HLA Developer Commentary - Chapter 1 - Entanglement

[@nolanrux7866]

NO JOKE: When my University group was writing our bachelor's thesis concerning collision detection and haptics in VR, as we were making a project based in VR, we emailed Gabe about how this was achieved in Alyx since it was so phenomenal but we didn't keep our expectations high since he probably gets thousands of mails. To our utter shock he actually wrote back to us and redirected the mail to Tejeev Kohli (The guy behind the famous wall-drawing part in the introduction) and he told us how they did it. Gaben and Valve will always hold a special place in my heart.

[@someguardsman]

That's so cool!!! God I love Valve

[@florianhaffner3910]

Thats actually amazing :O

[@raffandbotnik]

Sounds amazing, and it is amazing! Is the email publicly available? Im curious too

[@Psyda]

WHat!!!!!! Can you tell us about that email? I'm in an adjacent field and very curious on what he said.

[@Tclans]

Blessed by Gabe.

[@batmangovno]

It's 2020 and Gabe still tells you to email him. Love this guy.

[@rippernmode8015]

Emailing is still completely normal

[@morganlak4337]

What else would he tell you to do lmao

[@Pasha_Shkaf]

Email is currently like the new generation?! First it was letters?, 😂

[@Pasha_Shkaf]

Or he should post his phone number so we can what's app him or call him? Ask for the Secret Number?

[@Ultra289]

@@morganlak4337 maybe calling him xd

[@DMGaina]

I came for the "gaben" at 0:58 and I wasn't disappointed

[@ww-uq8ls]

We all know this was the make or break part of this whole operation

[@neogiu000]

Gay ben

[@rclone1916]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bqXWeZ6mmth1mrs

[@DolanDuking]

G.A.B.E.N

[@blakenall5004]

Homosexual Benjamin

[@MrBump2]

Valve's single player titles are so fluid and perfected that I never once stop to consider all of these teaching tools they use early on in their levels to set up the concrete tone, story, and style. After hearing the pros talk about their concise and exact decisions, it becomes so obvious. That's good design in my opinion. Like all of the best magic tricks, the science of the design is hidden away so contextually great that it never runs across your brain.

[@dan8ball22]

It really puts to shame some other developers.

[@myztklk3v]

this is why valve is still loved after depriving us of some sort of closure for the last 13 years.

[@KizaruB]

I love that they think of everything in terms of gameplay. It’s refreshing to see in an industry now so consumed with pushing business agendas and rushed releases.

[@Ultra289]

@@myztklk3v these things.... ...They take time

[@White_Tiger93]

gabe talked about how people wanted more after what happened at the final episode 2, which mean they acknowledged it people do wanted the half-life series of Gordon Freeman continue in a way it was suppose to be. Let it hope it will not take that long for Half-Life 2 Episode 3/ Half-Life 3 to happen, consider Valve did promise us back then for an actual 'trilogy' not just two episode..

[@bgpivoter]

The developer who later in the game discusses the booze shader, sounds a lot like Phillip. It may be one of his many brothers. 5kliksphillip perhaps?

[@summushieremiasclarkson4700]

The Xkliklsphilip armada. Sounds intriguing.

[@fabanano6158]

@@summushieremiasclarkson4700 o

[@Felix-ve9hs]

2kliks1phillip

[@Addsomehappy]

I prefer the XXXkliksphillip

[@azas118]

More like valvekliksphillip

[@sofscapes]

10:26 "we found some players didn't understand that they should move along, and became distracted by the interactive objects in the laundry" phillip: *looks guiltily at the detergent-stuffed washing machine* fucking gold

[@felipedesoto5999]

This is something only 1% of the players go through, and as someone that loves half life but doesn't own a VR headset i really appreciate not only the fact that i get to know this exists, but i get to listen to it for free and with no comentary, it shows that you know what youre doing. THANKS!

[@aarontheperson6867]

agreed

[@PeterPlayerOne]

It's probably much more enjoyable to view in this format anyway, as wearing a headset just to hear some people talk is not ideal.

[@felipedesoto5999]

@@PeterPlayerOne I bet, i get dizzy in a 20 minute car ride so im sure VR is not for me anyways, i really hope someone finds a solution to this, its limiting game design as well, maybe some kind of pill you can take or smthn

[@PeterPlayerOne]

@@felipedesoto5999 I've no doubt that innovation will lead us to a place where VR is easily accessible for all, whether for good or bad...

[@felipedesoto5999]

@@PeterPlayerOne full on apocalytic, i like ur thinking, imo vr is just another way of display but maybe it holds some kind of psychological meaning in that its immersive, idk

[@ezri6585]

I hope you continue posting these Philip, as you know most of us don't have any VR headsets and the format you've used for this video is extremly useful

[@smileychess]

I've played through the whole game, and I'm still thankful for this video because I don't want to spend another 6+ hours just to listen to the commentary nodes.

[@donutello_]

Basically the playtesters summarized: First Half: Follows narrative Other Half: *look at this rock*

[@nichecrimes]

I think you've found a great way to put gameplay on the channel while avoiding the negative pressure by making the commentary focal. Really enjoyed this!

[@micholous]

@@2kliksphilip I'm really interested in such things like this, as why something has been done and how. Really love it!

[@theroadisblocked]

6:01 Valve: *It also had the bonus of allowing us to add further detail to the opening balconey and Alyx's refuge without fear of creating distractions from the video call.* i can already hear him saying the line. 2kliksphilip: *valve pls fix*

[@FahmiZFX]

I seriously can't believe he done this (again). How am I suppose to not be reminded about this when my first time playing this game comes. Oh fie!

[@dantekiwi7926]

Audio: don’t get distracted, we made this game to be easy to follow 2kliksphilip: valve wtf is this

[@Genoh_]

"We saw some players spend 30 seconds on the opening balcony, and others 30 minutes." Can confirm I was one of the ones who spent 30 minutes on the balcony, messing around with all the objects to feel their weight and even the smallest objects can be moved around. You can imagine my surprise when I started watching moonmoon's playthrough on twitch, and he ignored the entirety of the balcony. It was interesting seeing that he wanted to "play the game" whereas I treated the game as a VR experience, taking my time to grab everything in a room and press all the buttons that could be pressed. It's super insightful hearing how the devs at Valve had to accommodate for both playstyles.

[@JukoYT]

I was same as you, even later in the game i was reading labels on the cans and pocking random junk from the ground

[@noba04]

These Dev Comms that Valve makes are so concise and detailed, which serves as excellent learning resources for anyone getting into the gamedev field. Really wish more game studios did this kind of stuff.

[@GoldSrc_]

Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay also has developer commentary.

[@spaceghost566]

Never thought I'd hear "hi my name's gabe newell" or his email ever again.

[@abdc2990]

Hey Philip, make sure to sleep!

[@abdc2990]

@Vamion 😂

[@tomato6102]

FACTS

[@cybercop3108]

@Vamion what is wrong with you?

[@freindmaker4473]

@@cybercop3108 its sarcasm

[@noobdogg]

Oh yeah

[@gameendme7936]

I love how gabe just gives his e-mail, and it is true that he also replies to some of them

[@mb2001]

13 years of frenzy and he still keeps it open.

[@TROPICADIA]

The part involving the car having small windows to reduce motion sickness is so next level. I didn't even realize that. Now I have and it seems so obvious.

[@dextah241]

it sometimes get a bit scary when you do the EXACT things they predicted players would do, even though we know they did a lot of playtesting.

[@kay_keik7842]

thats good game dev though. it is the equivalent of a chef tasting his own food as he makes it to makes sure its perfect

[@thevfxwizard7758]

He reads ALL of the emails. Wow, that’s a love for the community right there.

[@themindfulmoron3790]

Gabe always has. He's something else.

[@TinyTroglodyte]

Wow, that was really interesting seeing how many iterations of changes had to be made just to make the game feel intuitive to players. It really shows how much effort Valve puts into games in order to make the experience feel seamless.

[@itspyxis3705]

I wish more companies would do something similar, valves dev commentary on portal 2 is also really great.

[@TinyTroglodyte]

@@itspyxis3705 yeah I always love listening to developer commentary as it allows you to see what was going through the developers head when they created each thing. (Also I'm doing games development at college so I can learn a lot by listening to developer commentary)

[@idontcare6736]

Thank you for uploading this, I love listening to creator commentary on almost everything

[@rafigoghimarfirman3480]

Video: Half Life Alyx Dev commentary KZbin: *FALLOUT 4*

[@cfdeers]

youtubers can manually select the game they want to be correlated with the video hyper does this with his animations and all of his joke animations say they're from Super Mario Bros 2

[@devindykstra]

It's fixed now :)

Half-Life ALyx now.

[@CoreyLaddo]

I can't wait to hear Gaben's dulcet tones again

[@mb2001]

Just this one time in the Dev Commentary.

[@richardbriley8072]

This was one of my favorite parts of the Orange Box on repeat playthroughs. I'm glad they brought the dev commentary back for Alyx.

[@jamesellis983]

One of my favorite bits of every valve game i own is the commentary. Thank you so much for making this available to those of us who don't have the game yet! its a real treat.

[@devindykstra]

I just want to say I really appreciate the timestamps. Thank you!

[@tehsma]

No wonder there haven't been any other big budget AAA VR games. Sounds like a real pain in the ass.

[@awesome9174]

There's several actually. And medal of honor is coming in like 3 weeks.

[@Ultra289]

Its not real pain if you enjoy doing the job I suppose they enjoy their job

[@zr_1234]

It's because of the "nicheness" of VR as to why there aren't many big budget AAA vr games. Hopefully that will change with everything facebook is putting into the quest 2. They are marketing the hell out of that thing I hope it widens the VR playerbase.

[@_dibbs]

HLA still remains the highest quality VR game, wonder if it will ever be dethroned at this point as VR has been declining in popularity for some time now

[@xXRunDeathXx]

can we all just take a moment to apprechiate the amount of love and work the team put into this?

[@yeetleslaw8529]

Wow thanks. I didn't want or ask for this, but yeah sure I'm interested HL:A commentary. Valve is one of the few big developers to feature commentaries. I wish more developers/publishers did this with their titles.

[@TestarossaF110]

They are such intelligent developers... wow! This only adds to that fact. Lovely!!!

[@kamez1049]

0:58 - "Ah-ah! Ah! He said it! He said it"

[@cabob-en4yx]

20:06 Jane Ng's commentary totally sounds like a text-to-speech bot with her voice programmed to be the model. It doesn't sound natural in the way she ends sentences and the quality overall sounds a bit robotic.

[@Miniko]

really sounds like something from 15.ai

[@MrKaton23]

it is a translator im pretty sure

[@neomelodi]

Chinese accent, not a translator

[@leglessrestsyndrome229]

Or valve produced their own Android and hired it.

[@slyseal2091]

The missile knows where it is, because it knows where it isnt.

[@NevanDove]

I was playing through the game again to listen to the commentary, and the gravity glove training blew my mind when developer visuals started appearing. Game me some pretty strong Beginners Guide vibes in the best way

[@larry3828]

the way russel reacts to the player throwing shit around is something i would greatly appreciate in non vr games

[@RugbugRedfern]

WARNING: There is a spoiler for the end of the game after 20:30. The rest of the video is pretty much fine.

[@Icedrake201]

Thanks for doing this. I love listening to the audio commentary for games.

[@canadiancrafter5100]

I'm kinda scared cause I've never even watched a walkthrough of the game, but these commentaries are always such a delight. Might be fun to watch the first few commentaries I guess, since there's not too much to spoil.

[@canadiancrafter5100]

@@2kliksphilip Yeah I suppose that makes sense. Thank you so much for taking the time to post these videos up. I'm quite fond of the videos you've been making lately.

[@wizpig64]

THANK YOU! i didnt want to get my vive out for this but i'm excited to listen to the commentaries, lol.

[@TDPEquinox]

Thanks for this, wanted to listen to the commentary but didn't want to replay the game to do it. I hope you upload all of it!

[@squelchedotter]

Can't wait for these! Valve commentary is so good, I often enjoy it just as much as the game. I love hearing the thought that goes into small things and it makes me wish I could design experiences like this too. (Too bad the game industry is the way it is :( not worth it)

[@wileydewitt]

This is a fascinating insight. Thanks for uploading this as a series.

[@ObitoUchihaisgay]

I Just bought my first VR headset and researched all your VR videis. This is a blessing!

[@leljdam3189]

*valve employee calmly explains why the window of the van is so tiny while alyx is involved in a grenade attack in said van*

[@mb2001]

Indeed.

[@JackCats0]

17:13 this is so cool they did this mid-stop sentence thing in aperture desk job with cave johnson! Cave johnson doesn't have any animations really so that's probably why they did it there

[@z4r5hnbuzfrhxtf22]

really nice! waiting for the next parts as I don't have a VR headset but I always loved listening the dev commentaries of the Half-Life games

[@melancholiaenshrinesalltriumph]

great "camera" work. I think you made good choices about where to look and when

[@procrastinator7408]

It's interesting to see how the level design is thoroughly researched and not just thrown together. When you initially see the game you think nothing of it but when listening to this commentary it all makes perfect sense!

[@kuronyra1709]

your little shenanigans are just dope. "BEHIND YOU!!!"

[@ImChurro]

It's amazing how well Valve pays attention to detail.

[@yuristocat]

can't wait for more of this it was extremely interesting

[@bobmar2106]

Very interesting. Thank you Philip for uploading this!

[@TheRealJCDenton]

Just want to say, the way you play alyx is blessed idk why I like watching it so much

[@lilgamgam4767]

thank you for uploading

[@F1fan4eva]

These devs are nothing short of magicians❤️

[@tomerdmann1498]

With the three videos seen i think i can enojoy this game even more. thank you

[@Gvarados]

Thank you for making this!

[@SpiffyCS]

I hope Destruction Darius 2 gets a developer commentary

[@oposdeo]

Thanks for uploading this, it's very interesting. Excited to hear the rest.

[@juliustheshark5762]

Thx for making this Video, saves me an 800km trip to my Index and PC

[@FahmiZFX]

9:09 WOW, I didn't knew that there was an active washing machine there. All the playthroughs I've seen never noticed it -- heck even went as far as interacting it.

[@avery6758]

Thank you for uploading this

[@Zyga21]

can't wait to watch all this, I love dev commentaries

[@gamergrill9629]

Very tempting to watch these videos, but I also want to play the game first before I do haha

[@ThePilotGuyFP]

thank you for posting this, you absolute legend

[@TinyDeskEngineer]

Love the way they went about implementing commentary nodes in VR, they could've just reimplemented the original system with pointing at and interacting to activate, but they didn't.

[@Fuuntag]

Doing gods work mate.

[@runforitman]

the dev commentary is a good reason for me to play hl alyx again

[@vagatronics]

So excited to play HL Alyx with my Q2 next week!

[@ab-hx8qe]

I absolutely loved the moment in the greenhouse when Philip starts pointing out textures that aren't lined up right. I can almost here him say "Valve, please fix."

[@weslikestoplayguitar]

Take note "every other VR developer out there" . Seriously the best VR game by a long shot and one of my favorite games (vr or otherwise) of all time.

[@rhp9797]

Thank you for posting this beautiful insight to an amazing game.

[@trulyinfamous]

I knew I could count on philip. I was looking forward to the developer commentary.

[@_Rick___Grimes_]

i love how you chuck the cup at russels head the second the commentary ended, that was gold😂

[@ryantrusty8933]

this shit is so damn cool, video games are a valid art form

[@moonasha]

i cant afford a VR headset so I haven't been able to play this game, but I can't wait to. I love that valve still does these commentaries

[@Pdus64]

"thanks and have fun", i havent heard that word for years

[@foist101]

Thanks for uploading these, even though I have Alyx I enjoy putting them on while doing other stuff. I'm interested to see if they talk about the visuals. Somehow Valve's Source games tend to hold up aside from texture resolution, I think their reliance on carefully controlled lighting (though less interactive and dynamic) and relatively simpler shaders has really helped.

[@empsee5534]

early for this one, great video!

[@MikelBober]

There's some "ringing" to all the loud audio in this video if you listen to it (eg. On the strider audio). I find it's easy to spot in the game intro/valve logo, and you can fix it by fiddling your audio sample rate between 48000/44100hz in Windows. Try it, massively improves Alyx's audio for me

[@j__h9221]

Didn't know they included this - amazing.

[@ArtificialVik]

The texture seam gap you pointed out was pretty funny

[@huitzilo7567]

This feels like the first time when I went to dev commentary of teamfortress 2

[@themindfulmoron3790]

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, Episode 1, Episode 2, and Portal 2 also have it. The original Portal might as well, but I don't remember.

[@Julian-jj1wc]

Im gonna start making an indie vr game and this commentary is invaluable

[@alfos.192]

20:06 Cool to see a lot of familiar names from the Firewatch Audio Commentary. Edit: Added timestamp

[@12q8]

Pretty good. I want more like this. If there is a way to lower ambient sounds a little bit, that would be perfect. In some parts, the game was too loud, I couldn't hear the commentary

[@alexjay8867]

this game looks sick, this is way better than what any review could give me, might buy a vr head set soon and playing

[@S-Kara]

valve should keep doing this more often *_by releasing more games more frequently_*

[@privateger]

I'd rather have fewer releases that are absolute gems.

[@niks660097]

@@privateger yes and there are 100s of mods for half life alyx now, even hl2 in source 2 in VR but its still in progress..

[@Julian-jj1wc]

I disagree with this sentiment, what makes valve special is that they take their time, if you want more games more frequently play blizzard games or something

[@S-Kara]

@@Julian-jj1wc on older projects, like hl, l4d2, portal, etc. sure, valve should take their time, since its an estabilished game, where the next iteration of it must meet certain threshold of expectation. but they shared with us some really interesting new game concepts and ideas from their employees that they just throw away. Maybe if people werent so judgemental on companies offering new ideas and concepts, at least 1 more game franchise from valve would release. Not all games have to be the number 1 game when it’s released, as they do with aperture desk job, it was nothing too big, people liked it, valve benefits primarily from it to get steam deck users happy with their purchase. We get more games to play with and explore. Dont let valve just stop exploring because of artifacts, it failed, then valve wouldnt make another new idea and concept happen anymore. Im also a sucker for good games, valve makes good games, but if they are forever too afraid to expand on their game franchise developments, we dont end up with more good games, dont make games that incredibily niche thing that if it’s not 100% perfect, then its worthless

[@michiganjack1337]

9:10 Now that’s some next-gen gameplay right there. I want a Index and HL:A just to be able to put a bottle of bleach in a dryer. 🤘

[@faberthecatgirl]

I wasn't expecting you to throw that mug at Russell so violently at 18:45 xD

[@kokis55]

This is brilliant! Thanks Philip (:

[@tristenarctician6910]

0:42 *to listen to a commentary node, simply look at a commentary and press the 'Use' Key*

[@martinbartos4974]

Thank you for this!

[@TheDanimatorsChannel]

Thank you for this

[@PepicWalrus]

That's cool that Gabe is just like "Hey shoot me an email."

[@JacobHTMHF]

He’s done that with every valve game with a commentary mode. It’s cool that he’s still doing it even after he’s come so far

[@defunctaccount1944]

Goddamn I hope I work there one day these dev comms are so amazing

[@bigfin20]

The valve commentaries are seriously in a class of their own when it comes to game design

[@Rusty511]

Ah this is totally giving me Lost Coast vibes. I remember back then being amazed by Lord Gaben's telling of the prophesy of the Source 1 physics engine. Now he speaks of the New Testimate VR. Oh how far we've come

[@albertgrr]

Mike Morasky, the man talking about music, really sounds like fitzthistlewits :D

[@KizaruB]

I love Mike’s work. Portal 2 had great music.

[@Samarai-hf9si]

HLA being designed as both a (non-chronologically speaking) continuation of the series and an entry-point for new players isn't something I realized until Gabe mentioned it, but it makes a lot of sense.

[@Crowbar]

Doing a full "playthrough" with commentary? Great! I didn't want to sit through all of that in VR, but love Valve's commentary!