Hey folks,

Happy New Year! We're going to be getting back into our Twitch Streams this year, because we had such a blast the last time (only with Ross, who can actually, y'know, crouch & jump...but not much else). We'll be going live in ten minutes, picking up with Opposing Force at The Pit Worm's Nest, and then moving onto Blue Shift and blasting through that. Join us! It could be fun. Maybe. The Clown Buffoon pair strike again etc.

We can be found at http://twitch.tv/halflifecomic

Hey folks,

A couple of weeks ago we hosted a live stream of Ross playing through Half-Life 1 for the 20th anniversary. Well, we had such a good time berating and mocking him we thought we’d go through the entire series!

Today, it’s Opposing Force’s turn, and that’s going to start in ~10 minutes or so. Mike’s never been through Gearbox’s expansions before, so it should prove relatively fun and interesting! If seeing Ross fail repeatedly sounds like a good time to you, please do join us at http://twitch.tv/halflifecomic

Hey everyone,

Happy 20 Years of Half-Life!

As announced this past weekend, today we are releasing another content pack for A Place in the West! The app has been updated to include the Russian Translation of Chapter 5 (Thanks to Vsevolod Stepanov and Pavel Lapinsky), as well as adding “Containment”, our new interlude that takes us back to Black Mesa, to the place where it all began.

There’s also a new Extra involving “Containment”, for which we give thanks to Rikki "Marphy Black" D'Angelo, that I’ll let you explore for yourself… “Containment” and the Chapter 5 Russian translation are both available in PDF form as well. Finally, we’re releasing Volume 2 of our soundtrack today, with 9 new tracks from Chris Jolley!



This past weekend we did a Twitch Stream, where Ross played through Half-Life and we laughed at how many times he died (it was a LOT). If you didn’t catch it and are interested, it’s still available on Twitch until it expires - http://twitch.tv/halflifecomic. I will also be uploading the original to our YouTube channel, as well as cutting together a shorter “Highlights” reel for someone who wants to laugh at Ross’s deaths, and hear us talk about the comic, but not sit through 6 hours of gameplay.

We’re talking about going through Opposing Force and Blue Shift next, followed by Half-Life 2 and both of its Episodes, so if this is something that you like or would like to see more of, please do let us know! And thank you to everyone who came to hang out and chat, it was a lot of fun.

Speaking of celebrating Half-Life, Digg.com did a write-up about the 20th Anniversary, and Ross and I both talked a bit about our experiences with the franchise. You can read that here - http://digg.com/2018/half-life-20th-anniversary



So many things.

Since it’s the end of the year and we haven’t been as transparent during the course of it as I’d have liked us to have been, let’s take full stock, shall we?

• Chapter 6 is going into Production in December! We weren’t able to produce nearly as much this year as I would have liked because of financial reasons, and it’s great to be getting back to it. My hope is that we can have multiple chapters release next year.
  
  
• We’ve also been working on getting everything down on paper. Often when we’re producing, we have the next chapter or two written, but now we’re extending our lens further. Ross has been hard at work over the last few months forging ahead into the later chapters. As production is approaching the story’s halfway point(!), we’re spending a lot of time looking at wrapping up threads and character arcs. Currently we have up through Chapter 11 written (at least as rough drafts), with the plan being to finish the remaining chapters by the end of the year.
  
  
• Over the next month, I have some homework to do myself: I’m going to rewrite the APW App to try and solve the Windows 10 problems that have been plaguing us for quite some time. I’m also going to be getting back into the world of video editing - cutting the Stream Highlights video together for YouTube and getting back into making the Commentary Tracks. We have commentary audio for Chapters 2, 3, and 4 recorded, and the audio mixing for all of them nearly done, I just need to finish the videos themselves (and add subtitles, which was a popular request with the last Commentary video).
  
  
• Finally, Translations! These are something that I really dropped the ball on this year. We have translations for Chapter 2 that have been sitting around (largely due to financial strains) so the plan will be to get those lettered and shipped out, and then to do more prep with the published chapters and try to get the translators to help us out some more. I don’t want to make any promises about how much will or won’t be done, but I am going to make it much more of a priority than I have so far. Stay tuned for hearing more about that in early 2019.

As ever, making Half-Life: A Place in the West is an experience that we are endlessly grateful for, and wish to say thank you to everyone who has been with us on the journey so far, and to everyone new who is joining us along the way. I am so excited to share with you all of the exciting things we have in store for the next year.

Hi all!

As most, if not all, of you already know, Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Half-Life. Here at A Place in the West, we’re spending the weekend celebrating. As such, all of our content is on sale for the weekend, and up until Tuesday.

We also will be Streaming a play-though of Half-Life on Sunday at 2pm GMT for anyone who wants to watch. Ross will be playing, and Mike will be mocking him and talking with the chat. If you too would like to laugh at Ross being bad at games, and talk about Half-Life, the comic, or anything else, come hang out! The link is http://twitch.tv/halflifecomic. If you drop in, let us know what you think! Maybe we’ll do Half-Life 2 and the episodes at some point in the future. Maybe even Ross and Mike playing Portal 2 Co-Op and yelling at each other.



On Monday we’ll also be releasing a new update! This will include Interlude 5.5 - titled Containment, where we go back to Black Mesa to see some familiar faces. Also included in this update will be the Russian translation of Chapter 5, thanks to our friends Vsevolod Stepanov and Pavel Lapinsky.

Finally, we'll be releasing Volume 2 of our soundtrack, by the talented Chris Jolley. Chris has written 9 new songs based on the events from Chapters 3, 4, and 5. The latest update will also include a few other songs that Chris has written for us over the years so you can get a taste of his style if you haven't heard his music yet.

I’ll give another update later this week with more information on what’s coming next for us!

Hey gang!

This is just a short update on our current progress - a prelude to a fairly substantial content release in November!

As many of you will know, Half-Life’s 20th anniversary is coming up in a few weeks, and it’s our intention to celebrate and pay homage to that in the broadest possible sense! So, right now one of the big things we’re doing is putting the final touches on the next interlude - Containment. Containment is a flashback to Black Mesa that will, as is our tradition with the interludes, be released for free! Here’s a small preview…



Our audio designer, Chris Jolley, has created a brand new soundtrack for Chapters 3 - 5, and what he’s come up with is brilliantly electric - more on that soon. We’re also going to be launching a Twitch Stream of Ross - & potentially Mike - playing through the entirety of Half-Life. This will be an excellent opportunity to jeer & heckle a pair of certified idiots. We hope that’s something you’ll all be interested in, and we’re definitely excited to play it. More information on that as we get closer to the anniversary!

In the meantime, the entire comic, and the soundtrack, is now on sale, so if you haven’t checked out the latest chapters now’s a great time to pick those up!



We’ll see you in a few weeks!

Ross and Mike.

Hi all,

Chapter 5 has been released! Titled “The Eyes of the People”, it concludes the arc we began in Chapter 3, “The Pit”, in which Leyla Poirier and Albert Kempinski integrate themselves into the city of New Franklin and become embroiled in a conflict between the city’s centres of power.

Chapter 6 will go into production later this year, with another interlude taking place between Chapters 5 and 6, and featuring a location that we have yet to see in “A Place in the West”! We’re going east, curling back towards the Combine capital…

In terms of Chapter 6, “The Prisoner”, the key word would be “coup”. It’s very much a two-parter with Chapter 7, and they’re both incredibly action-packed! 5 is the tipping point into a much wider, more brutal conflict, which is something you’ll understand once you’ve reached its final pages!



This release also contains some wallpapers that we’ve put together using the original resolution images of the comic. We always optimise and shrink the images for distribution to try and keep the app size down, so we thought this would be a good way to share some of the more originally sized art. You can find them in the “Wallpapers” folder from your “A Place in the West” directory. (Fun fact: Even these wallpapers aren't full resolution...)



Though we still haven’t shipped the Commentary track for Chapter 2, (and for good reason that you’ll hopefully hear when it comes out!) Ross and Mike will also be recording commentary tracks for Chapters 3 and 4 in the coming weeks. Reach out if you have any questions about the production, or events or characters in either chapter. The plan is for all 3 of these commentary tracks to be released by the end of October.

In the meantime, enjoy Chapter 5, and let us know what you think of it!

Best,
Mike & Ross

Hi all,

The store page for Chapter 5 is now up! “The Eyes of the People” will be launching on Monday, but we wanted to give you an early taste of what it’ll be about and what kinds of things you can expect. This is the first time that we’ve put up a page ahead of time, so if you like it, please let us know!



Chapter 5 wraps up the “Masquerade” arc that began with Chapter 3, “The Pit”. When it goes live, we’ll also have an announcement that teases a bit about what the next arc holds. There will be other goodies coming with this release, so add it to your wishlist and check it out on Monday!

Hey gang!

We just wanted to drop a line on where we’re at right now with the comic, and what you can expect over the course of the next few months.

As most of you no doubt know, the Steam Summer Sale is in full swing, so we have accordingly discounted our entire library – Chapters 3, 4 and the Soundtrack are available at 25% of their regular price, with Chapter 2 reduced by 50%!

If you haven’t already caught up with the comic, now is a great time to do so: Chapter 5, "The Eyes of the People" is scheduled for a July release. We’re very excited about this one – the artists have outdone themselves – and can’t wait to share it with you all. It wraps up a few of the arcs kicked off in Chapter 3 and represents a significant turning point in the story.

So what’s it about?

It’s the night of New Franklin’s annual masquerade banquet, and the city’s political rivals vie for dominance amongst a blind and debauched populace seeking shelter from a wicked blizzard. Governor Moore, aiming to install himself as the city’s leader, plots to assassinate Major General Long at the evening’s end, whilst Long himself prepares to move against Sejal Rajani’s Opposition in an effort to apprehend the vortigaunt Dreyfus.

And on the fringes of the city, away from the lights of the masquerade, Albert Kempinski takes matters into his own hands to find his kidnapped daughter – with disastrous results…



As for our plans for the rest of the year, you can expect a new interlude, as well as for production to begin on Chapter 6, sometime in the fall. There may be some more Surprises coming, too.

In the meantime, enjoy the sale, and keep an eye out for Chapter 5 in the next few weeks!

Ross and Mike

Sometimes, even ~5 years in, you still make mistakes.

It was brought to my attention that I forgot to release the Russian translation for Chapter 4.5, "The Vault of Saph". That's been released this morning, so please do check it out! Vsevolod Stepanov and Pavel Lapinsky continue to do wonderful work, which is hopefully not undermined by my stupidity.

This release includes a PDF of the translation as well, as we've begun to do those regularly to allow everyone more flexibility in how they choose to read the comic (especially since you can take it with you on tablets or phones now!)



In other news, we're about halfway through production on Chapter 5, and we could not be more excited about it. Titled "The Eyes of the People", it takes place at a Masquerade, in which the Governor and his wife put in motion a plan to assassinate Major-General Long and have Sejal take the fall!

Look for more information on it as we come closer to release, within the next couple of months.

Hey gang,

Happy New Year! We’re excited to kick off 2018 with the release of Interlude 4.5: The Vault of Saph, a five-page short that is completely free! Saph sheds further light on the cosmic underpinnings of A Place in the West’s story, expanding the strange phantasmagoric dreamscape first glimpsed at the beginning of Chapter 3. As we’ve said in the past, the interludes are fundamental pieces of the story, and we think of them as “mini-chapters”, but something readers can enjoy for free during the wait between the larger entries.

Speaking of which, where is Chapter 5? With its script complete, The Eyes of the People will enter production very soon. It concludes certain arcs set-up in Chapter 3, and revolves around a masquerade in which Governor Moore plans to assassinate the Major-General. It’s an exciting installment and we can’t wait to share it with you in the coming months.

We're also proud to finally release the Russian translation for Chapter 4: A Spy in the House of Long, courtesy of Vsevolod Stepanov and Pavel Lapinsky. The Vault of Saph is soon to follow! This release also includes some bug fixes, including a particularly odd one where reading Chapter 1: Following Portents in German would randomly change to Czech!

Finally, we are also very pleased to announce the inclusion of brand-new PDF files for each and every chapter, so that you no longer have to read the comic via the Steam app! It is something that readers have been asking for for a long time, particularly with wanting to read it on phones and tablets, and we’re happy to have added it! From now on, when you purchase a new chapter, the comic will immediately be made available as a PDF file in your Steam Directory, including all of the languages the comic currently supports.

We hope you all enjoy this update, and as ever, let us know what you think!

Ross and Mike