Minh Le
| Minh Le | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 June 1977 |
| Residence | Canada |
| Nationality | Vietnamese |
| Other names | Gooseman |
| Occupation | computer game developer |
| Years active | 1996-present |
| Known for | Co-creator of Counter-Strike |
Minh Le (Vietnamese: Lê Minh, born June 27, 1977), also known by his online nickname Gooseman, is a Vietnamese-Canadian computer game developer who co-created the popular Half-Life mod Counter-Strike with Jess Cliffe in 1999. He was later employed by Valve Software, the developers of Half-Life, and is currently working on the multiplayer first-person shooter Tactical Intervention. In the small-team games that he has worked on, Le has been a programmer, modeler, and designer.
Le first picked up id Software's Quake in 1996 and began playing with its software development kit, and after about a year he completed his first mod (short for "modification") called Navy SEALs, Counter-Strike's spiritual predecessor.[1][2] While he was working on the Action Quake 2 mod, he came up with the idea for Counter-Strike and became friends with AQ2's webmaster Jess Cliffe.
Le began work on Counter-Strike as a mod for Half-Life while he was in the middle of his fourth year at Simon Fraser University[2] (he later graduated with a degree in computer science[3]). He spent about 20 hours a week on making the mod, expending more effort on it than he did on his schoolwork,[1] and released the first beta version in June 1999. The "Counter-Strike Team" quickly produced several more beta releases in the following months as the game's popularity skyrocketed.[1]
By the fourth beta version, Valve Software, the developer who created Half-Life, began assisting in the development of Counter-Strike.[4] In 2000, Valve bought the rights to Counter-Strike and hired Le and Cliffe to work with them in Bellevue, Washington, USA where Le continued to work on Counter-Strike and related games. During this time he was developing Counter-Strike 2, however Valve eventually put this project on hold indefinitely.[5]
After Counter-Strike 2 was shelved, Le left Valve to work on a project of his own.[5] After two years working with a small team on this project, he then moved to South Korea in 2008 to work with a business named FIX Korea who provided funding for further development. Le's new game was later revealed to be Tactical Intervention, a game similar in style to Counter-Strike created with a modified version of Valve's Source engine.[6]
In 2003, a GameSpy editorial cited Minh Le as the most important reason Half-Life was still popular five years after it was released.[7] IGN ranked Jess Cliffe and Minh Le as number 14 in their "Top 100 Game Creators of All Time" list.[8]
In a very popular map of the game Counter-Strike, de_dust2, the name "Goose" is sprayed on the wall at bombsite A.
The nickname comes from Shane Gooseman, one of the main characters of 1980s cartoon series The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers.[9]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 John McLean-Foreman (2001-05-30). "Interview with Minh Le". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 James Yu (2001-01-25). "Gooseman Counter-Strike Interview". FiringSquad. Retrieved 2006-12-02.
- ↑ "Interview - Minh Le of Counter Strike team". Eurogamer. 2000-10-03. Retrieved 2006-12-02.
- ↑ "Development a la mod"". Red Herring (magazine). 2001-05-08. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ben Min (2009-09-28). "The Next Counterstrike: A conversation with Minh Le and a look at Tactical Intervention.". Retrieved 2009-09-28.
- ↑ Breckon, Nick (2009-09-28). "Counter-Strike Creator Reveals 'Tactical Intervention'". Shacknews. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
- ↑ Kevin Bowen (2003-02-09). "Top Ten Reasons Half-Life is Still #1". GameSpy. Retrieved 2006-12-02.
- ↑ "Top 100 Game Creators of All Time". IGN. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
- ↑ Rose, Mike (22 January 2014). "Minh "Gooseman" Le plays CS:GO with Gamasutra". Gamasutra. Think Services. Retrieved 23 January 2014.
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