While Half-Life has seen resounding critical and financial success (winning over 50 "Game of the Year" awards and selling more than a million copies worldwide), few people realize that it didn’t start out a winner — in fact, Valve’s first attempt at the game had to be scrapped. This article by senior designer Ken Birdwell is about the teamwork – or "Cabal process" — that turned the initial, less than impressive version of Half-Life into a groundbreaking success.