Interview with Half-Life Screenwriter Mark Laidlaw

Half-Life is one of our favorite games. In fact, even now, Half-Life 2 is launched in some of my windows. One of those who created this amazing story, the legend of retro gaming Mark Laidlaw personally visited our office to talk about glorious days and that cooperation is always the best way to develop.

How did you manage to get a job at Valve?

I worked as a lawyer secretary and at the same time wrote books and stories. It so happened that he began to write video game reviews for the Wired magazine in which my friend Mark Frauenfelder (better known as boing-boing) was the editor. At Wired, I had a reputation as a “video game guy,” so I was assigned to write an article about id Software, which was then known as the creator of Doom. When I started talking with the guys from id, it seemed more interesting to tell in an article about creating Quake. I started creating maps for Quake in WorldCraft (which later turned into Hammer), and around the same time, Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington tried to hire WorldCraft to write development tools for Valve. As a journalist, I went to meet with him and wrote a letter of recommendation to the immigration service. I have seen, what Valve worked on, and immediately wanted to participate in it. At that time, I had several friends in the FPS developer community, but it was people from Valve who became my closest colleagues and friends for the next couple of decades who turned out to be creative work.


Half-Life is one of the most important PC games in history. What was it like working on it? Can you describe the atmosphere inside Valve during the development process?

It was very exciting, we worked on a hunch, without any rules, and every day brought discoveries. Of course, there were many fears, anxieties and doubts. It seemed that the development would last forever, although now I recall that the game was released just a year after I joined the company. Other gaming companies flourished and disappeared around us, innovative games appeared and failed almost daily. The ghost of failure constantly reigned over us.

Half-Life is also the first first-person shooter with a deep and complex storyline. How did you feel when you changed the whole game genre together with others?

Today, the plot no longer seems so complex or deep, I think we just carefully created the illusion of depth. When I arrived at Valve, I knew that no one was using the FPS toolkit to convey the plot, so the whole team was eager for this, although no one knew exactly how to do this. So I helped add a bag of good old storytelling tricks to the tricks of the new game and level design that other people created. I felt a holy awe for them. It seemed to me that I was just borrowing the old standards, and they were doing something really new. But that was normal. The plot's goal is to dissolve in the background and give the whole game a sense of integrity. They have always sought to make history almost invisible. After gaining experience, in Half-Life 2 we began to move on, but at the same time we saw other developers boldly experimenting with the plot. It was an amazing time to work in the extremely narrow FPS niche. Not sure if I could make the same contribution in another area. The right person at the right time in the right place, etc., etc. I was very lucky in many ways.


What are the main sources of inspiration and ideas that guided you when working on the Half-Life storyline?

When I arrived at Valve, most of the story was ready. Basically, I brought it to mind. I did not have a bunch of original ideas, I just tried to find ways to make all the crazy pieces work together. Most of our ambitious story ideas have been delayed to HL2. We can say that the most effective plot idea was the very beginning of the game, from a trip in a car to an escape from a test chamber. It was inspired exclusively by the level design itself. I sat with designer Brett Johnson, who created this part of the game, we ran through endless corridors and laboratories, completely destroyed and destroyed. Something definitely happened in them, but what? Seeing Brett’s destroyed levels, I asked him if he could clear them so that we could see the level before the impending catastrophe, which would serve as a transition to ready-made levels. Brett was delighted with this idea and he created the level version before the accident the night before. As soon as we saw her, we realized that it would work. That is, we simply improvised with level design tools, and there was no inspiration that descended on us. Likewise, the first trip in the carriage grew out of a conversation with programmer Jay Stelly, who added the “train” object to my tools for reasons I still don't understand. I assumed that they were going to make a scene with a train journey, but I did not know that no one did it, except maybe a scene for a fragment of the battle. And this led us to the idea of ​​a scene with a study tour in a carriage, which initially looked like a pre-recorded cutscene. That is, I drew inspiration from the examples and unfinished work of my colleagues. What they did was constantly inspiring me with ideas that were right for them.

Half-Life 2 made the seemingly impossible and improved the original in every way. How do you feel about this sequel?

Continuous technological progress has led us to the idea of ​​improving the plot transmission tools, and especially the characters. I do not think that radical improvements arose at the stage of scripting, just now we had technologies that we did not expect. We started thinking about improving performance, more convincing characters, about real feelings instead of vulgar game violence. Working with "live" characters, we began to think more and more about a richer and deeper story. It affected everything. In a sense, this was also influenced by the tools. Would we try to tell a more ambitious story if we had Half-Life 1 technology and characters without facial expressions? I dont know.


Who are your favorite characters in the Half-Life universe and can you explain why?

Dr. Kleiner was the first character I brought in with this series of games. Hal Robins was an old friend of mine, and as soon as I saw the Black Mesa scientists, I thought that they should be voiced by Hal. Therefore, probably Dr. Kleiner is my favorite. And also Alix Vance, she is a strong and full-fledged character, but the most important thing was brought to her game by Merle Dandridge. I think it was thanks to Merle's reaction at the end of Episode 2 that the players were so excited about the open denouement. If she did not stretch the acting, nobody would be interested in whether the game would have a sequel. I also like Dr. Brin, it was very interesting to write a script for him. As a child, I loved Robert Culp, so working with him was exciting, and his death was an incredible tragedy. Somehow I would like to work with Dr. Brin, even if he had to return in a modified alien way. And how can I not mention G-Man, whose monologues to Mike Shapiro always managed to convey somehow unexpectedly. Or Barney, or ... or ... I think I’m most proud of giving life to these characters. Dr. Magnusson! Vortigaunts! I am delighted.

You have worked on other classic Valve games, such as Portal and Left for Dead. Have you written scripts for these episodes, and which game was the most interesting to work on in Valve?

I did not work on them. But we wrote all the characters for Dota 2. Together with two other screenwriters (Ted Kosmatka and Christopher Katz) we wrote and watched the recording of more than a hundred heroes over the course of several years. It was interesting, but this did not contain any plot, therefore, as an author, I could not turn around. In Half-Life, I was like a fish in water. In Dota, I was like a fish in a tiny aquarium of a living corner. But still it was exciting!


Do you think that Half-Life 3 will ever be released and would you like to write a script for this game?

I have no idea. And I'm not interested in going back. I had ideas for Episode 3. All of them had to transfer the series to the level after which I could retreat and provide the way for a new generation. I was hoping for a plot twist between HL2 and HL3 that would be as dramatic as a twist between HL1 and HL2. Honestly, I don’t know if anyone else shared this vision, but it seemed important to me to give freedom to those who will inherit the series from us and to complete to my satisfaction all my plot moves. Unfortunately, I could not do this. But I never imagined HL3, unless you assume that HL3 and Episode 3 are the same thing. I expected that all parts will be constantly completed without ending the plot. There were rumors that in Ep3 or HL3 the story of Gordon Freeman would end, but not sure if they were true. In Ep3, I intended to complete all the storylines related to HL2. But they still had to end as HL1 and HL2: Gordon remains in the space of uncertainties, waiting for the start of a new game. One open interchange after another.

Is writing a script for a video game very different from creating a story, and what makes you more fun?

I have not written stories for more than twenty years, and the mere thought of them bores me. Creating a story is the way alone. I liked the creation of the plot for the games, the energy of cooperation, the way all my ideas were improved by other people. But I think that I will return to the stories to rediscover the process of thinking. This seems important to me now. When I arrived at Valve, I had something to share. Hopefully now I can share with the writer inside me what I learned from games.


Obviously, you are a big fan of games. Which game do you like most and in which game, in your opinion, is the best storyline?

I like to play games that are very different from my work, but I still dream of the opportunity to work on Thief. I did not succeed, because I worked at Valve, and now I have to live with it. I am a big fan of the Zelda series. I think now my favorite game is Dark Souls, but I never studied its ENT and it didn't interest me very much. However, I like that this game feels like a complete and original world in itself. I read a lot about the Bloodborne lore, which I liked. But I do not want to say that these games have a great plot. Perhaps when I move away from creating games, I will begin to search for plot-rich games for their own sake. I recently bought Tides of Numenera. While I was playing Torment, I was not a big fan of text in games, but maybe my tastes have changed.

If you could go to a bar with a video game character, who would you choose and why?

Garrett from Thief. Most likely, in the morning I wake up with empty pockets, and the secret panel behind my portrait would be opened and robbed, but it would be worth it.