AMA UPDATE - PART 1

We’re back as promised and starting our AMA update series with a brief look at what we’ve been working on behind the scenes. Our team is currently focused on two major goals — one of them being a fully playable build of the game from start to finish. We’re well on our way toward achieving this milestone. Alongside that, we’ve begun a cleanup of our source code and have been addressing several issues hidden within our improved version of the Source engine.

Today we’re sharing two new screenshots showcasing additional level work by our talented Lead Level Designer, Lander Van Hove, known as The Comedian. These images reflect our ongoing efforts to push the game forward and meet the internal goals we’ve set for the project.

We’d also like to highlight that we’re actively hiring. To accelerate development, we’re looking for more programmers, animators, and organic artists to join our team. If you’d like to contribute to Operation Black Mesa and help us reach our goals even faster, feel free to check out our open positions. If you would be interested in joining us, but the desired position is not on the list, don’t worry — we’re still considering candidates for other positions as well.

Now, let’s get to the main reason we’re here. We’re finally answering the first batch of questions you submitted on our Discord channel. Antonín Žoha (Project Lead), Lander Van Hove (Lead Level Designer), Brandon Smith (Level Designer & Artist), and Harry Willson (Concept & 3D Artist) will be answering some of the questions you asked in the AMA. And this is just the warm‑up — stay tuned for more.

Questions and Answers:

Bob asked: What are you guys focusing on in the development?

Antonín answers: We’re working on many things at once. Our primary goal is to make the entire game fully playable from start to finish. In addition to that, we aim to bring the first half of the game as close to a complete state as possible.

Alongside these long‑term objectives, we’re currently focusing heavily on implementing NPC characters and ramping up our voice‑acting department so we can begin working on scripted scenes with our amazing cast of NPCs. Lander answers: I can maybe give more details on what I'm working on. This month I was working on adding different volumetric clouds. Those volumetric textures really add an extra layer of atmosphere to the levels. You will see them in upcoming media updates

Boreal Sketcher asked: Would it be possible to port/reconstruct Black Mesa or HL1 as a mod for this?

Brandon answers: You can certainly try!

OBM runs on a modified version of the Source Engine, so it includes the same tools that are commonly distributed with every Source game.

Loading Assets and importing/reconstructing maps is going to be the easiest.

Programming/engine differences are going to be more of an obstacle, but you can always have your hand at using Vscript to code in new gameplay possibilities to lessen the differences.

Fleechin asked: Will it have controller support?

Brandon answers: Absolutely!

Dr. Fritz Ludwig asked: Do the weapons feel good?

Antonín answers: That’s of course very subjective, but we always do our best to make the weapons feel great. Our goal is to capture the classic Half‑Life feeling that so many fans expect and love. You can expect something very similar in spirit, yet modernized.

To achieve this, we use everything at our disposal — animation,