Sometimes a job offer can come at the most unexpected (and very fortunate) moment.
Recently, the head of Gearbox spoke with Shacknews. During the conversation, Randy Pitchford recalled how Valve's head Gabe Newell contacted him once.
It was during the time when Randy left 3D Realms and joined Rebel Boat Rocker along with former colleagues. The studio's debut game was eventually canceled, and some employees founded the now-famous Gearbox.
Pitchford didn't want Gearbox to suffer a similar fate: it was decided not to try to make a new franchise, but to work with an existing one; and he had an idea for a Half-Life project:
Half-Life had just come out, and I had an idea. [Imagine] we have a parallel story that happens simultaneously, and we know it had to happen because we played Half-Life, but we didn't see those events from the perspective of one of the soldiers in "Black Mesa" — and everyone liked [the idea].
As it happened, Gabe Newell learned about the situation with Rebel Boat Rocker — he wondered if the developers would like to work on Half-Life:
I don't believe in manifestations — I believe in coincidences — literally on the same day, without any action on my part, Gabe Newell called me because he heard that we had left Rebel Boat Rocker and that I was starting a new business, and wanted to know if we were interested in working on Half-Life
Randy continued to recall:
They [Valve] said: "Sorry, we don't actually own Half-Life. You need to go to Sierra On-Line and talk to the publisher. We'll call them and tell them you're coming, and say that we think you have a cool game, but you need to [sell the idea], because they're the ones who have to pay for everything and agree to it"
As a result, Half-Life Opposing Force appeared, in which players could see the events at "Black Mesa" as a commando who is supposed to eliminate Gordon Freeman.
