Here’s the latest Steam News Update from seam, very interesting don’t you think!

Speakeasy’s Gamecloud and the developers of Half-Life 2, Valve Corporation, have teamed up to help the American Red Cross in their hurricane relief efforts. Valve has produced 100 limited edition prints of a spectacular piece of art depicting the mechanical takeover of City 17 and the imposing alien citadel that figures prominently in Half-Life 2. The Combine Wall print is based on artwork that was made during the production of Half-Life 2 by Art Director Viktor Antonov.

While Valve plans to sell prints 2-99 to the public, they have graciously given Gamecloud prints number 1 and number 100, complete with certificates of authenticity, for our American Red Cross auction. Both the certificates and the prints are signed and feature an embossed Half-Life Lambda logo. One hundred percent of the proceeds for the auction will be donated to the American Red Cross to aid hurricane victims.

Here is a statement from Valve’s Jason Holtman about how they created these limited edition prints:

“We wanted our limited art prints to be museum quality lithographs. Reproduction of artwork is often done on uncoated stocks with traditional approaches. Common printing approaches have downfalls like screen angles and dot gain which lose detail and give a commercial look. We used stochastic lithographic printing for the limited reproductions, which minimizes those issues and reproduces beautifully. We also printed on heavy Pegasus Brill White stock, a beautiful, slightly textured paper. This process captures the original artwork right from the artist’s brush in high definition. Unlike traditional print methods, the subtle details don’t disappear and the artist’s touch is revealed though the printing inks. In this case, even though the source file is digital, the print has much more life than traditional printing, really sitting and breathing on the paper.”

You are bidding on print number 1. Print number 100 will be up for bids (also with all proceeds going to the Red Cross) following the conclusion of this auction. Good luck to all the bidders!

High resolution photos of the print:
http://images.filecloud.com/60728/superhighres.jpg and http://images.filecloud.com/60724/1of100_2.jpg

Ebay Item