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|platform=WikipediaMicrosoft Windows|Windows
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'''''Prospero'''''''Half-Life 2 Raising the Bar'' was one of Valve's first game designs, slated to come out shortly after ''Half-Life''.
==Development==
FileAleph 2.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Concept art for the main character.
FileProsp 04.png|Development screenshot, showing the industrial world.|200px|thumb|right
Work on ''Prospero'' began in late 1996, sometime after Valve Software was founded. The game was to emphasize exploration, an intricate storyline, and combat via "psionic" powers. Influences would have included the video game ''wikipediaMyst|Myst'' and the works of wikipediaJorge Luis Borges|Jorge Luis Borges. The protagonist of ''Prospero'' (known as "The Librarian", "Aleph", or "Aleph-Null", as the character was one of a set) underwent a series of design changes during the early development of the game. One iteration relied heavily on the use of psionic amplifiers to augment her innate abilities.
Another character, named Miranda, was created by http//lesbetterley.com/ Les Betterly,http//lesbetterley.com/ Les Betterly's personal website who was an artist on the ''Prospero'' team and "was just coming up with art to get the creativity started." As stated by Marc Laidlaw, the character must have come from the original ''Prospero'' concept, which pre-dated his arrival, as he didn't know anything of it. The concept art shows her bearing a Lambda symbol|lambda tattoo on the left arm, a symbol, which eventually ended up being the ''Half-Life'' series' logo. Les Betterly said that it was his influence, and not something required. Moreover, Marc Laidlaw stated that it was never a ''Prospero'' logo.
In July, 1997 Laidlaw was hired. Although he was supposed to do "a couple weeks of work to consolidate the storyline for ''Half-Life'' so that it could ship that year", the bulk of his time was devoted to ''Prospero'', which he called "a science fantasy epic."http//www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131227/marc_laidlaw_on_story_and_narrative.php Marc Laidlaw On Story And Narrative on Gamasutra Another developer, Karl Deckard, is known to have been involved in every level of the design process for the game from August, 1996 to October, 1998.{{LI|pub/karl-deckard/44/783/909/es|Karl Deckard}}
As the design of ''Quiver'' started to take over some of ''Prospero'' initial goals, ''Prospero'' evolved into a massively multiplayer game. It was also intended to be distributed with a mix of official and user-created worlds that could be accessed through The Library, the core hub of the game, where the main character was in charge of the various world stored there; each game would be running on its own server. Online distribution, server browser, a friend finder, user-created content and other concepts initially conceived for ''Prospero'' would eventually find their way into the ''Half-Life'' series, the ''Portal'' series, WikipediaSteam (software)|Steam, and Valve's support of Mods|fan-made modifications. As ''Half-Life'' proved to be an irresistible force, the ''Prospero'' team was soon absorbed.
In June 2006, Gabe Newell stated that he would like to resume work on ''Prospero'' after ''http//wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Team_Fortress_2 Team Fortress 2'' was completed.http//developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Gabe_Newell%27s_FAQ Gabe Newell's FAQ - June 2006 at the Valve Developer Community
In mid-2014 several screenshots of the game, showing rough and unfinished environments created by Randy Lundeen as a means of establishing ''Prospero'''s sense of scale, were presented by ValveTime. Marc Laidlaw stated that "getting scale right was critical" as it was a third-person game, and that "in general, the blue-toned images are all from The Library." The warmer-colored, industrial locations, created by a level designer Duncan, were part of a world that the player would enter, which featured a furnace area that generated heat to turn the giant gears.
==Behind the scenes==
"Prospero" is the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish version of the first name "Prosper", which comes from the Roman name "Prosperus", which means "prosperous", "fortunate" or "successful" in Latin.http//www.behindthename.com/name/prospero Behind the Name Prosperohttp//www.behindthename.com/name/prosper Behind the Name Prosper The choice of the name may be a nod to the character Prospero, an island-dwelling duke in exile who could perform powerful magic, in WikipediaWilliam Shakespeare|Shakespeare's ''WikipediaThe Tempest|The Tempest''; his daughter was known as Miranda. The name of the main character, Aleph, is a nod to Borge's short story ''WikipediaThe Aleph (short story)|The Aleph'', in which he describes a point in space that contains all other points, and through which the entire universe can be seen.
In the ''Half-Life'' sound files folder (Steam version), the music files commonly known as "Dimensionless Deepness", "Steam in the Pipes", "Threatening (Short)", "Traveling Through Limbo" and "Vague Voices" are named "prospero01" to "prospero05". In the Development of Half-Life 2 game|''Half-Life 2 '' leak sound files, Breen can be heard mentioning the "Aleph universe", as an early name for the Combine Overworld.Playable Development of Half-Life 2 game|''Half-Life 2'' leak files Marc Laidlaw stated that "Aleph has a meaning that predates ''Prospero'' and Dr. Breen," and that there's no intentional overlap of the worlds of both games, though "all conceivable world could be pocket universes contained in the library."{{YouTube|KB4Z0B2NkUE|''Prospero'' - Database Episode 3}}
==Gallery==
FileMiranda.jpg|Concept art for Miranda by Les Betterly.
FileAleph 1.jpg|Concept art for Aleph/The Librarian.
FileProsp 01.png|Development screenshot, showing The Library.
FileProsp 02.png|Ditto.
FileProsp 06.png|Ditto.
FileProsp 07.png|Ditto.
FileProsp 03.png|Ditto, the top of The Library.
FileProsp 05.png|Ditto, the industrial world.
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
*{{YouTube|url=KB4Z0B2NkUE|text=''Prospero'' - Database Episode 3}}
{{Games}}
{{Multiplayer}}
CategoryGamesCategoryCancelled gamesCategoryCancelled multiplayer gamesCategoryNon-canon games