Last week marked the end of the Half-Life 2: Deathmatch level design contest. We received over 200 submissions, and we're going through and playtesting each one. There are a number of great maps in here, and we're already having trouble picking the clear winners. The release of the winning maps will coincide with a release of Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, which will include two new weapons: the Slam and Stunstick.

Also of note for level designers and Mod builders: there will be an update to the Half-Life SDK this week which most notably will include source files for six Half-Life 2 maps.

Lastly, work on Dave Riller's new map cs_compound continues, along with the other projects we're working on here at Valve. We'll have an update on the map and our other projects next month.