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half-life

How Half-Life built Valve’s obsession with playtesting

October 30, 2026

Two months before Half-Life was scheduled to ship, Valve realized they had a massive problem. Their game just wasn’t good enough. When the developers finally stitched all the levels together and played through the campaign from start to finish, the flaws immediately stood out. The flow felt clunky, the progression made little sense and the fun factor wasn’t there. Rather than shipping a mediocre title to meet a deadline, Valve made a radical call by scrapping almost everything. As designer

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half-life

How Half-Life built Valve’s obsession with playtesting

October 30, 2026

Two months before Half-Life was scheduled to ship, Valve realized they had a massive problem. Their game just wasn’t good enough. When the developers finally stitched all the levels together and played through the campaign from start to finish, the flaws immediately stood out. The flow felt clunky, the progression made little sense and the fun factor wasn’t there. Rather than shipping a mediocre title to meet a deadline, Valve made a radical call by scrapping almost everything. As designer

Read More

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