Valve is releasing the HL2 SDK 1 month before the release of HL2. There are conditions however. You must be willing to travel to Seattle Washington, USA to receive your SDK, and undergo a class from Valve in person.
I think that was Valve's intent before the source code got swiped. I think they wanted to ease the transition for MOD makers from HL1 technology to HL2 technology (basically have a few quick "tutorial classes" on how to create models, textures, sounds, etc. How to put things in a level so that they work properly (physics and all). How to animate characters using the Face Poser utility to create complex facial expressions, etc.
There obviously wouldn't be enough time in a 1 day visit to go through all of the source code in the SDK and I doubt Valve would spend any time trying to get coders familiar with the HL2 SDK since most code jockeys are used to figuring things out on their own by reading through the source code.
I will imagine Valve will just release the HL2 SDK in the same way they did the HL1 SDK (only using BitTorrent instead of having people download some 500MB SDK from a web site).
I wouldn't expect the HL2 SDK to be released for several more months yet. If the game comes out in the Fall of 2004, the game will probably be released around November. You could probably expect the HL2 SDK sometime in October. If the game gets pushed back to 2005, you may not see the SDK until spring or summer of next year.
Not yet. We are working on it now and will release it as soon as we think it is ready for public use. We understand that there is a great deal of anticipation from the community, and we want to put the necessary time and resources into the SDK so it is done right.
We are not distributing the SDK prior to its general public release.
i think some moders actually got there and got head up start.. before the SDK was stolen.. only the greatest ideas for mods get kvalified to come and visit..
ive been into some of the mods for hl2 and it seems like its right..
sven Co-Op seem to get alot of attention from valve.. and they will get alot of help to get their mod ready.. im not sure but it might be a fee for it.. hopefully not..