It has been almost 20 years since the release of Team Fortress 2, and while Valve has certainly slowed down with updates to the title, it remains one of the most popular experiences on Steam even now. While fans may have been waiting for a major update, Valve has surprised everyone with a different kind of release, revealing a massive update to the Source SDK (Software Development Kit).
The complete Team Fortress 2 client and server game code is now available for the community to tinker with, potentially letting them create their games.
"Unlike the Steam Workshop or local content mods, this SDK gives mod makers the ability to change, extend or rewrite TF2, making anything from small tweaks to complete conversions possible," explains Valve in the official Team Fortress blog.
Valve has published the source code for only non-commercial use, making sure that mods of any capacity that come out of the release must be freely available to everyone. If a modification is significant enough, it may even be published to the Steam store, but once again, it must be free.
"Players have a lot of investment in their TF2 inventories, and Steam Workshop contributors have created of a lot of that content," adds Valve. "The majority of items in the game now are thanks to the hard work of the TF2 community. To respect that, we're asking TF2 mod makers continue to respect that connection, and to not make mods that have the purpose of trying to profit off Workshop contributors' efforts. "
For interested modders, find an FAQ published by Valve covering more details about Source Engine mods over here.
Alongside the source code release, Valve has also made updates to its classic source engine-developed titles to add "64-bit binary support, a scalable HUD/UI, prediction fixes, and a lot of other improvements." These improvements have now hit Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Counter-Strike: Source, and Half-Life Deathmatch: Source on Steam.
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