History of CS: how a mod for Half-Life became the main esports discipline.

 Nowadays it is difficult to find a person who has not heard of Counter-Strike. A cultural phenomenon that went beyond the usual multiplayer shooter and became a real milestone in the gaming industry. Over the years of its existence, CS has become not only a springboard for implementation in eSports but also a way to earn both money and reputation among viewers of streaming platforms.

This summer will see a major release of Counter-Strike 2 and is currently in closed beta testing. In honor of such a high-profile event, we want to tell the story of the creation and development of an important esports discipline from Valve. And also share your opinion regarding the second part and its changes in comparison with the previous Global Offensive.

How Counter-Strike 1.6 appeared

Outside the window is 1996. The time when the gaming industry was actively developing, the game genres familiar to us were formed. Vietnamese refugee Minh Le was introduced to the original Quake and its modification development kit (SDK) while studying at a Canadian university. There was very little information on the engine and its modding in those years, the young programmer had to understand the intricacies of game development for a whole year. After releasing his first mod, Navy Seals, Lee realized that he wanted to develop game projects, but as a hobby, not as a full-time job.

Ming Li is the "father" of Counter-Strike

Ming Li's next project was Counter-Strike. He studied in the last semester, and there was plenty of free time to devote it to igrostroy. Initially, the mod was developed on the Quake 2 engine, but after some time, Lee realized that he did not have enough resources and opportunities to implement all his ideas on the SDK from id Software. At this time, the technological shooters Unreal and Half-Life were released. The engine of Valve's first game was based on the Quake core, so Lee decided to make his game on it. But the SDK for Half-Life didn't come out with the game, which forced Ming to postpone coding and focus on character modeling.

The first CS 1.6 character models made by Ming Lee

Ming Li spent more than seven months creating most of the models. By this time, a toolkit for developing the GoldSrc engine from Half-Life became available. It took the programmer just one month to write all the Counter-Strike game code. At this time, Ming's friend, Jess Cliffe, joined the development of the modification. He helped set up a small website through which the project was planned to be distributed. Cliff also made the first few maps and helped with testing game mechanics. In June 1999, the guys posted Beta One Counter-Strike, and in two weeks more than 10,000 people got acquainted with the modification. Cliff brought together former Quake mappers (level designers of multiplayer maps) on the forum, offering to create cool maps under his personal supervision. In the shortest possible time, CS has acquired content and by the fifth beta has become unrealistically popular. The guys started earning their first money on advertising on their website. It's no joke, at that time the site produced more Internet traffic than the entire population of Italy.

Map Italy Glen Cooper (Glen Cooper) in Counter-Strike 1.6

I remember when the sixth beta was released, a teenager in Florida posted a distribution of it on his home page. It was downloaded by so many people that the hosting servers simply could not cope with the influx and were cut off for a day or two. Server owners were losing thousands of dollars on every outage. In the end, the guy was arrested, he had to spend some time in the children's room of the police. He just wanted to give the opportunity to download CS to his friends who lived nearby. I'm not sure that he knew how many people would want to download the modification and what consequences this might lead to. I don't want to imagine a night of scared teens in a cell, but throwing someone in jail just for hosting our download distribution was a clear sign to me of Counter-Strike being too popular.

— Quoted by Jess Cliff from Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar.

 Noticing the success of Counter-Strike, Valve contacted Ming and Cliff, offering to buy the copyright for the project and hire modders for further development. The guys agreed, and already in September 2000 CS was officially released as a separate game. With a large team, Counter-Strike developed very quickly, and already at the release of version 1.1 in 2001, the game had all the attributes familiar today, including the Dust II map. Around the same time, Min and Jess gave their project to other developers from Valve for further polishing, and themselves began to create a remake on the new Source engine.

Dust II is the most famous CS map

The last major update 1.6 for Counter-Strike took place in 2003. Because of this, many players use the abbreviation CS 1.6 to more accurately indicate the first part.

Why Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Failed

After purchasing the copyrights to Counter-Strike from Ming and Cliff in 2000, Valve began thinking about developing a full-fledged major game that would be an improved version of the original modification and could be sold at the price of an AAA project. The game began to be developed on the still crude Source engine and was planned to be released at the same time as Half-Life 2.

Publisher Sierra Entertainment, which helped Valve release the first Half-Life, didn't like the fact that most users played the Counter-Strike mod and weren't going to buy what was free to download. The bosses of the company demanded from Valve a new version of Counter-Strike before the release of the Source version, which will be significantly different from the modification and convince players to switch from version 1.6 to something new and paid.

Frame from closed beta Counter-Strike: Source

However, Valve did not have enough hands on another project. In the bowels of the company, employees were working hard on the sequel to Half-Life, and Ming and Cliff went headlong into the Source version of CS. The company has made the decision to hire a third-party studio to make the Counter-Strike sequel. She became Rogue Entertainment, which at that time had recently completed work on American McGee's Alice.

First Screenshot of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero by Rogue Entertainment

Rogue Entertainment didn't know what to add to the polished Counter-Strike gameplay without hurting the balance and making players angry. So she focused on the single-player campaign, which Rogue felt was the ultimate sign of an expensive game. In fact, the new CS was remade into Half-Life, but with terrorists and special forces. Even the new weapons that the studio added to their version of Counter-Strike were copied from the Valve game: crossbow, anti-personnel mines, and rocket launcher. The only innovation was the “shahid belt”, which players from the terrorist team could use.

In 2001, at E3, Valve announced Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. They showed a single-player version of the game with new maps and reworked gameplay. Immediately after the announcement, Gabe Newell learned that the game's producer, Jim Molinets, had secretly left Rogue and moved to Sony's gaming division. The head of Valve was furious that the studio did not tell him that the development was headed by another producer. For him, it was comparable to betrayal. He terminated the contract with Rogue and took away all the achievements of Condition Zero. Left without a promising project and funding, the Rogue studio ceased to exist.

Since Counter-Strike: Condition Zero had already been announced to the public, it had to be completed. Valve turned to their longtime partners at Gearbox Software, who had previously developed a trilogy of Half-Life expansions: Blue Shift, Opposing Force, and Decay. Studio head Randy Pitchford was excited to work on the CS single-player campaign and agreed.

Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford

After looking at Rogue Entertainment's work, Gearbox Software employees laughed, moved the asset folders to the trash, and started working from scratch. Randy did not want to turn Counter-Strike into a regular linear shooter, focusing the core gameplay on completing a set of maps in the style of a "career" mode. The player had to form a special forces unit from the pool proposed by the developers and go on a mission. Unlike the regular bot game in 1.6, players could receive rewards and medals for completing missions. And for all this, buy characters, equipment, and access to new maps.

Frame from the Gearbox version of Condition Zero

With a lot of experience with the GoldSrc engine, Gearbox has improved the visuals and code of Condition Zero. Bots have become smarter and meaner. The environment models are more detailed, and the characters are overgrown with additional polygons. The game world has found weather effects, improved lighting, soft shadows, and living vegetation. The developers have added additional equipment and weapons: a machine gun, a grenade launcher, a special forces shield, and a Molotov cocktail.

Frame with spetsnaz shield

Gearbox Software had to deliver the finished game by the end of 2001 since Valve planned to release Counter-Strike: Source as early as 2003. When Gabe called Randy with the question “ where the hell is the game ”, the head of Gearbox replied: “ Polishing, finalizing, is about to be ready ." This continued until the end of 2002. By that time, Sierra was already on the verge of bankruptcy. His bosses begged Valve to release at least something that would save from closure. Valve management had to take the almost finished Condition Zero from Gearbox and give it to Ritual Entertainment for final polishing, as Pitchford did not want to release a product that was not polished to the ideal. Instead of tidying up the code and sending the game "for gold", the new studio decided to take a different path ... starting development again.

Ritual employees took Rogue Entertainment's developments out of the basket and began to refine them on the already-finished engine from Gearbox. Condition Zero was turning into a story-driven tactical shooter set around the world. The studio was working hard, and the game had to be handed over by the beginning of 2003. Valve executives were shocked to learn that Ritual was making a Counter-Strike sequel from scratch. Sierra made ends meet and laid off staff to cut costs. The publisher hoped for a quick release of Half-Life 2 with Condition Zero, only both of these games were in early development and were not planned for release in 2003.

Condition Zero story campaign

Valve gave testers raw versions of Condition Zero's single-player campaign in order to finish development as soon as possible. But each version of the game received negative reviews and was sent for revision. All this continued until the famous theft of Valve's assets happened. Along with the Half-Life 2 source code, both versions of Condition Zero, from Gearbox and from Ritual, hit the net. The pirates immediately picked up the raw build and started selling it under the guise of a finished version. Many Russian-speaking players remember Condition Zero with broken hit registration, transparent textures, and unfinished locations. This is the stolen version.

The story version had written characters and staged cutscenes

By the fall, Ritual Entertainment had completed the work and presented Condition Zero to colleagues from Valve. Studio testers, having familiarized themselves with the release version of the game, rated it 60 points out of 100. Gabe Newell, looking at the work done, refused to send the new Counter-Strike to print. Valve was not ready to "feed players" a bad product for the sake of additional income, and now the company gave all the achievements of the game Turtle Rock Studios (authors of Left 4 Dead ), which in those years was engaged in porting the original Counter-Strike to the Xbox.

Having reviewed the available material, the developers of Turtle Rock Studios decided to complete the Gearbox version. The studio had great AI engineers, so they wrote a completely new bot AI for the final version of Condition Zero. It was later added to the release version of Counter-Strike 1.6. The Turtle Rock team polished up the single-player campaign and set about polishing the linear storyline from Ritual - good things to come! The developers threw out boring missions, finalized stealth mechanics, thought out scripted scenes, and improved the collision system. As a result, Condition Zero became a mix of the main game based on Gearbox's developments and an additional story campaign from Ritual subtitled Deleted Scenes.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero was released in March 2004, seven months before the release of Counter-Strike: Source. The game was praised for Turtle Rock Studios' work (AI, map logic, balance) and scolded for everything Gearbox and Ritual did. The development of the new CS took too long, and its engine already looked outdated in 2004. In addition, the stolen version of the game has been on sale for a year, not much different from the release version. As a result, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero turned out to be of no use to anyone. They didn’t play it, and a year later they completely forgot about it. Publisher Sierra, without waiting for a mountain of money from Condition Zero, was absorbed by Vivendi Games.

The success of Counter-Strike: Source

We return back to 2001 to the already familiar to us Min Lee and Jess Cliff. The guys were hard at work on a new generation of Counter-Strike and enjoyed working at Valve. While the main team of the studio was poring over the continuation of Half-Life 2, the authors of CS slowly thought through every aspect of their project and were engaged in prototyping. Gabe Newell recruited some of the best mappers from the fan community to the company and involved the authors of the Day of Defeat mod in the development.

Counter-Strike: Source

While several studios were rebuilding the Counter-Strike: Condition Zero game design formula, Lee and Cliff were simply porting the core mechanics of 1.6 to the new engine. The most difficult work was done by level designers who needed to modernize the old locations and make them as realistic as possible. Source untied hands and allowed to create unimaginable things. Developers could build tall buildings and work out the background to the smallest detail without resorting to 2D texturing.

Fully 3D background

Designers traveled around the world and collected an archive of real places where, in their opinion, skirmishes between terrorists and special forces can take place. Jess Cliff built a huge sound library to fill the locations with realistic soundtracks. For the Dust card, he traveled to Mexico City (capital of Mexico) to record animal sounds.

The Aztec map designers at Source were able to create large decor elements without any problems.

The developers tried to implement the physics of the Source engine in Counter-Strike, but there was simply nowhere to implement it. The team was banned from filling the game with debris and physical objects, as they seriously interfered with the gameplay. Level designer Kristen Perry pushed the idea of ​​adding watermelons to the map of Italy that explode when shot at them. It was a kind of hint that the new Counter-Strike also has realistic physics. Cliff supported this idea.

Fruit market card Italy

In fact, the implementation of physics in CS: Source was not limited to watermelons. In the later stages of development, Lee allowed the addition of small items that did not affect the tactical layout of the locations: bottles, bags, car tires, fire extinguishers, barrels, and so on. Also, physics was screwed to the character models. The special forces realistically scattered to the sides from the exploded bomb, and the terrorists relish flew away from a well-aimed headshot from a sniper rifle.

In CS: Source, every physical object responded to a hit. In CS: GO, all decoration elements have become static

By the end of the summer of 2004, Counter-Strike: Source was ready. There were no scandals or intrigues during the development period. Valve, in order to increase the number of sales of the failed Condition Zero, gave buyers of the unsuccessful continuation of CS the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the beta version of Source. In October of the same year, a month before the release of Half-Life 2, the studio officially released the game on Steam. Valve hoped that players would have time to familiarize themselves with their game service and buy HL2 in it.

After 19 years, Counter-Strike: Source looks and plays great

Critics were delighted with the updated Counter-Strike. After the outdated Condition Zero, the game felt like a breath of fresh air. The players were also satisfied. Of course, die-hard fans of version 1.6 spat and said that hitboxes are not like that, machine guns shoot clumsily, and grenades fly somewhere in the wrong direction, but the majority of gamers, namely 96% of observers on Steam, accepted the reincarnation of the cult game positively. And this is the main indicator of a successful release.

How to console Counter-Strike: Global Offensive turned into a skins store

After the release of Counter-Strike: Source, Ming Li's team thought about what to do next. Valve offered to make the second part of CS, but the game designers didn't know where to start. No one else thought about the story campaign after the failure of Condition Zero, and new cards and weapons did not pull on the number 2 in the title. While the main staff of the studio was working on the addition to Half-Life 2, the CS team had to reinvent the wheel from scratch. Cliff and the rest of the CS development team worked on Day of Defeat: Source, while Lee was prototyping and experimenting with the gameplay of Counter-Strike 2. He spent two years forming a new vision for his game, but could not come up with anything meaningful. As a result, Ming Li just burned out. He said goodbye to the Valve team and left the studio.

Mod for improved graphics Counter-Strike: Source

Jess Cliff did not want to continue working on Counter-Strike 2 without Lee and went with the rest of the team to help the developers of Team Fortress 2. Valve had to cancel the second part of CS and focus on supporting the already existing Counter-Strike: Source.

Valve Ported CS: Source to HL2: Episode 2 Engine with All Visual Improvements

The idea of ​​developing a new Counter-Strike appeared randomly. After the success of Half-Life 2 and its episodes on consoles, Valve seriously considered porting CS: Source. With millions of players playing Call of Duty multiplayer on PS3 and Xbox 360, the iconic multiplayer shooter can also be played with a controller. Valve didn't have the time to tinker with the console version of Counter-Strike and turned to a third-party studio that had previously commissioned assets for Left 4 Dead 2.

CS:GO interface on PS3 console

Hidden Path is located in the same city as Valve, so it was easier for the authors of CS: Source to control the development process and prevent the Condition Zero story from repeating itself. Hidden Path wanted to modernize the outdated Counter-Strike and bring it to the latest version of Source with a complete redesign of all assets. Valve relished the idea, and in 2009 development began on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

CS: GO was developed on the Portal 2 engine

The game designers of Hidden Path wanted to match CS 1.6 fans with Source fans, turning GO gameplay into a symbiosis of past games. The developers talked a lot with Jess Cliff and the original CS team and discussed how to create a game that all existing groups of players will love. The Hidden Path staff worked closely with the creators of the original game and tried to take into account all the important aspects of Counter-Strike game design.

The first version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

The developers have redesigned the shooting system, updated the entire in-game economy, added new explosive items, and rebuilt locations from scratch. Hidden Path squeezed all available power out of the Source engine. For years, developers have polished the geometry of classic locations and changed it in those places where it was appropriate.

Updated map Dust II

By the release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was completely different from the original CS:S both externally and in essence. In addition to familiar maps, the developers introduced new ones. The entire interface and game menu has been modernized and adapted for console gamers. Valve, seeing and appreciating the result of the work done, invited Hidden Path to develop and update the entire Counter-Strike series.

The game was released on August 21, 2012, on PS3, Xbox 360, and Steam. Many players, however, did not understand "why eat cabbage (CS: GO) when there is potatoes (CS:S)". And for the lack of auto-aim on consoles, players completely bombarded Valve with negative reviews. However, despite the initial negative, players from Source and the 1.6 version still flowed into the new version of Counter-Strike. Hidden Path's basic plan worked out great: they managed to bring disparate fans together in one game.

A year after the release, Valve figured out how to raise the popularity of Global Offensive and make money on it. At one time, the studio successfully implemented skins and loot boxes in Team Fortress 2, which interested the players and contributed to the regular return of gamers to the game. The new Counter-Strike received improved models and high-quality textures. The developers could easily repaint them without much production costs and give the players a unique way of expressing themselves. Valve tried the trick with skins in CS and did not fail. In a short period of time, more players returned to the game than during peak online 1.6.

For a multi-colored texture of weapons, players are ready to give crazy money

According to professional players, the subject economy has changed the perception of Counter-Strike. It used to be a professional esports discipline. Now it's a public phenomenon, a game where people spend thousands of hours playing for a $250 knife. The addition of skins was an important milestone in the history of CS. In an interview, Ming Li praised Valve for its unusual monetization. He said that without the economic system, there would not be such financial support for e-sports players, there would be no grand finals with millions of viewers, and there would be no people who are ready to invest in cool teams.

A simple Glock Fade skin costs 260 bucks

Valve directly encouraged watching major CS: GO tournaments on Twitch with a linked Steam account. Spectators could win unique souvenir skins worth up to $230. It's hard to believe that players who complain about the high price tag of $70 big-budget games are willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars on virtual skins.

Show off in the comments: who has a souvenir AWP - Dragon Lore?

In an article dedicated to Gabe Newell, I repeatedly repeated that the head of Valve knows how to make money, thanks to him we now have all known free-to-play. With each new update, CS:GO put players on the “donate needle” more and more. Picking up an AWP or AK-47 from an enemy corpse has taken on a new meaning: it has become a visual trophy. In the user interface, you can see the name of the owner of the weapon. And killing someone with a trophy gun in CS:GO is considered the highest insult. Checking your weapon in the middle of a match became somewhat of a taunt, especially if it was the weapon of a dead opponent.

Weapon skins have become status symbols. Decorations that say without words what kind of player you are. The owner of the $2100 Dragon Lore AWP is considered a kind of owner of the Gelendvagen from the CS:GO world. Due to the popularity of weapon skins and the growing number of Global Offensive users, third-party sites began to appear on the Internet that sells loot boxes, cases, and skins. Lotteries, roulettes, and betting shops appeared, earning huge money from players.

CS:GO players love to knife their skins

From an outsourcing project for the console market, Global Offensive has become the most popular and profitable multiplayer shooter in recent years. Another financial success of Valve has also interested other developers of eSports disciplines. Look at Valorant or Overwatch 2, these games wouldn't have come into existence without the success of CS:GO.

Valorant developers earn exclusively on the sale of skins

The wave of attention to Global Offensive prompted Valve not to abandon the game, as happened with the original CS: Source, but to develop it and constantly improve it. The developers are finalizing anti-cheat, redoing maps that players initially did not like, adding new modes, and ranking systems, reworking hitboxes, and fixing the network code. Someone may not like the skin system, and someone may say that Global Offensive spoiled the original vision of Ming Lee and Jess Cliff, but the fact remains: without the changes that Valve and Hidden Path made, we would not have seen the announcement of Counter-Strike 2.