Fangames production: a study of half-life and Black Mesa

• Vinícius Baltar Pires CESAR School
• Nilson Valdevino Soares CESAR School

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbgames_estendido.2022.225648

Abstract

This paper performs a study on Black Mesa, remake of the game Half-Life independently developed by fans of the franchise and amateur developers. We explored the development of Black Mesa, it’s main characteristics and the changes it implements when reinterpreting Half-Life. We utilized the game analysis as a methodology, which consists of three main steps: the direct experimentation of the game by the researcher, the observation of other players’ experience of the game and the reading and analysis of the researched game’s developer reports. It is our interest, in this study, to identify the relationship between a fangame and a traditional professionally developed game, within the scenario of digital games.

Keywords: fangames, half-life, game studies

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