First announced way back in 2005, Black Mesa: Source promised a full reconstruction of the original Half-Life in the Source engine, a vast improvement on Valve’s original port. Since then, we’ve had a 2008 trailer promising a 2009 release, and then virtually nothing, leaving many to speculate that development had stalled completely.
Well, Rock Paper Shotgun has interviewed project lead Carlos Montero (first part up now, second part to come), and it offers some good insights into what’s been going on with the project, and reminding people that this is really just a hobby for many of the contributors.
If anything, I would say that working on Black Mesa was one of many things my teammates have done to push themselves as hard as they needed to so that they could break into the industry. That said, it’s really a relatively small number of us. I’d say around 7 or 8 team members who have transitioned into a professional career. Not all of those people have stayed with the team after doing so, either. The team has been and still currently is composed of a majority of dedicated hobbyists who have jobs or careers that have nothing to do with games.
It’s worth a read for anyone who’s still looking forward to this project.
I’ve been keeping an eye on this mod for a few years now; the devs have been ramping up their online presence lately, so hopefully we might see a release this year.
Fingers crossed!