The title of this article is conjectural. |
Although this article is based on official information, the actual name of this subject is pure conjecture. |
An unidentified deaf character was at one point slated to appear in the now-cancelled Half-Life 2: Episode Three.
Overview[]
This character is introduced in a video involving Gabe Newell and two interpreters discussing deafness and video games with a small audience of people with hearing loss, uploaded August 6, 2009 by a former University of Washington student, Samuel Sandoval, deaf as well.
Newell suggests that before Alyx met Gordon, she had a crush on a hearing-impaired Resistance member, so she programmed Dog with knowledge of sign language so she could practice and easily communicate with them. Then this person went away from Alyx to fight the Combine someplace else, and Alyx and Dog started signing with each other when they wanted to communicate without making noise or without other people knowing.
The implementation of such character would be the starting point of implementing signing into Valve's games and give them the excuse to build a related technology and give easier access to video games for hearing impaired players. The Half-Life 2 episodes having each introduced a new technology (the interaction with a well developed NPC, along with full implementation of the Source's HDR lighting system for Episode One; large outdoor environments and high scale battles previously unseen in the Source engine for Episode Two), Episode Three's new technology would have potentially been this.
Valve's modeler/animator Bay Raitt also joins the discussion at the very end, although the video ends during the conversation. He apparently studied facial movements made by the deaf focus testers; facial expression is already fully implemented in the Source engine and would help in the process of including deaf characters in video games.
Ultimately, Half-Life 2: Episode Three was cancelled and this character was scrapped. Valve would not return to the Half-Life series for over a decade until Half-Life: Alyx.
External links[]
- Gabe Newell w/ Deaf Character - Part One on YouTube
- Gabe Newell w/ Deaf Character - Part Two on YouTube (where Newell evokes the character)
- Gabe Newell w/ Deaf Character - Part Three on YouTube
- Valve Studying Sign Language For Deaf Half-Life Character on Kotaku