Half-Life is a 1998 first-person shooter game developed by Valve Corporation and published by Sierra Studios for Windows. It was Valve's debut product and the first game in the Half-Life series. The player assumes the role of Gordon Freeman, a scientist who must escape from the Black Mesa Research Facility after it is overrun by alien creatures following a disastrous scientific experiment. The gameplay consists of combat, exploration and puzzles.
Valve Corporation, also known as Valve Software, is an American video game developer, publisher, and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution platform Steam and the game franchises Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead and Dota.
Michael Abrash is an American programmer and technical writer. He has written dozens of magazine articles and multiple books on code optimization and software-rendered graphics for IBM PC compatibles. He worked at id Software in the mid-1990s on the rendering technology for Quake. He later wrote the Pixomatic software renderer for RAD Game Tools. Since 2014, he has been the chief scientist of Oculus VR, a subsidiary of Meta Platforms.
Half-Life 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It was published for Windows on Valve's digital distribution service, Steam. Like the original Half-Life (1998), Half-Life 2 is played entirely from a first-person perspective, combining combat, puzzles, and storytelling. It adds features such as vehicles and physics-based gameplay. The player controls Gordon Freeman, who joins a resistance to liberate Earth from the Combine, a multidimensional alien empire.
Gordon Freeman is the silent protagonist of the Half-Life video game series, created by Gabe Newell and designed by Marc Laidlaw of Valve. His first appearance is in Half-Life (1998). Gordon Freeman is depicted as a bespectacled white man from Seattle, with brown hair and a signature goatee, who graduated from MIT with a PhD in theoretical physics. He was an employee at the fictional Black Mesa Research Facility. Controlled by the player, Gordon is often tasked with using a wide range of weapons and tools to fight alien creatures such as headcrabs, as well as Combine machines and soldiers. Gordon Freeman's character has been well received by critics and gamers, and various gaming websites often consider him to be one of the greatest video game characters of all time, including UGO and GameSpot.
Gabe Logan Newell, also known by his nickname Gaben, is an American businessman. He is the president and co-founder of the video game company Valve Corporation.
Mike Harrington is an American programmer and businessman. He is the co-founder of the video game company Valve. After the success of the first Valve product, Half-Life (1998), Harrington left Valve in 2000. In 2006, he co-founded the photo editing service Picnik.
A superyacht or megayacht is a large and luxurious pleasure vessel. There are no official or agreed upon definitions for such yachts, but these terms are regularly used to describe professionally crewed motor or sailing yachts, ranging from 40 metres (130 ft) to more than 180 metres (590 ft) in length, and sometimes include yachts as small as 24 metres (79 ft).
Narbacular Drop is a 2005 puzzle-platform game developed by Nuclear Monkey Software. It was the senior game project of students attending DigiPen Institute of Technology. The gameplay consists of navigating a dungeon using an innovative portal system. The player controls two interconnected portals that can be placed on any non-metallic surface. Gabe Newell, managing director of Valve, took interest in the team's work and employed the whole staff at Valve. The developers went on to develop the critically acclaimed Portal using many of the same concepts.
Half-Life 2: Episode Three is a canceled first-person shooter game developed by Valve. It was planned as the last in a trilogy of episodic games continuing the story of Half-Life 2 (2004). Valve announced Episode Three in May 2006, with a release planned for 2007. Following the cliffhanger ending of Episode Two (2007), it was widely anticipated.
Half-Life is a series of first-person shooter games created by Valve. The games combine shooting combat, puzzles and storytelling, and are played entirely from the first-person perspective.
Bay Leaf Raitt is an American Artist, 3D Graphic Novelist, Animator and Video Game Devoper. He was the Creature Facial Lead for Gollum on the Lord of the Rings movie Trilogy and Worked at Valve Software for 9 years before Founding the Spiraloid Workshop Company and Joining Unity3d. Previously he has worked for Image Comics, providing computer-image coloring for Steve Oliff to use with "Spawn", "The Pitt", and "The Maxx". He later worked at Protozoa, providing 3D animation computer effects. In 1999 Raitt emigrated to New Zealand to work for Weta Digital. In that post he was responsible for creating the computer-generated face for Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. In video games, he is a modeler, animator, and level designer for the videogame Squeezils.
GoldSrc, sometimes called the Half-Lifeengine, is a proprietary game engine developed by Valve. At its core, GoldSrc is a heavily modified version of id Software's Quake engine. It made its debut in 1998 with Half-Life and powered future games developed by or with oversight from Valve, including Half-Life's expansions, Day of Defeat and games in the Counter-Strike series.
Steam Machine is a discontinued series of small form factor gaming computers by Valve, designed to operate SteamOS to provide a home game console-like experience. Several computer vendors were engaged with Valve to develop their own versions of Steam Machines for retail, offering additional options atop Valve's requirements such as dual-booting options with Microsoft Windows and the ability to upgrade the computer. Consumers could digitally purchase video games on their Steam Machine through Valve's namesake Steam storefront.
Source 2 is a video game engine developed by Valve. The engine was announced in 2015 as the successor to the original Source engine, with the first game to use it, Dota 2, being ported from Source that same year. Other Valve games such as Artifact, Dota Underlords, Half-Life: Alyx, Counter-Strike 2, and Deadlock have been produced with the engine.
ROCK.IT is a 60.35 m superyacht launched at the Feadship yard in Aalsmeer. The yacht was designed by Dutch design company Sinot Exclusive Yacht Design, which also worked with Feadship on the 88 m (289 ft) twins Musashi and Fountainhead. The yacht is currently owned by The Yacht Company based in Monaco. The yacht was previously owned by Jimmy John Liautaud, who was involved in the design process. Liautaud sold the yacht in June 2023. As of 2024, the yacht was available on Charterworld for paid charters.
Lunasea, formerly known as Hasna, was launched at the Feadship yard at the Kaag Island in 2017. It is a 73 m (240 ft) superyacht. She was delivered to her first owner, John Symond, later that year. Hasna was listed for sale for the first time in 2019 and reported to be sold in 2020 to American businessman Yahn Bernier. Subsequently, her name was changed to Lunasea.
Draak, previously known as Tranquility and Equanimity, is a 91.50 m (300.2 ft) superyacht launched at the Oceanco yard in Alblasserdam, with Oceanco responsible for the exterior design, while Winch Design worked on the interior. The yacht was allegedly purchased by Malaysian financier Jho Low using money stolen from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. It was seized by the Malaysian authorities in 2018, judicially sold to the Genting Group in early 2019, and renamed Tranquility. It was then sold to Gabe Newell in September 2023, and renamed Draak.
The Steam Deck is a handheld gaming computer produced by Valve, designed to run the large library of games available on the Steam storefront client. Built upon the experiences gained from Valve's earlier ventures with Steam Machine and the Steam Controller, the Steam Deck integrates a custom AMD APU and SteamOS 3.0, a Linux-based operating system. The Steam Deck represents Valve's pivot towards a fully internal hardware development approach, following the challenges faced with Steam Machines' reliance on external manufacturers and the requirement for native Linux game support.
The Heart of Racing is an American auto racing team founded by British racing driver Ian James, American businessman Gabe Newell, and American developer Yahn Bernier. Heart of Racing primarily compete in sports car racing with factory support from Aston Martin. The team races in support of the Seattle Children's hospital in Seattle, Washington.
