Frequently Asked Questions
What is Operation Black Mesa / Guard Duty?- Operation Black Mesa / Guard Duty is a Source Engine licensed Indie game that aims to re-imagine the Half-Life expansion packs Opposing Force (Operation Black Mesa) and Blue Shift (Guard Duty).
More information: Operation Black Mesa - ModDB / Guard Duty - ModDB
What will I need to launch OBM / GD? How much will it cost?- The game will be released on Steam, so only a Steam account is required in order to play.
- We are yet to decide regarding the possible price of commercial release.
- We do not know the minimum system requirements at this time.
Are you still working on your projects? They seem dead to me!- Yes, we are working very hard, as a matter of fact! We keep in touch with our supporters constantly.
- It's important to remember that we are a very small indie team, composed of hobbyists who do this all in their spare time, with a budget of $0, all while working full time jobs (or school), while trying to maintain some sort of family/social life.
- You can always talk to us here on the forum, check up on our ModDB page, Facebook, Twitter, and Discord server. In short, unless there is an official announcement that we are dead, then the projects are still ongoing.
When will you release another media update? What is the best way to get notified of an update?- Media updates are a very time consuming procedure, which is why we prefer to focus on development as our first priority.
Besides, releasing too much content up front will spoil your experience of the final product. - The best ways to get notified each time we post an update is to follow us on twitter and/or join our Discord server. Both of which are linked on the following thread: Official Discord Sever, Youtube Channel, and Twitter
How much of your project is done? How about a release date?- We cannot estimate the exact percentage of completion, neither an approximate release date.
Until we are 100% sure we can commit to a release date, we will not announce one.
Will you include the training missions in your games?- Yes, we will include Boot Camp (Operation Black Mesa) and Hazard Course (Guard Duty).
Will OBM and GD release together?- Operation Black Mesa and Guard Duty will be released as a single product. Players will be able to access Operation Black Mesa or Guard Duty campaign via main menu. Operation Black Mesa will be the working title.
Will you release a demo or a beta?- We don't plan on releasing a Singleplayer demo, as it would slow down production considerably. Multiplayer beta might happen, but we are not yet ready to talk about it.
Is this a mod of Black Mesa?With Black Mesa released, will you use their assets?
Will the games be consistent?
Will Xen in OBM/GD look the same as BM Xen?
- We are not, and have never been, a mod for Black Mesa. Likewise, we do NOT use or run on the same Engine version as Black Mesa.
- No, we won't be using Black Mesa content in any shape or form for many reasons.
Coordinating the use of shared assets would be extremely complex both legally, logistically, and artistically. - Xen will most likely be different. We are a totally different team, with different skills, different assets, different artistic preferences, etc. But in the end, you'll just need to wait and see.
We are fans of Black Mesa, and definitely take inspiration from their hard work in various ways. That being said, Tripmine Studios is in no way affiliated with Crowbar Collective.
Will you include both the Mp5 and M4a1?- The Mp5 will be the default, with the M4a1 being an optional replacement via the options menu.
Will you include HL1 cut Beta content?- No. We are a very small team and are already handling a huge workload. Adding extra unnecessary work onto our projects would only delay the projects even longer.
Will there be co-op? What about Half-Life Decay?- No, co-op is not currently on the list. We do plan to expand the multiplayer with post-release content, so we might eventually add it, but at this point it is extremely low priority and unlikely.
- We are not developing a remake of Half-Life: Decay, nor do we have plans to ever do so.
I would like to join your team!- We are currently looking for talented, experienced, professional team mates. Particularly we are in need of experienced character artists - capable of HL2 quality work at minimum - and highly skilled environment artists. Post your application in this forum and don't forget to read the guidelines and requirements and the available positions list for more details on skill and experience expectations.
I'm unable to take part in development; yet I'd like to help in some way.- Be an active and valuable part of our community, sharing your thoughts, helping other members and making this an awesome place to stick around.
What languages are planned for the release?- We don´t have a definitive list of available translations of the game at the moment, but you can definitely expect more than only English. That being said, we will engage with our community in order to get the game translated into as many languages as possible.
Will there be Steam Workshop Support?- That is planned, yes.
Will the project ever convert to the Source 2 Engine?- That is extremely unlikely.
Regardless of HL:A being released, Valve has still not released a full suite of all the dev tools that would be required to make a full game within the engine. On top of that, we would need a fully automated way to convert all of our assets and maps, or risk spending an immense amount of time just for the conversion process alone; and that's not even counting code issues.
Will the player - Adrian or Barney - ever speak?- We do not plan to have Adrian speak.
- It's possible we might have the option for Barney to speak; but we are still undecided at this time.
Are the old music tracks for OBM still being used?- The years-old music for the project that is commonly found on youtube is mostly, if not all, copyrighted.
Since the project is now a commercial project we do not have the rights to use those tracks.
Our composer, Lono, is creating a new original score for our game.
History of the Project: Part 1 - How old is the project?- This project started development officially in 2012 when a few of the remaining devs from Guard Duty and the previous OBM project joined together to form Tripmine Studios.
Less than 1% of the very few assets that the previous OBM project had created was carried over to the new team.
Development was productive, but slow, until around 2015 when our team expanded and filled some critical dev roles that helped boost progress significantly.
History of the Project: Part 2 - What is the "previous OBM project" mentioned in Part 1?- There have been 3 separate and independent teams/projects that have used the title "Operation: Black Mesa".
When the 1st OBM project died, a completely different team, with none of the assets or work from the 1st project, started a new mod with the same title and goal.
The 2nd project that died, and was reformed into the current project, had a couple devs and very few assets carry over with them this time.
Despite being completely different teams/projects, it was decided (for better or worse) that the new projects would use the same title as the previous ones that had died.
The OBM moddb account was also carried over from the old project by the remaining devs.
The idea behind using the same name was to help maintain public awareness because "Operation: Black Mesa" was already a known title and would hopefully keep attracting members for the new project.
There in lays where most of the confusion comes from regarding OBM.
Luckily Guard Duty does not suffer from the same confusion because we chose a different name than the other two Blue Shift recreations that had died before us