Half-Life and Portal creator Valve will release a software development kit for its proprietary Source Engine and modding tools free of charge.
Normally, the Source SDK is only available to those who purchase a game built on the Source Engine. However, now that Team Fortress 2 has gone free-to-play, the SDK has too.
In addition to offering users free development tools, the release also gives users access to a variety of free mods.
Currently, the freely-available SDK appears to be more of a side effect than a planned initiative, as only certain mods work with the SDK provided, but Valve plans a more formal roll-out soon.
"We are in the process of getting it all done," Valve's Robin Walker told blog Rock, Paper, Shotgun. "It’s a bit messy because we have multiple versions of the SDK, and there’s some dependencies we need to shake out. But yes, the gist of it is that we’re just going to go ahead and make the Source SDK freely available."
More information on the Source SDK is available on its official website.
Just in time for Valve to announce Half-Life III and Left 4 Dead 3 built on brand-spankin' new next-generation Source 2 engine tech, right? That's not crazy talk.
You can already dl the Gold Source SDK for free and it's easy to port your levels over to Source. Alien Swarm's SDK is also available. Source SDK and "SDK Base(aka HL2 without the levels)" is a nice lil bonus.
Gabe Newell's recent interview indicated that they weren't inclined to create a new game engine, but continue to improve on the engine they have. I think they've done a remarkable job maintaining the continuity and value of their game technology. My hope is that they continue to provide new and compelling story and content, especially for the Half-Life world. The technology is already terrific and can see incremental improvements to take advantage of the latest in GPUs.
Elements of War
Kingdoms Collide
Age of Chivalry
g0g0g0!!!