Laidlaw confirmed his retirement from Valve this week, having functioned as the writer for both Half-Life 1 and 2, and lead writer on Half-Life 2 Episode 1 and 2.
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Laidlaw went on to say he wanted to return to his roots as he’s a sci-fi writer, and “see where that takes” him.
“An outwardly obvious reason is I’m old, or anyway oldish” Laidlaw writes. “The little baby level designer who gave me that that nickname is now older than I was then”. We don’t think that’s likely, as per the Gamasutra confirmation, so this news marks one more major Half-Life contributor gone since the game’s 1998 launch.
TeddyWolf had reached out to Laidlaw to fish for information on Half-Life 3, but the writer wasn’t forthcoming with any information. “Working on games has been an awesome education, a vocation, an entire career I never expected to have”, continued Laidlaw.
According to Valve, Laidlaw was the only writer on the first two games in the Half-Life series, and he also served as lead writer on the two follow-up episodes.
Laidlaw told fans that he had retired from Valve via an email exchange, explaining the reasons behind his departure and what he hoped to do in the future.
“Where Valve may choose to take Half-Life in the future is not in my hands”, Laidlaw said. In an emailed response he said he’s left Valve to focus on other writing projects. He replied; “Since I no longer speak for Valve, it would be inappropriate for me to answer questions or speculate openly on the fate of the franchise”.
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That leaves the door open for Half-Life 3 to eventually make a dramatic return – the second in the series came out way back in 2007 – but without Laidlaw on the team it could feel significantly different to its predecessors.
