Valve's Half-Life Could've Been Named Fallout, Crysis, or Trash
Dario Casali celebrated the original Half-Life's birthday by revealing a list of potential names the developers considered using.
To celebrate the original Half-Life's upcoming 25th birthday, Dario Casali, an experienced Game Developer/Designer who worked on the iconic FPS, shared a series of insightful videos revealing a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes information about the game that catapulted Valve to fame, as well as the studio's early days.
In one of the videos, the developer unveiled a list of potential names for Half-Life, demonstrating that "Half-Life" was just one option among many, and it wasn't the most favored one among the development team. According to Casali, the most popular alternatives included Bent, Dirt, Lead, Pressure (along with Pressure Chamber and Pressure Pit), and Screwed. Additionally, the game could have been named Trash, Death, Edge, Adrenaline, Pipe, Shiv, The Pit, and Unstable Element.
A couple of potential names, however, deserve special attention. As shared by the developer, it was entirely possible that what we now know as Half-Life could have been named Crysis, similar to Crytek's 2007 first-person shooter, or Fallout, like Interplay's legendary RPG. It's particularly intriguing to consider that both Half-Life and Fallout were in development around the same time, making one wonder about the consequences had both studios settled on the same title.
And here's the rest of the video series shared by Dario Casali, we highly encourage you to visit the developer's YouTube channel to learn more about the early days of Valve and its games:
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