<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Generated on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:10:01 -0700 -->
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <channel>
    <atom:link href="http://www.teamfortress.com/rss.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
    <title>TF2 Official Blog</title>
    <link>http://www.teamfortress.com</link>
    <description><![CDATA[Insight and announcements from the creators of Team Fortress 2]]></description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <generator>TF2 Blog RSS</generator>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Get 'em, boyos! ]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Today we're releasing an update to the Source SDK that includes the .vmf source files for many of the official TF2 maps. This is something we've wanted to do for a while, especially as we've been growing the range of game modes in TF. Here's the list of maps that are included in the update: Lumberyard, Ravine, Badlands, Dustbowl, Granary, Gravelpit, 2Fort, Badwater, Goldrush, and Hydro.<br />]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2578</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:05:12 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2578</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Some Manner of Grid-based Cipher Code]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[The men at <a href="http://www.tf2maps.net/" class="standardLink">TF2maps.net</a> have devised some sort of box puzzle that they thought you'd enjoy. Let me clear this up right now: They are incorrect in this thinking. I have stared at this blasted thing all morning and I can't make heads or tails of it. This is the problem with today's youth, if you ask me. Spending all their time devising clever boxy word puzzles instead of doing something constructive, like pushups, or jumping on a live grenade, or sitting in a foxhole cradling a man in your arms and watching the blood run out of him and the life drain from his eyes, or sit-ups.<br /><br />]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2562</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:25:43 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2562</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Every one of you deserves a medal!]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[First off, a quick note: We put so much stuff into this update that we didn't manage to cover it all on the internets before the update went live, so we made a special <a class="standardLink" href="http://www.teamfortress.com/sniper_vs_spy/day09_english.htm">Bonus page</a>. In addition, our merchandising crew had as much fun coming up with Spy & Sniper themed merchandise as we did making the update, so make sure you go and <a class="standardLink" href="http://store.valvesoftware.com/">check it all out.</a> <br /><br />
]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2535</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 22 May 2009 22:22:09 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2535</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[The Sniper vs. Spy Update]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[...is <a class="standardLink" href="http://www.teamfortress.com/sniper_vs_spy/">live</a>. What are you waiting for? Go play!]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2531</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2009 22:59:20 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2531</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Sniper vs. Spy Update, Day 7]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Oi! You! On the internet! Click this link!<br /><br />

But wait. First, is your boss around? No? Well get him over here! He is going to <i>love this!</I> Your fiancée's parents too. Heck, gather everyone around your computer right now, then read them this prepared statement:<br />]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2528</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 20 May 2009 23:47:04 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2528</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Day 6 Spy Update Hooray!]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Hello to you! My name is Stavros. I am now Vice President of Valve game company! Is very exciting! But much work. I am now head programmer, animator and game designer, plus I am washing Robin's clothes. (So many beef stains!)<br />]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2525</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2009 21:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2525</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Case closed]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA["Marianne, send in someone please. Anyone at all. Oi! Send in someone with one eyebrow! That'd be marvelous."<br />
"Sir, you've fired everyone."<br />
"Already? But it's not even eight o'clock."<br />
"You've outdone yourself, sir."<br />]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2520</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2009 02:57:26 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2520</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[At the W's]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[I think I've found my man. Valve's staff is now down to two employees: me and our Greek intern Stavros Xanthis. We're sitting in the main board room, staring at each other from across the table. I turned up the thermostat as far as it will go. It's hard to make him out behind the waves of heat coming out of the vents, but I think he looks guilty. ]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2519</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2009 02:51:14 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2519</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Overheard: Robin Walker gets results]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA["Alden, you have three seconds to tell me why you're fired."<br />
"Wait, what? I—"<br />
"You're fired."<br /><br />
]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2518</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2009 02:29:55 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2518</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Getting warmer]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Valve's head of HR, Kathy, just came to talk to me. I'd been lining up employees in a row against the wall so I could run past and fire them faster.<br />]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2516</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2009 00:40:34 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2516</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Getting to the bottom of things]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[As many of you know, the Meet the Spy video was leaked this weekend. Some of you on the forum have wondered if Valve leaked it on purpose. And until we find the clown who did leak it, the answer to that is yes.<br />]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2515</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2009 00:32:38 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2515</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Sniper/Spy Update, Day 5]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[You've met the <a class="standardLink" href="http://www.teamfortress.com/scout.htm">Scout</a>, the <a class="standardLink" href="http://www.teamfortress.com/soldier.htm">Soldier</a>, the <a class="standardLink" href="http://www.teamfortress.com/demoman.htm">Demoman</a>, the <a class="standardLink" href="http://www.teamfortress.com/heavy.htm">Heavy</a>, the <a class="standardLink" href="http://www.teamfortress.com/engineer.htm">Engineer</a>, and the <a class="standardLink" href="http://www.teamfortress.com/sniper.htm">Sniper</a>. Then, for some reason, a <a class="standardLink" href="http://www.teamfortress.com/sandvich.htm">sandwich</a>. But now it's time to meet the stealthiest, shiftiest, most secretive, suit-wearing TF team member of all...<br />]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2512</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2009 17:14:24 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2512</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Sniper Update, Day 4]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Day 4 of the Sniper update brings us…uh… hold on, that’s not…<br /><br />

<a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/spyupdate/day04_english.htm" class="standardLink">Holy hell</a>. All those conspiracy theorists on the TF forum couldn’t have been right all along, could they? Pyro's going to be inconsolable now.<br /><br />]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2509</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2009 20:11:13 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2509</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Sniper Update, Day 3]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Sniper shows off the latest addition to his arsenal: <a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/sniperupdate" class="standardLink">the Razorback</a>, a beautiful hand-carved tribal shield with a shocking modification.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2506</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 14 May 2009 21:17:31 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2506</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[TF2 - Super Smash Brothers 64 Intro]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the spiffy TF2 video made by AyesDyef over <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bbH632PSpw" class="standardLink">here</a> and check out how spot he really is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVo3xT3cHBA" class="standardLink">here</a>. It was his birthday earlier this month, so if you see him on a Goldrush out there, wish him a happy birthday before you shoot him!
]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2504</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 14 May 2009 20:09:20 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2504</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Sniper Update, Day 2]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Day 2 of our <a class="standardLink" href="http://www.teamfortress.com/sniperupdate">Sniper Update</a> is live, this time with a rundown on a new game mode and two new arena maps. Plus a postcard from Sniper, who likes to keep his parents updated on his exciting, legal, not-being-a-crazed-gunman job.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2500</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 May 2009 22:48:22 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2500</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[The arrow, the wall and you.]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[No, the Huntsman doesn’t stun. It pins dead/dying players.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2499</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 May 2009 00:08:31 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2499</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[G'Day!]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[<a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/sniperupdate" class="standardLink">The Sniper Update</a> is upon us.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2497</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 12 May 2009 20:09:14 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2497</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[I'm gonna be all over ya like shingles ]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Also, a quick note: The fine fellows at Gang Garrison have just released version 2.1 on <a class="standardLink" href="http://www.ganggarrison.com/">their webpage</a>. We played a bunch of 2.0, and can't wait to spend some time with the new update. There's a ton of new additions, from Control Point mode to Killcams to Manviches, so even if you've played it before, you should head over there and check it out!<br /> ]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2479</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2009 22:27:57 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2479</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[You better hold onto your head, mate]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[
The Sniper has been a tricky class to update. In particular, designing an alternative to the Sniper Rifle has been a challenge. To understand why, we need to go back, way back, into the mists of time, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and we started working on TF2. If it helps, you can listen to the <a class="standardLink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF2x5IKxmAQ&feature=PlayList&p=641CE0FA477316EA&index=0">Doctor Who Theme</a> while you read.<br /><br />]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2477</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2009 20:48:21 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2477</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Wave goodbye to yer head, wanker]]></title>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2394</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:22:21 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2394</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[A sneak preview of the next class update!]]></title>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2391</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:38:27 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2391</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[And that's what ye git fer toochin that!]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[One of the things we've been thinking about for a while now is how to improve the player experience around finding a server to play on. It's a tricky problem because our master servers need to ask a game server for its details, and that server can lie to us if it wants to. We decided we needed to find a way of scoring servers, with a goal of finding and delisting ones we considered "bad". The scoring system had to penalize lying without penalizing custom game rules, because some players like custom game rules. Best case, the system needed to work entirely from data that didn't come from the servers themselves, so they couldn't lie to us in any way to affect it.<br /><br />]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2338</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:29:03 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2338</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[I Can't Take My Eyes Off You for Five Minutes]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[<em>Honestly.</em><br /><br />
Please, do take a cursory glance at the missive directly below this one. Take care to notice its author, and the dismally recent date of its posting.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2293</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:38:25 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2293</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[You Have Failed Me]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[It saddens me that despite my best efforts to instruct and better you, some of you insist on finding new ways to fail.<br /><br /> ]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2262</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:44:18 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2262</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Ya appear to have trodden on a mine!]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[The news you've all been waiting for: <a href="http://www.tf2.com/scoutupdate" class="standardLink">The Scout Update!</a><br /><br />

Also, we released an update yesterday with a change that needs some clarification. The update notes said this:<br /><br />

<ul>
<li>Sticky bombs now get a reduced close range damage ramp up (like Rocket Launcher & Syringe Gun)</li>
</ul>]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2253</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:49:19 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2253</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Take your lumps like a man, Private Twinkle Toes!]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[On Tuesday we shipped an update that added a bunch of features / bugfixes / balancing tweaks that came out of the community's feedback. In particular, it made some changes to the underlying TF damage system, and as part of that, it modified the way critical hits are determined. We thought it might be interesting to dig a little into the change, and hopefully give you some insight into our thinking.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2221</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:08:15 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2221</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Okay, this does not look good here. Umm...]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[The Scout was one of the first TF2 classes we worked on when we decided to try out a more stylized approach to the game. As a result, his concept art is further afield, and in the eyes of our artists, much more embarrassing. This might be exacerbated by their desire to not have people looking at a piece of their artwork and not liking it, from an artistic point of view. Concept art has a different purpose than that, and so the effort to make it look great is usually unnecessary. In short, there's a special place in hell that all our artists hope we'll go to for showing you their concept art.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2195</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:01:09 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2195</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[That's what I'm talking about!]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[We're just about done with the Scout pack, and our design and coding has already moved on to the next pack. The weapons and achievements are all nailed down, and we just have to finish up the final artwork on them. We like to do the final art as late as possible to ensure that we don't waste any work, which turned out to be a good decision this time around due to the large number of unlockables we tried out as alternatives to the Scattergun. Balancing his replacement weapon has been very tricky due to large threat difference of the Scout between skilled and non-skilled hands. More on that soon.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2193</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 28 Jan 2009 01:33:35 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2193</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Hey good job, there, hardhat]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[We've been pretty quiet lately, but thankfully, that's about to end. In the next few days we'll have an update out that has a couple of new features for the Engineer and Spy, and a variety of other smaller fixes.<br /><br />]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2096</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:39:20 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2096</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Finding the Time to Bleed]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Since the release of Meet the Sandvich in August, several people have asked us how something we'd boasted would be "our magnum opus," "over four hours long" and "make Citizen Kane look like something dumb a complete idiot would make," ended up being one un-dramatic minute spent inside a refrigerator.<br /><br />]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1889</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:18:09 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1889</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Git along there, little doggies]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Work on the next class pack is gearing up, a little slower than we'd like. In the meantime, I thought I'd post some answers to the common email questions we receive.<br /><br />

<strong>How do respawn waves work? Is my respawn time affected by my performance? Why do they exist at all?</strong>]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1872</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:09:31 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1872</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Gentlemen,]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Well, it's been a couple of weeks since we updated the blog, and we thought it was time to let you know why we've been so quiet. The last couple of weeks we've actually been moonlighting on Left 4 Dead. While the L4D team has been focusing on finishing up the core cooperative gameplay, we've been helping them by working on their Versus mode. Versus is the recently-announced competitive mode where one team plays the Survivors and one team plays the Infected. We've learned a lot while working on TF2 in the last year, and we were able to apply some of those lessons to Versus mode. As a result, we've just finished adding critical hits, respawn waves, flawless auto-team balancing, and facestabs to L4D, while removing anything that looked remotely like a grenade. I kid, I kid. ]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1823</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:49:24 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1823</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[A Grim Bloody Fable]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[The path to arriving at a final design for a character is sometimes a long and winding one. This was especially the case for the Demoman and we thought it would be interesting to step through that process and shed a little light on how we arrive at our final designs. Early on in the process, soon after we decided that we were going to start a new, more stylized direction for TF2 it opened up a whole range of possibilities in terms of what that meant visually. One of the first (albeit short-lived) ideas that was being thrown around was to try to recreate a look of claymation for our game. The idea was to make the world look like a miniature set built for clay figures which animated and gibbed into chunks of clay.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1783</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:12:18 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1783</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Alpine Art Style]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[We decided to create a new TF environment after sensing some desert-fatigue, both internally and externally. The new theme had to be a departure from the current look without being so different that the characters felt out of place in it. We also wanted to leverage some content from our existing environments, since crafting every asset from scratch would mean we'd be moving the release beyond Valve time and into the realm of geologic time.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1760</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:55:16 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1760</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Incoming Heavy!]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[We've been a little quiet for the last week as we've put the finishing touches on the Heavy update. We thought the Pyro pack was the biggest we'd be doing for a while, due to the large changes to the Pyro, but the Heavy update has turned out to be even bigger. In addition to the three unlockable weapons and thirty-five achievements for the Heavy, we've got a new game mode with five new arenas for it, a new Payload map focusing on more open spaces than Goldrush, and another popular community-made map. Throughout the rest of the week we'll be giving you the details on all this, and if all goes well, you'll have your hands on it shortly afterwards.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1738</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:21:36 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1738</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[TF2 Environments]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[One of the things we're looking at for the next update is the creation of a new type of environment for our levels to be built in. We're pretty happy with the way our environments have turned out so far, but as we create more and more maps with these achievement packs, we want our level designers to have more to work with in terms of giving their settings a unique look.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1729</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:24:04 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1729</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[TF2 Trading Cards - Part 3]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[For this week's update, we've got another set of trading card images to take a look at. The focus of our most recent achievement update, the Pyro is a character that players may have seeing a lot of lately - making life a nightmare inferno for both the Spy and Medic.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1711</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:32:15 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1711</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Neat Community Creations]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[One of the things we hope to do on this blog is to point out the creative things that members of the TF2 community are up to. The Steampowered TF2 forum members have been collecting links ever since TF2 was released, and you can take a look at the list (and its accompanying 46-pages-so-far (!) forum thread)<a class="standardLink" href="http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=649323">here</a>.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1704</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:57:26 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1704</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[So much blood!]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Well, we were expecting some response to A Heavy Problem, but we severely underestimated just how much interest everyone had in contributing. If you're one of the many folks who emailed us proposals and haven't received a response, please accept our apologies, because there's just too many for us to reply to all of them. From the large amount of feedback and forum activity, it's clear that many of you found this interesting, so we'll definitely be posting more design goals. For those of you still thinking about it, here are some more tools to use in evaluating ideas:]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1688</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:49:10 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1688</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[TF2 Trading Cards - Part 2]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[To continue from the previous week, today we have some additional finished trading card images for you to take a look at - the Heavy and the Medic.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1678</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:16:42 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1678</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[A Heavy Problem]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[As Gabe mentioned in his lengthy response to an email recently, the next class pack will focus on the Heavy. For the Medic and Pyro packs we kept our goals for the pack pretty close to our chest, but for the Heavy we've decided to open up the process a little.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1670</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:11:47 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1670</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[TF2 Trading Cards - Part 1]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[During the development process with most of our games, we end up creating content that, for a variety of reasons, may never see the light of day. Sometimes we may not have the time to bring the content to finish, sometimes we use them as a company-only experiment, and sometimes the content just isn't in line with what we're doing at the time. Needless to say, there's a fair bit of cool stuff that we've never been able to share with our fans. We're happy to say that this blog has now given us a unique format in which to share some of the unused artwork with you.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1663</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:10:59 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1663</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[The Medigun Healing Ramp]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[In any game there's often a bunch of hidden complexity behind some of the simplest looking features, and TF2 is no exception. One example is that of the Medic's medigun. From a player perspective, it appears simple enough: point it at a team mate, press the button, and it'll heal them. After playing with a bit, most players notice that they have to stay near their target and maintain line-of-sight to their target. After playing with it a lot, some players notice that there's some variability in the rate at which they heal their targets. I thought it might be interesting for Medics to explain what's going on here, and why.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1656</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:03:25 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1656</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[The Flare Gun]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[When producing concept art, our artists believe in providing a variety of options for any given subject. A single concept rendering would place too strict a constraint on the resulting game design.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1655</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:32:42 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1655</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Welcome to the TF2 blog]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Now that we've settled into regular releases of content, we've found ourselves wanting a better way to talk directly to the TF2 community about the state of the game and some of the reasoning behind the choices we're making. Our hope is that this blog will accomplish that, and give everyone some better insight into our development process as well.]]></description>
      <link>http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1654</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:26:43 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1654</guid>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>