Original Vietnamese author made legendary Counter-Strike now?

Although not becoming a millionaire, the person behind the famous game is still satisfied with the present life.
In the basement in Vancouver, Canada, a young man sits staring at his computer screen. The light from the screen reflected the square glasses, illuminating the empty walls. There is only one bed beside the computer desk.

Around this time twenty years ago, Counter-Strike first appeared. This is a first-person shooter game, with a basic plot of terrorist groups fighting the anti-terrorist group (robbery fighting the police, according to the usual way of calling in Vietnam).

The game was a resounding success, contributing to e-sports becoming a huge industry today.

Back in January 1999, outside the basement room, Britney Spears is dominating the music charts with her first single “Baby one more time”. US President Bill Clinton was troubled after being found adultery with Monica Lewinsky, the so-called ‘Y2K Incident’, supposedly causing all computers to stop working on New Year’s Eve to occupy the front page. newspaper.

Le Minh is on the computer side of his father. Photo: Minh Le.

Le Minh, when he was 22 years old, did not bother with the outside world. That is not your world.

The young IT student is interested in creating the first motion models for the game he always wanted to do: A smart shooter.

He did not know that this small basement job would completely change the history of the game, giving himself the legendary status. Because it will soon become one of the most popular shooting games on the planet.

He also did not know that in the future, this game would be his biggest problem.

Migrate to Canada

Leaving Vietnam, Minh’s family settled in Canada. They have to start a new life in the new country with two empty hands.

However, money is not all.

“We were pretty poor at the time, but my father was an engineer and he was crazy about computers. So if you have hardware, you can buy it, ”said Le Minh.

He started rubbing his computer. Year after month, Minh inherited old computers from his father, every time he bought a new one.

Le Minh has a hobby of computers and like many other teenage boys in the 1990s, is particularly attracted to the “Quake” shooting game.

Mr. Minh’s family just came to Canada. Photo: Minh Le.

However, Quake with weapons and aliens does not interest him too strongly. He is passionate about more realistic “police and robbery” action movies like “Ronin”, “Air Force One” or “Heat”. Therefore, with the knowledge of information technology at the university, he began to make a revision of ‘Quake’ to make it more practical.

“I really like the work of the mysterious elite units of the police and the military, as well as the way they contract. Therefore, I really want to experience the feeling of being in such a unit, ”Le Minh said.

When “Quake 2” was released, Minh Le was also part of the game development team. In 1998, the group released another revision called “Action Quake 2”, once again focusing on the reality theme.

The ‘Navy Seals Quake’ revision was released in 1997. Photo: DR.

“Action Quake 2” is quite popular, but it hasn’t been successful yet

In 1998, Le Minh made two shooting games with the same realistic theme. However, he believed that his game could be further refined.

It must be more realistic, more focused on teamwork. He wanted a game that didn’t win by scrambling and shooting everything moving.

Just a few days after the release of “Action Quake 2”, a newly established company named Valve released its first game: Half Life.

A fever game around the globe. Le Minh immediately knew this was the next game that he would make a modified version of the theme he wanted.

Parents are the driving force

Although Valve’s add-on program allows programmers to voluntarily modify their Half Life yet, Minh Le still diligently shapes characters and weapons.

He spends about 40 hours a week doing games while studying full-time at university. Not being paid to work, Minh also had to work on a computer that was both old and slow to inherit from three.

“I spent more time on games than in my studio, because I really have a lot to do,” Minh Le said. He said the motivation for him to work was to make his parents proud of him.

Work pressure is huge. So when an old acquaintance from “Action Quake 2” project suggested help, Minh was extremely happy. It is Jess Cliffe.

Cliffe became Minh Le’s partner during the development process. Both quickly agreed on the game name through a short conversation in ICQ application on March 15, 1999.

The original chat of the name Counter-Strike was recreated. Photo: Solvei Nygaard Gregersen.

Previously, names like FragForces, SpecOpsElite, International World Soldiers were also viewed.

The name is already there, but there are still many things missing. Neither Minh and Jess Cliffe are good at composing game music and designing maps.

Both created websites to search for capable volunteers. Many people care about the project, but only with comments. However, after a short time, they also got a small but very close community.

After six months of hard work, Saturday, June 19, 1999, the first test version of Counter-Strike was released under the name of BETA 1.0.

Of course, the first version is hard to avoid. One of them is the difficulty of distinguishing the difference in shape between teammates and enemies.

It is difficult to distinguish teammates and enemies. In this picture, the right is a terrorist. Photo: DR.

“In addition, there are only 4” playable “maps, with” bad “quality,” Minh said. Critics constantly appeared. But instead of watching it as a problem, Minh and Jess Cliffe consider this an opportunity.

Both reviewed the criticism, corrected and made the update only a week later. A month later, the update appeared, and another one a few weeks later.

“Every time we release a new version, we always carefully review the feedback and suggestions for further development,” Minh said.

Right from the first version, 8,000 people from all over the world tried it out. Only one month later, the number was 16,000, and increased after each update.

“I have a clear vision of what” Counter-Strike “will become, but the community helped me adjust that vision in the right direction,” Minh said.

And then the map is no longer a problem. “At one point we received more than 100 maps every week from around the world,” recalled Le Minh.

“Cs_mansion” is one of the first maps in the first beta version of “Counter-Strike.” So far this map is still popular. Photo: DR.

But everywhere, there are those who break the game. Many players mean the amount of feedback is also very large, which is mostly positive. But the ideas are not always constructive.

“People who think that your MOD version is really bad, I bet your MOD version will die”, a player sent an email to Jess Cliffe that made him so angry that he took a screenshot.

Fortunately, there are also many positive suggestions and support.

For example, Jess Cliffe is responsible for the sound effect and desperately needs the sound emitted by the M249. Therefore, he called for support on the site.

After only two days, a player working at the Belgian weapons factory offered to help. Soon after, he sent the sound of the gun and it was put into the game.

How are you, Viet lam, how to counter Counter-Strike? picture 7
A derogatory mail from the player Jess Cliffe captures. Photo: Jess Cliffe.
Because of the free game, Jess Cliffe records every voice in the game you hear. For example, “Fire in the hole”.

In the summer and autumn of 1999, the game was changed and improved significantly.

“The way to develop games is very open, making us quickly aware of things that are effective and need to change,” Minh said.

After eight updates based on user feedback, since November 1999, the game has become more stable.

Some groups (clan) have begun to appear, small tournaments are also organized.

No one knew at the time that the game was going to be played against the huge cash prize, which was put on television.

Counter-Strike then received interest from Valve, publisher Half Life. For over six months, Le Minh and Jess Cliffe partnered with Valve to develop Counter-Strike. The cooperation went well, and Le Minh, then 23, had a big decision.

Selling Counter-Strike for Valve

On April 12, 2000, Counter-Strike was owned by Valve. Both he and Cliffe were recruited by the company, which they both wished for a long time ago.

“We are allowed to continue to grow our way. But now we have been paid to work and have a successful game company behind us, ”Minh said.

They continue to develop the game, a total of 19 different updates and improvements before the parties believe the game is ready to exit the beta testing phase.

On November 9, 2000, Counter-Strike released the first official version. And it goes beyond all expectations. Two million people from all over the world play the game Le Minh made in his mother’s cellar.

The game quickly became popular in competitions, affecting the entire e-sports industry. Now, it is considered a standard of shooter genre, a monument that all other shooters want to overcome.

In December 2000, Counter Strike first appeared on the world’s largest game magazine cover, when PC Gamer. Photo: DR.

“One of the best shooting games ever made,” one player said.

The amount of money Le Minh received was spent on his parents’ loans.

“It was a big turning point. My parents suddenly had a lot of financial resources, so they no longer had to work too hard. It makes me very happy, ”Minh said. He also paid for volunteers who helped carry out the game.

At the age of 23, Le Minh had great success. But life always has ups and downs.

The defeat of Counter-Strike 2

After the official release, he continued to develop the next version of Counter-Strike.

The success of the game is growing, making the expectation for the sequel increase. Minh worked hard for the next six years to complete the next version. But it failed, in 2006, he left Valve. Counter-Strike 2 is put into stock.

“I am young and have not thought enough about my ability to lead a development team. I often work on prototypes alone, with no experience and no vision to know how I really want Counter-Strike 2 to become, ”Le Minh said of the failure.

Minh continues with an independent project. Tactical Intervention was born, shooting game is exactly what he wanted.

However, the project lacked capital, he was forced to move back to his parents’ home. The game was released in 2013 after seven years of work, but was not well received.

That continues to be a big fall for Le Minh.

After creating failed projects for 13 years, he felt exhausted. Everything is compared to Counter-Strike. Minh has to constantly compete with his own shadow.

However, when I look back, I understand what happened during the development of “Tactical Intervention.” “We didn’t listen to users enough during development.” It was completely non-public like Counter-Strike, Minh said, saying only 10 people were tested the game.

Grateful for life

Le Minh is not rich, but satisfied with life.

“People are always surprised when I tell them I’m not a millionaire. I was very young when I sold Counter-Strike, and to be honest, I was quite surprised to have a game company pay for it. ”

“Obviously I don’t have the aptitude to do business. But I’m grateful for what happened. The life story taught me to be the person of today, ”said Le Minh.

Le Minh of today. Photo: PearLabByss.

Since 2013, he has developed a revision for a number of different titles, no longer risking his own projects. In an interview in 2016, he said he would continue to try a shooting game too.

Today, his dream remains intact: Develop a game based on user feedback.

“I still have some ideas in mind to try. But I am well aware that I will probably never make the project more successful than Counter-Strike. It was also the most interesting thing I ever did. Close interaction with the community is clearly the best way to develop a game. It is a lesson that I will remember clearly, ”Le Minh told DR.

What’s new in Counter-Strike 20 years? On the occasion of Counter-Strike’s 20th anniversary, players can experience the older version of Dust 2 map, the most popular map in CS: GO.

Source : ZingNews