'I was deranged'—Half-Life writer's regret at publishing episode 3 story

pcgamer.com:

Back in 2017 Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw published a real oddity: a wibbly-wobbly short story that was once intended as Half-Life: Episode 3(opens in new tab). It's a weird old thing. Eli Vance is dead, Dr. Mossman tracks down the Borealis, Gordon and Alyx head off to Antarctica, and everything of course goes wrong. Laidlaw made some cursory attempts at disguise like gender-swapping characters and slightly altering their names, but it was clear this story was once intended as a resolution to a series famous for its lack of them.

Big mistake, apparently. «I was deranged,» said Laidlaw in a new interview with RPS(opens in new tab). «I was living on an island, totally cut off from my friends and creative community of the last couple decades, I was completely out of touch and had nobody to talk me out of it. [Publishing the story] just seemed like a fun thing to do… until I did it.”

Laidlaw had just retired at the time, and it's pretty clear he thought he wouldn't be working on another major Valve project. There was always a big 'what did I do on the internet last night' vibe about the publication, which Laidlaw put under the nom de plume of Gertrude Fremont. It begins by addressing readers as „Dearest Playa“, and references being „unable to reach you by the usual means.“

The writer's big regret with hindsight is causing his former colleagues any bother, and giving a false impression that this story would have been reflective of any finished Half-Life project with a '3' in the name. „Eventually my mind would have calmed and I’d have come out the other side a lot less embarrassed,“ said Laidlaw. „I think it caused trouble for my friends, and made their lives harder. It also created the impression that if there had been an