SIERRA STUDIOS AND GEARBOX REVEAL FIRST "ALL-STAR" MULTIPLAYER LEVEL DESIGNER FOR HALF-LIFE: OPPOSING FORCE
Bellevue, WA (June 14, 1999) Sierra Studios™ and Gearbox Software
announced today that famed level designer Richard Gray, also known as
"Levelord™", has agreed to create a multiplayer map for Half-Life:
Opposing Force. Half-Life: Opposing Force is the first official game expansion
for Half-Life, the thrilling PC CD-ROM created by Valve Software and named
"Game of the Year" by over 40 publications around the world.
Levelord, best known for his work on Ritual's SiN, 3dRealms' Duke Nukem
3D, and id Software's Quake: Scourge of Armagon, is the first announced
member of an elite group of "all-star" designers who have joined Gearbox
Software on a contract basis to create new multiplayer content for
Half-Life: Opposing Force.
"Gearbox is very excited to have Levelord contributing to this project,"
noted Randy Pitchford, co-founder and lead game designer at Gearbox.
"His always clever and unique designs are sure to bring a whole new
level to the Half-Life multiplayer experience with Opposing Force."
"We've been great friends since the days of Duke Nukem," said Levelord,
"We have a mutual respect for each other's work, and I'm very honored to
work with Gearbox as well as with Valve."
In addition to his groundbreaking single player creations for some of
the most acclaimed 3d action titles of our time, Levelord has designed many
of the most popular and creative multiplayer maps of the genre. These
include Duke3d's Tierdrops (where players exist in the same space but in
different dimensions), Hipdm1 for Quake: Scourge of Armagon (the level
that started a new genre of 'suspended in space' multiplayer platforms)
and Spry for SiN (where players are the size of mice in a huge living
room).
Half-Life: Opposing Force (a.k.a. OpFor) will feature a dozen new
multiplayer levels created by 3d action industry All-Stars like Levelord.
OpFor also features an expansive new single player episode were players
return to the Black Mesa Research Facility from the exciting new
perspective of a soldier to eliminate a new breed of fierce aliens. The
title, which is being developed by Gearbox Software, is scheduled to be
released this October.
Founded in January 1999, Gearbox Software is a team of veteran 3D game developers collected in Dallas, Texas.
The Gearbox crew is made up of artists, designers, and programmers who joined forces to form their own
development house after stints at a variety of companies, including 3D Realms, Microprose and Ritual. Half-Life: Opposing
Force is scheduled to be the first offering from this talented new studio.
Founded in 1996, Valve develops entertainment software. Based in Kirkland, Wash., the company consists of more than 30 leading artists,
game designers and programmers. More information about Valve is available at
www.valvesoftware.com. More information about Half-Life is available at
www.gameoftheyear.com.
Sierra On-Line, Inc. is one of the original developers and largest worldwide publishers of interactive entertainment
and productivity software. Sierra is comprised of a family of brands: Sierra Attractions™, SierraHome™,
Sierra Sports™, Sierra Studios™, and Dynamix™, a Sierra Company. Sierra is a division of Havas
Interactive, whose holdings also include Knowledge Adventure™, Blizzard Entertainment® and WON.net™.