Valve to release Alien Swarm on Steam for free

Nick Mertes 17 Jul, 2010 at 3:40pm ET Article published in Gaming

Two years ago, Valve hired the team responsible for Alien Swarm, a top down co-op mod for Unreal Tournament 2004. In that time, the team has been working on projects such as Left 4 Dead and Portal 2, leaving some to think that Alien Swarm may have been abandoned. However, yesterday’s announcement proves that this has not been the case.

In the time since, Alien Swarm has been brought to the Source Engine and had Steamworks integrated. It is also to be released on Steam this coming Monday at the low price of … free.

Not content to release the game, Valve is also releasing the complete source code for Alien Swarm, including the Source engine SDK and Steamworks integration updates.

A promotional video for the new release can be found at the Alien Swarm web site.

Comments

17 Jul 2010 ~ 3:48pm Thrax Wow. BADASS!
17 Jul 2010 ~ 11:54pm Bandrik All together now. And a one, and a two...

THANK YOU VALVE!!
18 Jul 2010 ~ 8:01am Snarkasm Very cool. Wishlisted.
18 Jul 2010 ~ 4:23pm Winfrey YEAH! Finally!

Alien Swarm is easily one of my favorite UT2K4 mods ever.
18 Jul 2010 ~ 9:43pm _vRz_ omg totally awesome!!!!!
19 Jul 2010 ~ 8:24pm Cliff_Forster Valve servers too busy to handle my request!! RAGE!!!!!!
19 Jul 2010 ~ 8:35pm BobbyDigi "@FatCat downloading Alien Ant Swarm off Steam for free, are you?"

Did this come from the Alien Ant... Farm?

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CDl9ZMfj6aE&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CDl9ZMfj6aE&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

;-)
19 Jul 2010 ~ 8:57pm Koreish I must know is Annie ok?
19 Jul 2010 ~ 9:20pm AlexDeGruven One of the best covers ever. One of few I enjoy more than the original. Dancing kid in the surgical mask is freakin awesome.

Also: Downloading Alien Swarm now. Love free stuff on Steam.
19 Jul 2010 ~ 10:37pm Thrax Got my copy earlier this afternoon. Can't wait to give it a go on Wednesday when I get back into town.
19 Jul 2010 ~ 11:31pm Obsidian Alien Swarm is pretty cool at first but the game is so damn short. It's pretty obvious why it was free.
20 Jul 2010 ~ 3:01am UPSLynx TF2 players - download and play Alien Swarm, and get this awesome TF2 hat for free next time you play:
20 Jul 2010 ~ 3:11am Foxy-K It may be short, but I think the idea is achievements/speed runs/unlocking cool stuff and leveling up.

It's meant to be played multiple times. And give me a TF2 hat.
20 Jul 2010 ~ 4:16am primesuspect I like it! Played tonight with Small Ivory Knight, Church, and some pubs.

Good times.
20 Jul 2010 ~ 5:18am Obsidian

primesuspect wrote:

I like it! Played tonight with Small Ivory Knight, Church, and some pubs.

Good times.

That's what I am, just some pub to you? :bawling:
20 Jul 2010 ~ 8:40am PhIxX DL'd last night, but haven't gotten to play yet... wish they'd tip their hats to the original Alien Syndrome though - man I loved that game.
20 Jul 2010 ~ 12:30pm primesuspect

Obsidian wrote:

That's what I am, just some pub to you? :bawling:

DAMMIT see? The name change messed me up!

AND OBSIDIAN, AND OBSIDIAN

and some pubs.
20 Jul 2010 ~ 12:54pm Jokke Can we have our own server running, possibly multiple?
Tried a short game today, was fun.
20 Jul 2010 ~ 1:11pm Basil

Jokke wrote:

Can we have our own server running, possibly multiple?

For a dedicated server?

Doubtful, no linux binaries, windows version gives a missing libraries error unless the steam client is running in the background.

Alleged fix is to copy d vstdlib_s.dll, tier0_s.dll, steamclient.dll and Steam.dll into the gameserver root if anyone has a windows box spare.
20 Jul 2010 ~ 1:23pm shwaip Downloading for the hat.
20 Jul 2010 ~ 2:26pm Bandrik I LOVE it when games have this sort of cross-game support for each other. It may seem like just a marketing gimmick, but I think it's pretty awesome. A fun little way of saying "thanks for trying our game, here's a little reward in another game you already have and love". Thanks again, Valve.
20 Jul 2010 ~ 5:50pm Canti

UPSLynx wrote:

TF2 players - download and play Alien Swarm, and get this awesome TF2 hat for free next time you play:
20 Jul 2010 ~ 6:41pm Bandrik

Canti wrote:

Haha, yep. It's exactly like that. Nice find.
20 Jul 2010 ~ 8:58pm BobbyDigi I planned to download it before I knew about the hat... This will just get me to do it quicker.
21 Jul 2010 ~ 7:00pm _k If you want to play Alien Swarm in first person throw these commands in console.

firstperson
asw_hide_marine 1
asw_controls 0

Source.
21 Jul 2010 ~ 7:59pm Jokke Nice find, tried it, and I like it better in 3rd person. Nice change though.
21 Jul 2010 ~ 9:09pm Bandrik You can switch it to 1st person mode with those commands? Sweet! Definitely a fun way to switch things up.
21 Jul 2010 ~ 9:50pm UPSLynx For the record, I was excited about alien swarm long before I found out you could get a hat.
21 Jul 2010 ~ 10:32pm Thrax

UPSLynx wrote:

For the record, I liked that band long before they were popular.

FTFY
21 Jul 2010 ~ 10:49pm PirateNinja

Thrax wrote:

FTFY
22 Jul 2010 ~ 12:06am BobbyDigi Clown if you must, I want mah hat!

anyone familiar with the minimum I need to do in Alien Swarm to get the hat. I ran around the first level and shot some aliens (and my teammates) but I did not get the hat :-(
22 Jul 2010 ~ 12:14am Obsidian READ THE ACHIEVEMENTS LIST NUB. Seriously though, you need to beat two missions online to get your hat. Takes 15-20 minutes, very easy.
22 Jul 2010 ~ 11:41am BobbyDigi It's always easier to blab out a question then it is to actually do the research myself

Thanks Obsidian

-Bobby
22 Jul 2010 ~ 3:16pm UPSLynx

Thrax wrote:

FTFY

I'm the patron saint of liking bands before they become popular. Then I stop liking them because it isn't cool.

I once discovered an indie band in the basement of a house. I killed them all before I left so no one else could discover them.
22 Jul 2010 ~ 3:19pm AlexDeGruven

UPSLynx wrote:

I'm the patron saint of liking bands before they become popular. Then I stop liking them because it isn't cool.

I once discovered an indie band in the basement of a house. I killed them all before I left so no one else could discover them.

Oh, I remember them. They were ok. A little too mainstream for my taste, though.