Marc Laidlaw wrote 400 Boys in 1981 aged 21, lengthy earlier than he ended up Valve’s lead author and one of many chief creators of the Half-Life video games. The quick story was printed in Omni journal in 1983, earlier than it was picked up for Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology and loved a wider viewers. On Marc’s website, on the backside of the quick story itself, he factors out 400 Boys has most likely been learn by extra folks than anything he’s written, besides maybe Dota 2 seasonal advert copy. Sure, the online game world is aware of Marc Laidlaw because the lead author of the Half-Life sequence. However he’s performed a lot greater than video video games. It’s humorous how issues work out.
In a post-apocalyptic metropolis the place warring gangs comply with a bushido-like code of honor, a new gang, the 400 Boys, forces them to unite. A mix of magnificence and brutality from Canadian director Robert Valley, whose LDR episode “Ice” gained the Emmy for Excellent Quick Type Animation.
“The inspiration for it simply got here out of strolling round,” Marc remembers. “I lived in Eugene, Oregon and there was all the time the telephone poles with the names of bands that had been taking part in on the town, and it was simply title after title of tremendous cool bands, and I simply wished a means to try this. I simply wished to make up a number of band names. So I got here up with the thought of, if I’ve all these gangs within the story, I can give you names for all these completely different gangs and that will be enjoyable. And it was humorous. That was form of the factor that drove a large a part of the story, simply eager to make band names.”
Now, over 40 years after 400 Boys was first printed, it’s an episode of the fourth season of Netflix’s massively widespread animated anthology sequence Love, Death and Robots. The episode was directed by Robert Valley, the director of Zima Blue in Season 1 and Ice in Season 2. Tim Miller wrote it. The voice solid consists of John Boyega, who famously performed Finn in Star Wars. All of a sudden, 400 Boys is having its large second. Marc Laidlaw by no means anticipated this.
“The story form of light out, however cyberpunk saved going and I did not actually give it some thought that a lot,” Laidlaw tells me over a video name simply days earlier than Season 4 of Love, Death and Robots kicks off on Netflix.
40 years. That’s a very long time for something to be become one thing, isn’t it? Nevertheless it may need occurred earlier, round 15 years in the past, when Tim Miller from Blur (the corporate that does all these fancy online game cutscenes and, today, a lot extra), obtained in contact about possibly turning 400 Boys into one thing. It didn’t occur. Like so many initiatives, it fell aside following studio modifications.
Then Love, Death and Robots exploded onto the scene in March 2019. This edgy, adult-oriented animated anthology was in contrast to something we’d seen on the streamer. Some episodes had been difficult, some had been bizarre, some had been weirdly difficult. No matter they had been, you couldn’t assist however watch. And, Marc observed, Tim Miller from Blur was concerned. “I all the time say, I can not think about anyone else who would’ve turned The Drowned Large, this J. G. Ballard story, into an episode of an animated characteristic,” Marc says. “So I had a lot of respect for Tim simply from that.”
Marc moved to Los Angeles in 2020 and, because the pandemic eased, met Tim a few instances at varied occasions round city. He didn’t need to push 400 Boys, however possibly, simply possibly, if this Love, Death and Robots factor saved on going, possibly it might come again round. Then, a 12 months in the past, Marc obtained the ‘would you be all in favour of us optioning 400 Boys?’ electronic mail. It was lastly occurring.
Marc spoke with Tim, who took over the script, concerning the story itself. He says the episode is trustworthy to the supply, however there’s some new stuff that helps promote the story visually. He had a couple conversations with Robert Valley, the director. He pointed him to the 400 Boys audiobook, which Marc narrated (“I did a studying of this again within the pandemic when everyone was making an attempt to entertain folks by posting audio books of their fiction and stuff on YouTube”).
However actually, Marc wasn’t that concerned. “It simply was enjoyable to sit down again and not should be concerned within the trenches on one thing for as soon as,” he says. “And I simply form of wished to get pleasure from it when it was performed and see what they manufactured from it.”
And Marc has seen the episode, as you’d anticipate. “John Boyega and the characters and the accents and the setting is simply so cool to me. I imply, they made the story simply a lot extra enjoyable visually, I believe.”
400 Boys is, as Marc describes it, from “a completely different me from lifetimes in the past.” In fact it’s, he wrote it over 40 years in the past when he was a younger man. “I am nonetheless fairly pleased with it contemplating how younger I used to be after I wrote it.”
“After which there was a very long time of not a lot occurring,” he says. After which, as everyone knows, Marc obtained into the video games trade in 1997, into Valve because it was making Half-Life. “And that complete factor occurred…”
Laidlaw “retired” from Valve in 2016, nevertheless it got here throughout as a arduous retirement from every part. In fact, he’s in a snug sufficient place to have the ability to do what he needs, choose his personal initiatives and share them after they’re performed. “I believe I retired too arduous,” he admits. He by no means wished to cease being artistic. He wished to get again to writing, however the publishing trade form of disappeared whereas he was engaged on video video games. Overlook new video video games, too. “I can not do video games with out a bunch of individuals. I can not make a recreation myself.”
So Marc makes music now. He obtained a enhance in viewers after Valve’s Half-Life 2 anniversary documentary got here out final 12 months and he launched a misplaced improvement video from the early days on his YouTube channel. “I am like, I am within the flawed enterprise!” Marc jokes. “I ought to simply be leaking details about my previous employer.”
Did it really feel bizarre trying again at Half-Life all these years later for the Valve documentary, I’m wondering?
“Yeah, it was good for me to simply form of course of and put a bow on that stuff, see a bunch of previous mates, take into consideration that, the entire thing,” Marc says.
“I hadn’t talked to or seen a lot of these folks for a very long time. I nonetheless keep in contact with a few people, however they’re additionally not likely there anymore. I do not know what is going on on there proper now, nevertheless it was enjoyable to hang around with folks and discuss it over and it was therapeutic.”
With Half-Life and Half-Life 2 anniversary documentaries performed and dusted, the one Valve recreation Marc is perhaps requested to reminisce over now’s Dota 2, which, ominously, is 12 years previous. Maybe in eight years Valve will come calling. “I may converse to Dota. That is the one factor left.” Until, after all, Valve fancies doing one thing on Alien Swarm (“I did a little bit on Alien Swarm”).
It’s inconceivable, I discover, to speak to Marc Laidlaw with out speaking about Half-Life. With these Valve documentaries out within the wild, there isn’t a lot left to say concerning the previous. However possibly (hopefully?!) Half-Life has a future, and it’s that thread I need to pull on.
There is no such thing as a level asking Marc if he is aware of whether or not Half-Life 3 is within the works. As he says, he doesn’t actually know the folks nonetheless left at Valve, however even when he did, he’s not about to announce the sport right here in our interview. Are you able to think about the e-mail Gaben would ship if he did?
It’s a higher use of our time, I believe, to ask Marc if he’d ever write for a online game once more. Marc says he’s, typically, nonetheless open to writing for a online game, and suggests Hideo Kojima ought to maybe have given him a name. “When Death Stranding got here out, I simply was grinding my enamel. Like, does he know I am obtainable? I would be comfortable to assist do the final polish of dialogue in your script and not wreck something, however simply make it strains that actors would sound higher popping out of their mouth.”
Marc, as he alluded to earlier, “retired actually arduous,” and he thinks that due to that, the trade doesn’t assume to ask him to do something. “Once I see the Miyazaki stuff, the From studio stuff, after all you go to George R. R. Martin first in case you may. No one wants my title on their undertaking to promote copies. However I imply, that form of factor to me is thrilling.”
The dearth of fascinating affords post-Valve got here as one thing of a shock, Marc says. “I did form of anticipate extra fascinating affords of stuff to do afterward and was form of like, ‘that is bizarre: any individual needs me to jot down their synopsis for their cell phone laser tag recreation.’ It is like, they do not know what I do.”
Wait, actually? Somebody truly requested Marc Laidlaw to jot down a cell phone laser tag recreation after he left Valve? “These are the form of issues I’d get,” Marc admits. “I am like, ‘I do not know that I’ve a lot to give you guys, however I imply, I do not actually prefer to say no to stuff.”
Marc continues: “I have not actually heard any fascinating recreation affords that appeared proper for me. Folks consider me as, you’ll be able to are available and write a bunch of stuff for a recreation. I am like, ‘do you discover how little writing there was in Half-Life?’ Kind of the purpose of it was I hated studying in video games.”
After which the inevitable interview-closer: if Valve gave Marc Laidlaw a name and stated, ‘we need to get the band again collectively for Half-Life 3,’ would he reply that decision?
“I’d not try this,” he replies, matter of factly. “I can undoubtedly say I’d not try this. Even after I was there, I began to really feel like, ‘Oh, now I am the previous man capturing stuff down.’ I believe in some unspecified time in the future you must let the people who find themselves the followers and the creators who’ve are available due to what they discovered from you possibly, and allow them to have that. We’d like new stuff. We did not want me going, ‘Effectively, the G-Man would not try this in my day.’ And I discovered I needed to restrain myself. Folks would get obsessed with stuff, and I felt prefer it was turning into a adverse power on a number of the artistic course of.
“I have not performed the VR Half-Life: Alyx, so I do not actually really feel like I can. I do not know what is going on on with something. And it isn’t actually my place. God is aware of what it is doing by way of artistic strategy of find out how to get a nice expertise that may shock folks. And you must be proper on the fringe of what you are able to do in a second. And I am not on that edge anymore. That is not what’s fascinating to me at this level. So I do not assume I would be good.
“Plus, I am one of many older guys, possibly not the oldest, nevertheless it’s a lot work. I imply, I do not assume I may try this anymore. I get into my very own issues, nevertheless it’s not on anybody else’s schedule. And yeah, I am just about performed. I imply, possibly not performed with video games altogether, however undoubtedly the Half-Life a part of my life is means behind me.”
So, that’s that. Half-Life is finished with Marc Laidlaw, and Marc Laidlaw is finished with Half-Life. However there’s a lot extra he’s performed previously that’s related now. Simply take a look at Netflix making 400 Boys, 40 years later. Possibly, in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later, Netflix will knock on Valve’s door and ask to show Half-Life into one thing. Then Marc Laidlaw can undergo all this over again.
“The truth that I obtained into the cyberpunk factor earlier than it was referred to as cyberpunk, and then I got here throughout this form of starting recreation firm that ended up making Half-Life… I have been fortunate to be a a part of these items that simply form of grow to be phenomena.”
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You’ll be able to attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.