The Development of Half-Life 2: Episode One

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Journalism

A collection of my notes and projects related to the early and unused content of Half-Life 2: Episode One.

Level Development Timelapse

Created by Robin Walker for his 2006 post-mortem of Episode One at the Steam Developers Conference. A longer version with more levels may exist, however this is the only version that could be located.

aftermath_devshots.wmv shows a handful of different versions of the level ep1_c17_01.bsp. The video does not reach the final version, and ends sometime before it was split into two levels. (ep1_c17_01.bsp and ep1_c17_01a.bsp)

Timeline

April 8th, 2005

• PCGamer UK reveals the first details about an upcoming Half-Life 2 expansion titled "Aftermath"
• EuroGamer publishes a small article about the reveal.
• The Steam Marketing Feed promises a sneak peak for the expansion "next week"

April 15th, 2005

• The first screenshot of Half-Life 2: Aftermath is posted in the Steam Marketing Feed.

April 20th, 2005

• Planet Half-Life reports that Aftermath is due for release in late summer 2005.
• Three more screenshots are released by Tiscali Games.

May 23rd, 2005

• EuroGamer reports that the Aftermath expansion will be sold on store shelves, and will be released in September 2005.

June 15th, 2005

• According to source files leaked in 2017, the working title of the project at this time was "Aftermath: Episode One"

June 29th, 2005

• GameSpot publihse an interview with Valve's Robin Walker all about Half-Life 2: Aftermath.

August 5th, 2005

• The Steam Marketing Feed promises that Aftermath, Day Of Defeat: Source, and Lost Coast are all in the "final stages of development"

August 10th, 2005

• The first teaser video of Half-Life 2: Aftermath is released.

August 29th, 2005

• 1UP publishes a detailed preview of Half-Life 2: Aftermath and Lost Coast.

November 10th, 2005

• halflife2.net reports that Aftermath's release date has slipped to February/March 2006.

January 9th, 2006

• ModHQ reveals that Half-Life 2: Aftermath will be released on April 24th 2006.

February 13th, 2006

• EuroGamer reports that Aftermath has been officially renamed to Half-Life 2: Episode One.

February 22nd, 2006

• CVG releases a detailed interview with Valve's Robin Walker about Half-Life 2: Episode One.

March 24th, 2006

• GameInformer publishes an interview with Gabe Newell and Doug Lombardi where it is revealed that Episode One's release date is May 31st 2006.

April 7th, 2006

• The official Half-Life 2: Episode One website is launched.
• The second trailer for Half-Life 2: Episode One is released.

April 14th, 2006

• The Steam Marketing Feed states that Episode One's commentary tracks are finalized.

April 28th, 2006

• The Steam Marketing Feed announces that Episode One will be released on June 1st 2006 and that the Steam preload will begin the next week.

May 22nd, 2006

• Valve announces in a press release that Episode One has officially gone gold and that Episode Three will be out by Christmas 2007.

May 24th - May 31st, 2006

• In the lead up to Episode One's release, 4 short teaser trailers are released on Steam.
• Teaser 1
• Teaser 2
• Teaser 3
• Teaser 4

June 1st, 2006

• Half-Life 2: Episode One is made available for download on Steam.