I never hear anyone talking about Valve when discussing which game engine to use.
And I couldn't even really figure out what the terms were from their website.
Apparently the engine is Free if you buy any game built on it.
So basically for $9.99 I just buy half life 2, and then I have a complete access to royalty free use
that engine to build a game?
Or is this just a modding tool, that a game can't be built with?
I am planning to put together a small team.
$9.99 sounds like an almost too good to be true price if it is comparable to Cry and UDK
So basically for $9.99 I just buy half life 2, and then I have a complete access to royalty free use that engine to build a game?
No.
You can actually get it for free (without even buying HL2)... but that doesn't give you a license to do what you want with it.
You can't sell your creations without negotiating (buying) a license from Valve.
If you want to make a free game/mod, or a freely available prototype of a game, then it may be suitable for you.
The engine is not something for cutting your teeth with. It is something a professional studio with an experienced teem of veterans in all disciplines could leverage.
I cut my teeth on GoldSource (though Unity/UDK didn't exist at the time), and would recommend the same path to others who want to learn C++ game programming. Sure it's complicated, but you'll gain a lot of exposure to and experience with real-world, shipping C++ game code, and real-world, non-user-friendly tools and pipelines 
"You can't sell your creations without negotiating (buying) a license from Valve."
That pretty much clears up my question for me.
"UDK, Unity, Oblivion, C4, and many others had "easy to use" as part of their design philosophy."
I am learning UDK for 4 months now, and still haven't explored at least half of the features.
if that platform is easy, I would hate to see what hard is.
Seems like this could be great option for when I reach a level somewhere much further than I am today.
Thanks guys
Ouch.I cut my teeth on GoldSource (though Unity/UDK didn't exist at the time), and would recommend the same path to others who want to learn C++ game programming. Sure it's complicated, but you'll gain a lot of exposure to and experience with real-world, shipping C++ game code, and real-world, non-user-friendly tools and pipelines :lol:The engine is not something for cutting your teeth with. It is something a professional studio with an experienced teem of veterans in all disciplines could leverage.
Proceed by answering the following questions:
1. Are you Hodgman? Yes/No.
Now evaluate your results against this list:
1.
If you selected Yes -> Use Source
If you selected No -> Don't use source.
It isnt THAT complicated, it isn't perfect however, they love to "update" the engine and break every single mod out there, then promise a fix, and take their damn sweet time to fix it (you better just figure out how to hack around the problem). Then you do have to negotiate a license whenever you finish your "mod", usually that happens after you manage to get greenlit on their greenlight section. If that happens you'll have to shell some big cash upfront (havok license) and get to terms with valve on how to pay for their engine (probably another cut from sales, the first being from steam).
It is a nice engine to work with if you are a beginner to game programming that already handles c++. If you cant handle c++ however then, well, learn it...
You'll need a team or be a one man army though, it has an art pipeline you have to learn afterall.
It may be worth pointing out that TheChineseRoom are currently porting Dear Esther from source to unity after being stung by an unexplained per-platform licencing fee by a third party whose software is a part of source.
