Black Mesa media releases are few and far between, so when the main site went down yesterday, the rumors started flying left, right and center.
Thankfully, those rumors were proven to be true yesterday, when the main site came back online with a new news post, a bunch of new screeshots and hints of more to come.
What a nice Christmas present!
In the first site news since May 2007, Nathan "NateDGreat3" Ayres spoke of the progress of the mod.
"Development has been going great and proceeding steadily towards completion. The team has really settled into an efficient development pattern, with very few bottlenecks arising in development now. Internal milestones have been organized to ensure a timely release, and we’ve been doing a great job of hitting those milestones. It’s been very exciting to see so many different elements of development come together and make a playable game!"
Now to the important part, the new media. There is actually a lot more new media than you think, with almost all of the previous shots being retaken in widescreen in the latest build of the mod. Of course, re-doing a few old shots wouldn’t be much of a media release, but the BM devs certainly haven’t just left it at that. In the Media section you will find new screenshots, weapons shots, model renders and even some great new concept art, so get browsing.
Along with the above media related news, there was another, rather innocent little paragraph sitting underneath. "This is not all, however, we’ve got a surprise in store that is currently in late stages of production and will be done very soon, we’ll be sure and release it, as well as some other image-based media, when they are finished!" Hmmm…
Another aspect of Black Mesa media releases is the announcement of the winners of the current Community Projects, and this media release is no different. If you took part in one of the Community Projects then head on over to see if your work was chosen to be included in the mod!
Now, one of the major criticisms of Black Mesa that crops up quite often is the lack of regular updates, and the BM devs have sought a way to amend the situation. Enter, the DevBlog. According to Nathan, the new Dev Blog will contain "very WIP screenshots and informal text-based updates" and will allow the community to "get a look into the day-to-day workings of development structure." Hopefully this new system will help to show the community that the team is indeed working very hard to get this mod made.
Finally, Black Mesa is seeking the following applicants as top priority:
– Compiling Technician
– Faceposer/Choreography Technician
– Character Artists
If you think you can help just head on over to the Jobs section and apply!
