Marc Laidlaw
2017-11-22
It was conceived as a test map where the artists would test the limits of the engine, cramming in as many models (and terrain and water) as possible. I wasn't much involved with it—mostly it was a project of Robin's and Viktor's, as I recall. You should ask Robin Walker about it. Actually, I thought they put commentary nodes in there at one point, explaining the map in detail.
The only thing I had anything to do with was the conversational stuff at the beginning, which was a demo of a system we briefly attempted where NPCs could break off telling you things (based on player interruptions) and then resume talking again. "So,like I was saying..." That sort of thing. We started testing that pretty early in HL2's development...it was in our earliest Borealis tests with the temp character Odell, for instance. But we never really found it necessary to build that out, and the way NPCs ended up talking was only loosely based on it.
It was never ended to be taken as part of the linear story—it's more of a demo, a pocket universe. I don't think it was very successful except as an art demo.
I'm no good with dates. Everything in the map was created for the map afaik. Again, it was an art project so I am not sure about details.
Robin Walker
2017-11-27
Lost Coast was originally an idea for a section in HL2, but it never reached the point where anyone did any actual construction on it. I can't remember the ATI details exactly, but I think we did some higher resolution assets for it that were featured in a version for ATI card owners. I vaguely recall them being related to facial animation on the fisherman, which I think used the technology we built for TF2's characters.
Yes, for a while we worked on the fisherman & the player starting on the boat together, such that the initial conversation occurred there as the boat drifted towards the base of the cliffs, but we ended up cutting it. I'm sure there were other variations of the story/structure, because there always are, but it's been long enough that I don't really remember them, sorry. (I'd forgotten about the boat approach bit until this email reminded me of it).
I think the ATI assets / HWM fisherman were shipped in an update to LC when the ATI bundle occurred. Not sure if they went to everyone in the base LC depot, or only to an additional depot associated with an ATI key.
Timeline
November 23rd, 2004
February 4th, 2005
April 8th, 2005
- EuroGamer releases indepth coverage on Lost Coast
- PCGamer publishes the first screenshots of Lost Coast in its May 2005 issue.
April 26th, 2005
- ShackNews publishes the first screenshots of Lost Coast online.
- The first Lost Coast trailer is released.
May 18th - May 20th, 2005
- Valve's booth at E3 shows a prerecorded Lost Coast demo.
- A writer for Planet Half-Life conducts a video interview with Doug Lombardi at the show. Lost Coast is set to release in the "first half of the summer."
May 23rd, 2005
June 14th, 2005
June 24th, 2005
- The Steam Marketing Feed posts more news about Lost Coast.
- The second Lost Coast trailer is released.
June 30th, 2005
July 22nd, 2005
July 28th, 2005
August 29th, 2005
September 14th, 2005
- Valve brings several in several gaming press outlets to hold a "HDR Day" presentation.
- bit-tech.net publishes a second article about Lost Coast, mainly about the presentation.
September 19th, 2005
September 20th, 2005
September 21st, 2005
- bit-tech.net publihes a third article about Lost Coast.
- bit-tech.net releases an exclusive teaser video of Lost Coast.