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Half-Life: Cross Product is an upcoming first-person shooter game developed and published by The Phoenix Project Software for Windows and Linux on the GoldSrc engine. Set in an alternate-history sci-fi universe, it builds on the foundations of Half-Life with a rich dystopian world, experimental game mechanics, and a narrative, with all elements inspired by other games and films such as Quake, The Terminator, and Halo.
Cross Product is both a narrative-driven singleplayer experience and a multiplayer online arena shooter. In 2020, The Phoenix Project Software opened Half-Life: Cross Product Multiplayer (then known as Shooter Tourneys) to Early Access on Mod DB, and in 2021, it introduced the Aura framework alongside an SDK where modders and players alike can create new maps, gamemodes, and content, supported with Steam integration. In June 2025, it was announced that Half-Life: Cross Product Multiplayer would be arriving on Steam later that year and a "singleplayer campaign demo would be coming soon."
Since August 2021, the Multiplayer has seen yearly "Season" updates, which The Phoenix Project Software introduced as a way to streamline and spread out development of the game, in order to focus on creating the campaign.
Notable features of the multiplayer, upon Half-Life Deathmatch, include a varied set of switchable gamemodes, a large amount of maps created by The Phoenix Project Software, Valve, Gearbox, and the community, extensively customizable settings such as field of view (FOV), and advanced movement features & techniques such as strafe-jumping and bunny-hopping.
As the game has yet to be released, The Phoenix Project Software has revealed limited information regarding the story. Early prototype demos released in 2020 suggested the player plays as protagonist Zeke, as fragments of the Black Mesa Research Facility began popping up in the Zombies Ate My Neighbors universe. Since then, as the development of the game evolved, the story and its tone has changed dramatically.
Cross Product takes place in a fractured alternate-universe upon a world shaped by a catastrophic event known as the Alexandria Incident, which unleashed a deadly mutagenic virus in the country of Aethoron. Set in 1999, five years following the Incident, players follow Zeke Jackson, a former Aethoric Army Marine, as he navigates the quarantined region, and the city of New Roma, battling intelligent infected and searching surivors to seek the truth, and a definitive escape.
Cross Product explores themes of bioethics, loss, and corporate control, blending modern sci-fi with 90s grit.
Cross Product's main area of development since 2020 has been its campaign. In 2023, it was announced that it would be released in a "split layout" of parts, starting with Part I: Grave.
Cross Product Multiplayer was released to Early Access in 2020 and is built on the Aura framework. Multiplayer in Cross Product includes:
- Team-based & free-for-all modes
- An extensive collection of maps
- Steam Workshop support for maps, gamemodes, and more
In late 2018, The Phoenix Project Software co-founder Rafael Soares revealed a new project on Mod DB called Zombies Ate My Neighbors: GoldSrc Edition. It was a mod for Half-Life which re-created the gameplay, weapons, and levels from the 1994 LucasArts classic. A prototype demo was released, featuring a character model of Zeke, a red Uzi, zombies, and a recreation of the first level from the game. The prototype demo boasted the codename zamnhl (as in "Zombies Ate My Neighbors Half-Life"), and therefore, "ZAMNHL" has since become the official internal codename and abbreviation for the game.
Later, in May 2019, The Phoenix Project Software co-founder Sabian Roberts announced a new mod in the making titled creaTive Deathmatch. No special or innovative features were revealed at the time, but it would be the company’s "first original project since Lost and Dead."
While no captivating features were revealed early on, two new maps were being developed titled Arena One and The Cube. Additionally, a horde/firefight mode was in development with The Cube planned to be a map where players team-up and fight four gonarchs.
In November 2019, The Phoenix Project Software was in the midst of reviving the Lost and Dead property and creating their new SDK codebase named Grey Source. During this period, the creaTive Deathmatch project was switched to be a modification of Adrenaline Gamer. This decision was made due to the fact that AG already had good skill-based gameplay support such as wallgaussing and bunny-hopping, and it already had a gamemode & gametype system, with strong potential for expansion.
After nearly a year in development, "Public Playtest" (PPT) builds for the game began popping up on The Phoenix Project Software's GitHub page. It had been renamed to Shooter Tourneys as the result of a short-lasting partnership between The Phoenix Project Software and the community Steam Group Classic Shooter Tourneys, a group of enthusiasts hosting tournaments & events for old multiplayer games. As it was inspired by older arena shooters from that time, The Phoenix Project Software wanted Shooter Tourneys to become the "exclusive platform for the community, and a way to help CST stand out."
In February 2020, the former Zombies Ate My Neighbors: GoldSrc Mod DB page was rebranded, and Sabian Roberts posted an article to announce that the project would be revived in a different way. It was renamed to Half-Life: Zombies Ate My Neighbours, and instead of a remake of the former title, it was to be a crossover between Half-Life and Zombies Ate My Neighbors. It was teased by Sabian Roberts furthermore with an article saying "might be bringing this project back." The following day, a "Progress so Far" article was published, covering progress with levels and the Grey Source codebase, which ZAMNHL was to now use.
In March, when PPT builds of Shooter Tourneys were being released, it was announced that alongside the eventual release of Half-Life: Zombies Ate My Neighbours, Shooter Tourneys would be bundled with it. TPPS said they wanted "Shooter Tourneys to be the multiplayer counterpart to ZAMNHL."
Shooter Tourneys version 1.0 was officially released on April 15, 2020. As an effect of the announcement shortly before the release, zamnhlmp officially became the internal codename and abbreviation of the game also.
Throughout 2020 and during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Phoenix Project Software proceeded with early development on ZAMNHL and the Grey Source codebase. The company slated the title for release on November 21, 2020 as it remained a "simple crossover mod." A demo was released on April 30, 2020, featuring some campaign maps leading up to Zeke's transport to the Half-Life world.
In October that year, another "Progress so Far" article was published by Sabian Roberts. In it, it was announced that ZAMNHL would be "hopefully" releasing in 2021, and two new trailers were created with the tagline "Two Worlds, One Man." The article also covers the new level design progress and new features in Grey Source, and a teaser for a spinoff minimod called "Half-Life: Halloween Edition," which was later named Halloween Horror and was cancelled the following year.
Internally, reactions to the article caused conflicted feelings within The Phoenix Project Software. As the story was being written by Sabian Roberts, it was becoming increasingly dramatic, with a bleak toned narrative, and the team weren't sure if the project would line up with the light hearted nature of Zombies Ate My Neighbors any longer.
In March 2021, another "Progress so Far" article was published covering the developments on ZAMNHL since October.
The month prior, Shooter Tourneys received its 2.0 update, and it was renamed to Half-Life: Zombies Ate My Neighbours Multiplayer. From that point forward, it was now considered an Early Access title, and The Phoenix Project Software refers to it as a "good dumping ground for testing gameplay features and weapons etc, and a good way for early players to provide feedback on the game which will influence our decisions made for the campaign."
Additionally covered in the article were the new overhauled introduction levels created by Rafael Soares, the soundtrack, and a teaser for a new title called Lost and Dead Anniversary.
In early 2021 The Phoenix Project Software revealed Lost and Dead Anniversary, which was a homage to the company's first project Lost and Dead, and was slated for release in October 2022.
However, due to the company's focus on ZAMNHL and its multiplayer, LADA was cancelled later that year due to the game being "functionally and thematically too similar to ZAMNHL."
Footage of the prototype is available on The Phoenix Project Software's YouTube page.
In May 2021, The Phoenix Project Software released ZAMNHLMP version 2.4, featuring the new Aura framework. Prior to this update, ZAMNHLMP had used the codebase created for creaTive Deathmatch & Shooter Tourneys, but according to Roberts in a 2025 retrospective, the creaTive Deathmatch codebase "was a mess. I didn't know how to organize code back then so the whole thing was a mess, there was all sorts of things I tried adding which I never removed which was breaking other things, and there was way too much technical debt to consider it fixable, and also, OpenAG itself had updated quite a lot [since 2019] and I wanted to catch up with the upstream." Effectively, Aura at the start was a complete rewrite of the codebase for ZAMNHLMP. "It was just easier to restart it from scratch."
The Phoenix Project Software named the codebase Aura because they wanted to keep it open for other modders & developers to use it and its features for other multiplayer GoldSrc games, and TPPS itself had desires to use it for other titles of their own.
Later that year, in July, Sabian Roberts announced the "Seasonal Scheme" for ZAMNHLMP, starting with Season 6: HECU in ZAMNHLMP's 2.6 Update, released in August 2021. The Seasonal Scheme became a way for TPPS to "streamline development of the game to help us focus on our other projects in the meantime."
In late 2021, due to his work on the ZAMNHLMP 2.5 & 2.6 updates, former playtester Ry13y04 was nominated to "UX lead" at The Phoenix Project Software, and his main responsibilities since have been the majority of the menus and UI layouts in The Phoenix Project Software's games. Additionally, Ry13y04 has created the UI & menu scheme for Halo: GoldSource shortly after it was transferred to the company in 2024, and its new menu was released as part of HaloGS' Summer 2025 Release in June 2024.
The following year in 2022, Season 7: Black Ops (v2.7) was released for ZAMNHLMP. During this period of development in late 2021-2022, TPPS remained quiet regarding the progress of the campaign.
In late 2022, after the release of Season 7: Black Ops for ZAMNHLMP, development of the next update was initiated, slated for release in Q3 2023, under the working title "Season 8: Legends of New Roma." In contrast to its earlier seasons, S8's name was of a new, original topic.
Nearly a year later in October 2023, Sabian Roberts published an article, confirming that development of ZAMNHL's campaign had been restarted from scratch and that the story had received a rewrite. In the article, he revealed the prologue of ZAMNHL's new story which "begins in 1994, based in the utopian, supreme capitalist megacity New Roma." He also revealed that the game would be released in parts, starting with Part I: Grave and ending with Part V: The Combine, though the number of parts has since been reduced to 3. He also apologised for the delayed release of ZAMNHL Season 8, which was renamed to Season 8: Black Mesa Inbound as a tie-in to the 25th Anniversary of Half-Life and eventually released in December 2023.
During the year of 2024, Sabian Roberts wanted to take a break from developing & writing the ZAMNHL campaign to focus on his film school projects & academia, though development of ZAMNHLMP Season 9 was still initiated in Spring 2024. During this period, The Phoenix Project Software was mostly inactive apart from a patch for ZAMNHLMP (v2.8.2) due to Roberts' academia, and personal & residential issues.
In August 2024, The Phoenix Project Software returned to work on ZAMNHLMP Season 9, and a month later, the update was revealed on Mod DB. Roberts announced that the purpose of Season 9 was to focus on "quality of life" rather than just new content, and TPPS called it the "biggest Quality of Life Update ZAMNHLMP has ever received," though the update is not completely lacking on new content as it still added two new gamemodes, music, and a new map. The update was therefore titled Season 9: White Sands, which Roberts called "taking it with the 'Snow Leopard' approach," referring to Apple's Mac OS X Snow Leopard Update, which was mostly a Quality-of-Life improvement of the OS before it, Mac OS X Leopard.
Season 9: White Sands was released in November 2024, with a patch named Season 9, Patch I (v2.9.1) following it in December.
In late 2024, The Phoenix Project Software purchased access to Steamworks, and used their other project, Half-Life: The Classic Collection, as a test. Later on, App ID 3416640 was purchased, which was later seen on Steam DB as Half-Life: Zombies Ate My Neighbours.
During the following months of early 2025, The Phoenix Project Software internally initiated development of ZAMNHLMP Season 10 (v2.10). Later on in the Spring, TPPS announced that due to internal developments made and desires to publish on Steam, ZAMNHL&MP would be renaming to "Half-Life: Cross Product." Sabian Roberts also announced that the amount of parts they would be making for the game was reduced to 3 and that the projects have "admittedly" been "far too ambitious."
The following month, in June 2025, The Phoenix Project Software revealed that Half-Life: Cross Product Multiplayer in its Season 9 state, would be coming to Steam. To mark the occasion, TPPS also developed Season 9, Patch II (v2.9.2) for the title to be released on Steam, and three days later, unveiled the Steam Closed Beta Program where players could sign-up and playtest the work-in-progress Season 9, Patch II update & Steam build of the game.
In July 2025, The Phoenix Project Software announced that Half-Life: Cross Product Multiplayer was to release on Steam on August 22, 2025 with the soundtrack releasing on Steam and other music distribution platforms a week prior on August 15, 2025, with a "CD and vinyl edition coming soon."
© 2020-2025 The Phoenix Project Software SVG
This title is a Community Mod for "Half-Life" and therefore, The Phoenix Project Software SVG is not affiliated with Valve other than the publishing of this title. This is not, and should not be, considered an official Valve-developed Half-Life game.