Here are some quotes from PC Gamer from the Valve employees:
Robin Harper (Valve Designer): "Right now, we're really, really good at making Half-Life 2. We think our customers want a lot more of Half-Life 2. That's what we're going to give them. But we'd just got confortable with our tools, and what we could do. That's normally the point in which we'd go off and make new tools... We didn't want to do that."
"We really want Alyx to grow as a character. There was the promise of that in the first game, but we spent so much of our time introducing her as a character, we really didn't get a chance to spend time with her for an entire section. She would flit in and out. Since she's with you a lot, we're working on ways to make her a lot more interesting to be around, a lot more interesting to interact with."
Marc Laidlaw (Writer): "The reason we're able to do this, and why it's so exciting for us coming out of Half-Life 2, is because of Steam... If we were doing this without Steam we'd have to put it in a box, we'd have to start figuring out shelf space over a year beforehand... You'd see it six years from now."
Marc also stated that he is desperate to make a mod based on Lamarr, the little headcrab.
Robin Harper (Valve Designer): "Right now, we're really, really good at making Half-Life 2. We think our customers want a lot more of Half-Life 2. That's what we're going to give them. But we'd just got confortable with our tools, and what we could do. That's normally the point in which we'd go off and make new tools... We didn't want to do that."
"We really want Alyx to grow as a character. There was the promise of that in the first game, but we spent so much of our time introducing her as a character, we really didn't get a chance to spend time with her for an entire section. She would flit in and out. Since she's with you a lot, we're working on ways to make her a lot more interesting to be around, a lot more interesting to interact with."
Marc Laidlaw (Writer): "The reason we're able to do this, and why it's so exciting for us coming out of Half-Life 2, is because of Steam... If we were doing this without Steam we'd have to put it in a box, we'd have to start figuring out shelf space over a year beforehand... You'd see it six years from now."
Marc also stated that he is desperate to make a mod based on Lamarr, the little headcrab.