Found an old interview with Viktor where he discusses what he did for HL2 and where he took some of his ideas from(like City 17: YES IT IS IN BULGARIA MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... ahem).
Original version(on bulgarian):Click
Translated with google translate(i think it's readable)
When in November 1998 came on the market computer game Half-Life, developed from unknown at this time for entertainment software company Valve, "Wall Street Journal exclaimed:" Excellent, shattering a hit! 'If today - six years later, ask a true gamer what is the most intelligent computer game, you will surely respond that this is Half-Life 2. Long-awaited sequel came out last year on 16 November and only a month and a half it had sold nearly two million copies, which is an absolute record in videogeym industry.
While Half-Life has stood out with its original strategy and fairly good graphics, now keen to team realized its sequel, is to create something really impressive. For people from Valve but the result is more surprising, because in gaming circles started to talk about Half-Life 2 as the most beautiful game ever made.
Art director and concept designer of Half-Life 2 is a 32-year-old Bulgarian with a French passport Viktor Antonov.
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B: its Graduate Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, having previously taught her and its subsidiary Swiss. How was this reputable school?
- Throughout my childhood was involved in painting. At age 15 I went to live in Paris and then sent my portfolio with paintings in Art Center College of Design in Switzerland. This is one of three schools in world automotive design. The other two are in Detroit and London. This profession is very specific because it combines engineering, materials science, physics, production methods and very artistic. Learn to do concept cars of the future. I had part of his training there and then moved to Pasadena.
B: Are you busy with something else while studying?
- Worked on sets for movies. The school had a tradition in this area - almost all who have completed, work on art direction for Hollywood productions, such as Syd Mead, who sets a futuristic "Blade Runner". In later had a huge chance to work on the sets of the first fully digital European Film - "Renaissance" which is a French production.
B: How was Valve?
- I graduated in January 1996 and had few options. In fact, I've always been interested in Fiction - more interesting for me to tell visual way of sci-fi stories than do cars. At that time most creative freedom was in video games because they were a nascent industry and there were no written rules. While in film marketing and distribution dictate and define the product, the games were made by small independent companies and this was something wonderful. So I entered this industry.
In Los Angeles I lived until 2000 and decided to go back to Europe, but am committed to continued professional overseas. After the fourth game by Valve I came in touch with me and started working as a consultant for them.
B: Valve have only three products, but very important - and as a business and having fun.
- By all criteria Half-Life 2 was hit right in dozens. And all this is due to the strategic thinking of the company founder Gabe Nyuuel. His experience is impressive - has left Microsoft after thirteen years working as a manager and creator of Windows Media department of the company. He knows what risks to take and how to balance them with commercial stability. Thanks to it, Valve is a unique place because it is completely independent. The company is not public and did not take a cent from external Investors - so there is absolute freedom.
B: Given the global markets do not we talk about the phenomenon ...
- Especially in the entertainment industry, which is completely hack. Constantly growing budgets and the quality falls. This is particularly true for the cinema, where fear of risk is huge and has made only extensions but no original fiction.
B: What it means to be art director of a grand project like Half-Life 2?
- This position is strictly specific to each area. I compared the gaming industry with the West. In principle, all companies for video games are created by engineers or businessmen. Technocrats were guided throughout the nascent industry, but for beauty and style we can hardly talk.
The role of art director become evident recently because computers now make it possible to create better quality graphics. You can make parallels with the film industry in which the first directors were, say, the inventors of the camera - like Edison, Lumiere brothers ... It was only later they are overtaken by people with artistic thinking.
B: What is your job consisted in Half-LIfe 2?
- I started as a conceptual designer and just doing drawings, but after treatment is not received what I wanted. Then I went to the team and literally sat behind each modelizatorite and engineers and they explained it to the canons of art and design. So get the integration of my drawings in the final product.
B: Did it needs to implement his ideas? Scrambled Do you work?
- Absolutely everybody. First, because this is not a public company and worked directly for its owners, and second - they were created first part, which had enormous success. All thought that are experts in the field of graphic design. Visual arts it is very difficult because everyone can tell you what color the sky. In the interest of the game that situation had to be changed and took her design for the purpose I needed the confidence of the creators Valve. I tell them - see, after three months will get this result, but these and these conditions. To that end had hired people with specific skills - all the traditional education in drawing, painting or design, not people who have dealt only with computers.
B: Results are indicative - it seems that on this game are working artists.
- This is a big difference. The previous way of thinking that needs to be very good at working with a computer and you need a little experience in art, was now changed.
B: How long does it continue to work in Half-Life 2?
- Six years.
B: This is a very or somewhat?
- Cloverfield a lot. And I will never be repeated.
B: What was the reason for that duration?
- It's paradoxical. The reason that made the game successful and beautiful and was very dangerous - no limitations. Aim at heaven and wanted to make the best game. Our boss said that the budget does not care. But when there are no restrictions, you know when to stop, what you liked and what - not. We had enormous freedom ...
B: Who is the prototype of the game's protagonist - nuclear physicist Gordon Freeman?
- A teeny teksasets who painted tattoos. He is the first part, he and designer Gordon.
B: Where is the mysterious City 17? In the subconscious of people or embodiment of global planet?
- The City 17 has many symbolic things. The feeling is an occupied city (in the case of aliens), globalization has, of course, allusions to Communism and Fascism.
B: What is the philosophical concept of Half-Life, hardly the basis it was just fun? I think it provokes thoughts of unconventional.
- There are many subjects and levels of thinking - a game in the game. In general, video games may not be as easily defined as movies or music. Half-Life 2 has undertaken to fulfill all functions of a game. It is history, generates a new world has puzzles to be solved physical problems, strategic military missions, and have adventures ... comedy.
B: If not a secret, so how did you come to a realistic image?
- I think that was a leading technology and art and the choice of details. All shaders - reflections, shadows and light were sensitive in the context of art so that no excessive gloss, bright green lights and contrasts. In Half-Life 2 it is moderate and this is one of the reasons for the realism of the game.
B: Where has reached a certain level of play, Bulgarian gamer can not but an association with known sites of Sofia. What is the "Sofia" link in the scenery?
- I felt exhausted by the science fiction clichés. In this genre there was some revival during the 70's, but has since started the endless repetition of stories and concepts. Half-Life uses the cliches of a film-cliche - "Alien" of Ridley Scott. When taken up for her, let her bear the risk and responsibility to create a new city that I know very well, but is unknown to the general public. Standard games are prototypes in New York and Los Angeles recently, and Prague. Bulgaria, however, offers a very rich material for the visual arts - it's like a hidden treasure.
Sofia is a city that has very interesting architecture - sometimes resembles a scene from a black film or a horror film, sometimes hitting its rich colors. At the end of the XIX century it was built as a copy of the Vienna, Paris, Rome and somehow an imitation of Europe - a unique and almost fantastic. This happens very surprising things visually, but I wanted to change completely conscious concept fantasy city. I had long conversations with Gabe and the other bosses of the company and had to convince them it was worth the risk. The problem was that they did not distinguish between Swiss, Swedish or Bulgarian architecture. Ultimately, by Valve decided that all this looks pretty interesting.
B: You used pictures of Bulgaria. Who is the author?
- The creation of the City used 17 images taken by a young Bulgarian photographer Alexander Yordanov (19), although you will not find his name in the list of authors. He looked Sofia most unusual angle different from the familiar to tourists. My strategy was to show the invisible things of the city and thus create a sense of depth and intimacy. So Alexander shot backyards, basements, shafts, tunnels, roofs - places where gamers then falls and the world of Half-Life 2 it absorbs.
B: About a month and a half game won several prestigious awards ...
- One of the most prestigious magazines such as Internet GameSpy, GameSpot identified January as the best game of 2004 and the English Edge - the most original product of the year and gave us the award for best visual design. On December 14 in Los Angeles popular Spike TV also announced Half-Life 2 game with the best design.
B: One of the trends for the future of cinema is that the viewer himself can determine the fate of the characters, but if video games have already done.
- Some magazines that write about computer games, more often advised his readers: do not walk to watch the latest blockbuster in theaters and stay home PC-before it and be the protagonist.
Computer games have become a respected art product. In 2003, gaming industry has surpassed Hollywood movies' profits. Revenues exceeded $ 10 billion and last year they increased by a few percent and so it became the dominant industry. It is not surprising that more and more directors are looking for contacts with computer games companies.
B: Even before the release of market Half-Life fell into two targeted by hackers? How resisted their attacks?
- We announced an incorrect date for the premiere of the game - September 15, and Hackers are podvedoha. If they had stolen the final version, the problem would not only be financial. Still it is a work of a team of about 80 people who have devoted six years of life on this project. That would be monstrous.
Subject: An old interview with viktor antonov 
