i want to show you some cool art from the late 90s and early 00s. this art was only ever intended to be seen by the developers at a select few games companies, and thus may contain obscure in-jokes and references that nobody outside of the company is likely to understand.

needless to say, i love this shit.

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Worldcraft

the originals. these are the only icons included with the Half-Life version of Worldcraft (excluding some icons which are just model renders) and represent the very beginning of Valve's editor icon artstyle.

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Gearcraft

these icons are from the special Gearbox version of Valve's Worldcraft editor, which included many extra icons not included in the original. It seems like all of these icons were authored by Valve, as they all fit pretty well into the style later established by the Hammer Editor icons, but predate them by several years.

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UnrealEd / DukeEd

for posterity, here is a collection of UnrealEd and DukeEd icons taken from the leaked 2001 build of Duke Nukem: Forever. i find them a bit less stylish than the ones from Valve, but they still have their own charm.

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Hammer Editor

these are the ones i grew up with. they will always have a special place in my heart. look at the style! look at the consistency! these icons go hard. they make me feel at home. if anyone knows who authored these, please let me know so i can properly credit them in this post!

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Hammer Editor (Source 2)

with the release of Half-Life: Alyx we got a handful of new icons, mostly related to VR-specific functionality and other things specific to that game. the ones that stick close to the original style are the best, of course.

and i cannot let this post end without showing the official HD remaster of the famous "OBSOLETE" icon shown in the Hammer Editor icons above: