.
* '''Vehicles''' - Rideable and interactive vehicles that expand movement and gameplay possibilities beyond the base Gorilla Tag experience.
* '''Campaign Mode''' - A dedicated narrative-driven mode set within the GPhys universe, offering structured gameplay distinct from the open sandbox.
* '''Sandbox Mode''' - A freeform environment where players can spawn objects, NPCs, vehicles, and more to create their own experiences.
* '''Utility Tools''' - A suite of in-mod utilities to assist players in building, testing, and exploring custom scenarios.

==Content Sources==
GPhys pulls its content from the following VALVe and VALVe-adjacent properties:

* [[Half-Life 1]]
* [[Half-Life: Alyx]]
* [[Black Mesa]] (the remake developed by [[Crowbar Collective]])
* [[Portal]] series
* Various other [[VALVe]] works

==Development==
GPhys has been in active development for over '''18 months''', continuously receiving updates, new content, and refinements. The mod is maintained by [[Lambda Reclaimation]], a specialised sub-team within [[QuantumLeap Studios]] that focuses exclusively on Half-Life styled projects for Gorilla Tag.

==Developer==
GPhys is developed by [[Lambda Reclaimation]], a sub-team of [[QuantumLeap Studios]] that specifically works on Half-Life styled projects.

==See Also==
* [[Lambda Reclaimation]]
* [[QuantumLeap Studios]]
* [[Gorilla Tag]]

==External Links==
* [[QuantumLeap Studios]] official page

[[Category:Gorilla Tag Mods]]
[[Category:Sandbox Games]]
[[Category:Half-Life]]
[[Category:Portal]]
[[Category:VALVe]]
[[Category:QuantumLeap Studios]]
[[Category:Lambda Reclaimation]]

Ministrider shader

2026-05-03T14:31:23Z

Rhosyn Celyn:

A shader that adds Phong to the URP Lit Shader
[[File:ministrider.png|thumb|right|300px|Ministrider Shader on a Sphere]]
[[File:Hunter.png|thumb|right|300px|The [[Hunter]] uses the ministrider shader]]

You can download the shader [[Media:ministrider_shader.shadergraph|here]], free usage in all of your projects! (warning, it is a bit messy!)

== Accessible Variables ==
; Base Texture (_Base_Texture) : The base texture for the shader.
; Normal Map (_Normal_Map) : The normal map for the shader.
; Cube Environment Map (_Cube_Environment_Map) : If there isn't anything to reflect, we use this as a default.
; Phong Warp Texture (_Phong_Warp_Texture) : The Phong warp texture, gives the shader a sort of iridescence effect.
; EnvMap Tint (_EnvMap_Tint) : Tint for the reflection
; EnvMap Contrast (_EnvMap_Contrast) : An unused float.
; Phong Enable (_Phong_Enable) : An unused float.
; Phong Exponent (_PhongExponent) : The exponent for the Phong
; Phong Boost (_PhongBoost) : The multiplier for the Phong
; Phong Fresnel Ranges (_PhongFresnelRanges) : A float3 vector containing the [X, Y, Z] Fresnel range values
; CubeMap Strength (_CubeMap_Strength) : How strong is the reflection?
; Warp Strength (_WarpStrength) : Strength of the warp.
; Smoothness (_Smoothness) : Smoothness factor for the base shader.
; Metallic (_Metallic) : Metallic factor for the base shader.
; EmissionTexture (_EmissionTexture) : Texture for the base shader's emission.
; EmissionStrength (_EmissionStrength) : Strength of the base shader's emission.

== HLSL Code for the Phong part of the shader ==
<syntaxhighlight lang="hlsl">
if (enabled < 0.5) {
_out = float3(0, 0, 0);
return;
}
float3 R = reflect(-L, N);
float spec = max(0.0, dot(V, R));
float NdotV = max(0.0, dot(N, V));
float fresnelFactor = 1.0 - NdotV;
float f = fresnelFactor * fresnelFactor;
float fres;
if (f > 0.5) {
fres = lerp(fresnelRanges.y, fresnelRanges.z, (2.0 * f) - 1.0);
} else {
fres = lerp(fresnelRanges.x, fresnelRanges.y, 2.0 * f);
}
float3 warpColor = SAMPLE_TEXTURE2D(warpTex, ss, warpUV).rgb / 2;
float warpMask = SAMPLE_TEXTURE2D(warpTex, ss, warpUV).a;
warpColor /= 2;
float warpLum = dot(warpColor, float3(0.299, 0.587, 0.114));
float3 iridescence = warpColor * fres * warpStrength;
float w = pow(spec, phongExp) * phongBoost * fres;
w *= warpMask;
float3 rimLight = float3(w, w, w);
float phongHighlight = pow(spec, phongExp) * phongBoost;
phongHighlight *= fres;
phongHighlight /= warpMask;
float3 finalOutput = warpColor * phongHighlight;
_out = finalOutput;
</syntaxhighlight>