After a long development process, the remake will be completed in a few days
It has been a long journey since a group of amateur modders embarked on the adventure of making a remake of one of the most iconic video game titles. After restarting the project on several occasions, constant changes of equipment, being considered "vaporware" by Wired (in 2010) and spending years in Early Access, it must be somewhat cathartic to be able to say that Black Mesa has been finalized and will come out as a game completed on March 5, with the blessing of Valve and at a price of € 17.99.
Crowbar Collective, which is the name of the group responsible for the project, has shared with the game community an emotional message with the expected announcement under the name Fear not the Long Road (don't fear the long road). In it, Adam Engels, current owner of the studio, recounts how he entered the group as an artist in 2006 and his progression until becoming a partner, then a project leader and eventually the owner, concluding a 14-year journey working on a same project of which he does not regret anything, despite the difficulties and the many times he considered leaving it.
A long way
In the long post he talks about how the game was voluntary work during much of its development, until Valve intervened to allow its sale as a reward for the work done – and that was not until 2015, so there was practically no income for a decade. This addresses a very widespread maximum in the current independent development landscape: "do not work for free", something that Adam absolutely disagrees, valuing everything he has gained in this project: contacts, communication, leadership and experience to Get your first job in the industry, before you fall victim to a round of layoffs and embrace Black Mesa as your full-time job. He affirms that none of that would have happened if he had not volunteered and that the only thing to keep in mind when doing volunteer work is that the work is important for you, and for other people. The support of the community and the quality of the original material have been what has kept the team motivated to continue, even in the worst times,
Adam says that the longed for version 1.0 is the best, most polished and funniest version of the game to date, in addition to affirming the team's commitment to post-launch support and the improvement of bugs and other problems that may arise. There was really only 15% content left to adapt to this new version, but some general improvements and the difficulty of adapting Xen to a modern format have been decisive to delay this moment. The final phase of the original is considered the weakest part of the title, so there is curiosity to see how far the remake improves the final confrontation of Gordon Freeman.
