Sierra Announces Half-Life®: Op For Level Design Winners

Three Aspiring Level Designers' Work to be Included in Opposing Force™

Bellevue, WA (October 15, 1999) - Sierra Studios™, Gearbox Software and Valve are proud to announce the three winning Team Fortress™ Classic levels to be included in Half-Life: Opposing Force, an entirely new episode for the Game of the Year. The designers of the three winning levels are: Mackey McCandlish, Erik Doescher and Preston Glenn.

"We were overwhelmed by the number of level submissions we received for this contest," Randy Pitchford, co-founder and lead designer at Gearbox said. "There are some really talented designers out and we're glad we can give them this much-deserved recognition."

Along with having their maps included in Opposing Force, the three winners will each receive a prize of $1,000. The rest of the map submissions will be posted on Won.net™ for free download.

About the winners:

Mackey McCandlish: Mackey's map entitled "Alpine" contains unique "Alamo" style gameplay where one team must defend their base against an attacking team. Avatar, or Mackey as he is known to family members, has enjoyed designing levels since the halcyon days of DOOM®. Since then he has devoted much of his time not only to crafting levels, but also dabbling in programming, modeling, skinning and texturing. To further this end, he has spent the past 2 years studying at the Savannah College of Art & Design, where he currently resides. During off-hours he practices Shorin Ryu karate and tries to master Starcraft™ Brood War™.

Erik Doescher: Erik's map entitled "BTUBE" has a creative layout and strong play mechanics. By day, Erik is a freelance illustrator for DC Comics and a teacher at the School of Visual Arts. At night he plays in a TFC clan called AoW, and goes by the name of AoW|McCoy. Erik is new to level design. 'The Blood Tube' is his first map, and started out as his tutorial for Worldcraft™.

Preston Glenn: Preston's map entitled "Openfire" is cleanly executed and contains very solid gameplay. Better known as Hexadecimal to those who can spell it, Preston has been interested in art, games, and architectural design for as long as he can remember. It was only natural for level design to become a very important part of his life. Not limiting himself to level design alone, he has also worked in modeling, texturing, and any other forms of expression he can get his hands on.

In addition to the winning Team Fortress Classic map submissions, Half-Life: Opposing Force (a.k.a. Op For) will feature one dozen new multiplayer levels created by 3-D action industry All Stars. Op For 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 sent in to eliminate Gordon Freeman. The title, which is being developed by Gearbox Software, is on schedule to ship this fall.

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. Half-Life is Valve's debut title. Since its release in November, 1998, Half-Life has won more than 45 game of the year awards from publications that include PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, and CNET's Gamecenter. Valve's upcoming title, Team Fortress™ 2: Brotherhood of Arms� recently won the E3 Game Critics' Award for Best Action Game and Best Online Game. More information about Valve is available through the company's web site at www.valvesoftware.com.

Sierra On-Line, Inc. is one of the original developers and largest worldwide publishers of interactive entertainment and productivity software. Sierra is a division of Havas Interactive, a global leader in interactive content, and is one of the world's largest publishers of education, entertainment and home productivity software. Its divisions, Blizzard®, Coktel, Knowledge Adventure®, Sierra™ and WON.net™ are famous for releasing critically acclaimed and award winning titles. Havas has operations in the US and in Europe and is a subsidiary of the French publishing house Havas, part of Vivendi Communications.

© 1999 Sierra On-Line, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sierra, Sierra Studios, Opposing Force, Team Fortress, Brotherhood of Arms and Worldcraft are trademarks and Half-Life is a registered trademark of Sierra On-Line, Inc. WON.net is a trademark of World Opponent Network, Inc. Starcraft and Brood War are trademarks of Davidson & Associates, Inc. Valve is a trademark of Valve, LLC. Trademarks for Gearbox Software are pending. DOOM is a registered trademark of id Software, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.