Project 87: Pre-Production Postmortem

Feb 23, 2026

Sometimes, the best thing you can do for your creative workflow is to recognize when the tools are fighting against your vision.

Project 87 was initially conceived as a narrative-driven mod for Half-Life 2 or Portal 2. My core goal as a creator is to tell compelling stories within interactive systems. However, after spending time in pre-production, I am officially putting this project on ice.

Here is a breakdown of why stepping away is the smartest move for my development pipeline, and what I learned along the way.

The Roadblocks

Workflow Incompatibility: My ideal development environment is building gaming experiences for Linux natively on Linux. The legacy nature of the Source engine and editors made this unfeasible. Forcing a dual boot setup just to use Windows 11, an OS I actively avoid due to bloat, immediately introduced friction into my daily workflow.

Decaying Documentation: The Source engine is of course legendary, but working with it today means relying on outdated tutorials and documentation. Trying to bridge the gap between 15-year-old guides and modern system architecture resulted in constant and unavoidable conflicts.

Poor Return on Time Investment: Going beyond basic map modding to implement custom assets and new systems requires a massive amount of effort. For a game base this old (Source SDK 2013), the juice honestly isn't worth the squeeze. Plus, the specialized niche knowledge required to deep dive into this specific branch of Source doesn't seamlessly transfer to other more modern engines.

Mechanical Friction Over Narrative Focus: I was running into non-stop issues just trying to build out basic interactions. Time spent fighting the engine to execute fundamental mechanics is time wasted on crafting the story and the experience. Modding Portal 2 or HL2 on this old architecture proved to be the wrong pathway for the interactive storytelling I wanted to achieve solo.

The Silver Lining

However, no time spent prototyping is entirely wasted. Even though Project 87 isn't moving forward past pre-production, I gained valuable insights into Valve’s design philosophy. Learning the basics of the Hammer editor and understanding how Valve constructs their game logic under the hood are solid fundamental takeaways.

And plus, the core concept isn't dead. If the day ever comes when Half-Life 3 releases with a modern and accessible modding scene, I would be highly interested in picking this vision back up through the lens of a modernized engine.

But for now, Project 87 is on ice. Putting this away saves a massive amount of future headaches and frees up bandwidth for my other projects. (Think of it like Captain America-- he wasn’t gone, just waiting for the right moment to unthaw!)

Until Gabe drops HL3, I’m shifting my focus to tools and projects that better align with my development ideals.

Thanks all!
Connor | YodaInTheAttic