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On August 31st WiNGSPANTT and 7 other Golden Wrench owners will commit a nigh unutterable act of brazen item-aggression so egregious that we shudder to think of the implications should the Administrator herself catch wind of it.
On that day 8 Golden Wrenches will be destroyed.
Somehow these few have found the strength of will to reject the lure of Australium to serve a greater cause.
Over the last month WiNGSPANTT has spent his personal time and energy promoting and collecting donations for the Child's Play charity. The more donations received, the more Golden Wrenches to be destroyed on August 31st. As each Golden Wrench is destroyed a global message will be sent to everyone playing Team Fortress 2 announcing the sacrifice. Everyone who donates will receive a place on a special steam group to mark their generosity.
So far the event has managed to raise over $5,000 in donations. Further contributions may very well secure the destruction even more Golden Wrenches.
If you are interested in participating in the Golden Charity event please visit the website.
The TF2 team knew that the Golden Wrench event would be controversial -- an experiment in the distribution of an ultra-rare item. We never imagined that it would empower a small group of players to benefit a much vaster group of children in need. We are constantly shocked and impressed by the creativity of the Team Fortress 2 community, but today we are humbled.
This afternoon Corey Peters suddenly yelped and jumped out of his chair claiming that a Creeper had gotten into the new training map he was working on and that it was blocking his ability to get any work done. This was followed a few minutes later by Jon Lippincott claiming he couldn't finish up his code because he had run out of Iron Ore. Even as I write this I can hear Dave Riller telling a story about how he beat a sheep to death with his bare hands to make a new set of pants and a woolly hat.
It seems, dear friends, that our development team has succumbed to Minecraft addiction.
Minecraft is an amazing little (read: freaking huge) world building sandbox game by Markus Persson, aka Notch...the very same Notch that developed Left4kDead a couple years ago. In Minecraft you carve out your own little empire in the wild, building just about whatever you want while the natural world tries to slaughter you every nightfall. The game's box-like representation of reality is cute and definitely charming...until a horde of cute box-like skeletons rip your cute little box-like arms from your cute little box-like body in a spray of cute little box-like blood and gore.
Yes, you should play this game.
Apparently we aren't the only ones to fall prey to the lures of Minecraft. A number of you in The Community have also discovered the game and, as we have come to expect, you immediately went out and imported it into our game, Team Fortress 2.
Check out this Payload Race map developed by some Minecraft fans:
I have a feeling we'll be "playtesting" this map once it's available.
You can check out the latest updates for Minecraft by reading Notch's Blog.
Just a quick, but excited note: TF2maps.net has opened their doors on their new Art Pass Contest.
It's a fantastic opportunity for everyone involved: you get a chance to show us how much better at detailing maps than we are, and our (ex) art team gets a chance to find new jobs at companies that still need their kind!
After our usual delay, we're proud to announce we've finished the utterly impossible task of selecting the winners of the Polycount Contest. These five lucky individuals will soon receive the unbridled adoration of the TF2 community when we release their packs in an update. Unluckily for them, we're also going to attach gameplay attributes (probably of a game destroying nature) to these items, sullying their perfect work with our clumsy attempts at game design. Anyway, enough mucking about, head over and see who won!
Winners:
The Gasman (pyro)
Tank Buster (Soldier)
Special Delivery (Scout)
Croc-o-style (Sniper)
Saharan Spy (Spy)
In other good news, the chaps over at CEVO dropped us a line to say that registration for the CEVO TF2 Season 6 tournament has just opened up. With three skill divisions, it's a great place to play some competitive TF2 matches, even for relative beginners. They're trying to convince those of us in the Valve TF2 team to play in the Amateur division as well, which would be possible if we ever figured out how to curb our usual desire to cheat spectacularly.
Note: The current top 4 TF2 teams in North America (Complexity, Blight-fanom, eMazing Gaming, Nexus) will be battling it out this weekend at the ESEA season 6 LAN in Texas. The top CS:S and CS 1.6 teams will also be there. http://www.Pwnage.tv will be covering all 3 games.
Say you have two things: a perfectly good hand, and a brilliant inventor for a grandfather. One day you stumble across a blueprint for an amazing-as-hell robot hand meant to replace an arm-stump. Wait, you have three things: the hand, the grandfather, and a saw.
The final day of the Engineer Update unveils the Gunslinger, a mechanical stump-mounted monstrosity; "Thunder Mountain", the most awesomely named of our Valve-created Payload Maps.
Stop reading. Go play!
