‘Half-Life’ writer admits self-publishing ‘Episode 3’ plot was “deranged”
Marc Laidlaw, a writer for Valve‘s first two Half-Life games and their episodic follow-ups, has admitted it was “deranged” to post an early outline of Half-Life 2: Episode 3‘s plot to his website.
In 2017 – one year after leaving Valve – Laidlaw published a short story titled ‘Epistle 3’ on his personal website. Upon its release, fans and journalists soon realised the piece was a thinly-veiled outline for Half-Life: Episode 3‘s plot, despite the game being cancelled by Valve.
Speaking to Rock Paper Shotgun, Laidlaw has admitted the decision to publish the story was “deranged” and touched on his reasoning behind publishing the cancelled game’s plot.
“I was living on an island, totally cut off from my friends and creative community of the last couple decades, I was completely out of touch and had nobody to talk me out of it,” explained Laidlaw. “It just seemed like a fun thing to do… until I did it.”
Looking back, Laidlaw says his “mind would have calmed and I’d have come out of the other side a lot less embarrassed” if he hadn’t published Epistle 3.
“I think it caused trouble for my friends, and made their lives harder,” the writer acknowledged. “It also created the impression that if there had been an Episode 3, it would have been anything like my outline, whereas in fact all the real story development can only happen in the crucible of developing the game. So what people got wasn’t Episode 3 at all.”
While Episode 3 was ultimately cancelled by Valve, the studio went on to continue the series with 2020’s VR release Half-Life: Alyx. Laidlaw wasn’t consulted for the game, but says he had “total confidence” in the writers Valve chose.
Last week, Valve revealed that it had banned 40,000 cheaters from Dota 2 in one day, after tricking hackers into revealing their cheats.
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Andy Brown
NME
