Developers now have full access to the Source engine
Having already been long cleared for release on Steam through Greenlight, the team behind Black Mesa has now announced that Valve is allowing this Half-Life remake to be sold on the platform. That’ll be happening soon in addition to a new free version, which will release shortly afterwards.
“Our decision to sell Black Mesa rests on two key points,” writes the team. “One is we believe we can make the game even better by having full access to the Source engine. This lets us tackle and fix limitations instead of working around them. The second is because frankly, our team could really use the financial help.”
This paid Steam version is said to include “features that the free version simply can not have” and there’s plans to open source maps and some game assets. As for finishing Black Mesa, “Xen is still a ways off,” according to the developers. “Over the past year, we have spent a HUGE amount of time porting the game to a new engine and fixing hundreds of bugs. The work to port to the new engine was not because of the decision to go retail, this was work that had to be done to get Black Mesa onto Steam and support our future plans.”
It’s encouraging to see Valve give approval for this, and I like that there will be an easy way for players to compensate the Black Mesa team for its work. If you’re worried about the cost, however, know that it’s supposed to be “a relatively low price.”
HAPPY 15TH BIRTHDAY HALF-LIFE! We here at Black Mesa have some big news! [Black Mesa Source]