But what interests us most from a Coding4Fun perspective is that Valve makes a Software Developer Kit (or SDK) for their amazing game engine (called “Source”) available for FREE to Half-Life 2 customers! The Source SDK gives us access to a TON of game assets (maps, models, sounds, objects, etc.) and virtually all of the game engine’s C++ source code! By using Visual C++, we can create everything from minor tweaks (called ‘mods’) to completely new games (known as ‘total conversions’). In fact, popular games like Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat are two such ‘total conversions’ which were originally based on the first Half-Life game engine and have been subsequently revved to take advantage of the new Source engine.
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