Half-Life 2 Writer On Plotting Freeman

Thanks to Planet Half-Life for their interview with Marc Laidlaw, writer on both the Half-Life games, who answers questions about Gordon Freeman's (and other less cipher-like NPCs') genesis, suggesting "...some of the character creation process is very analytical... but a large part of it remains intuitive", and goes on to point an admonitory finger at Joseph Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces: "I have great respect for Campbell, who never intended to create a boilerplate for insecure storytellers, but the mythological hero has been done to death." Above all, Laidlaw hopes you have a good time come Half-Life 2's September 29th appearance, saying: "I think the only sector of the audience likely to feel any disappointment are those fans who adored long-jumping between bits of floating rock on Xen."

Comments

Xen could have been Zen

[fbjon]

"I think the only sector of the audience likely to feel any disappointment are those fans who adored long-jumping between bits of floating rock on Xen."

It was kind of hard to do, but still somehow neat, I think. The one letdown was that I didn't have 3d-glasses.