Minh Le

Co-creator of the Counter-Strike series.

Minh Le, known online as Gooseman, is a Vietnamese-Canadian video game programmer who co-created the Half-Life mod Counter-Strike in 1999. The mod became a major series and led to his employment at Valve. His nickname derives from the character Shane Gooseman from the 1980s cartoon The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers.

Quick Facts

Born

27 June 1977

Birthplace

Vietnam

Employer

Valve (2000–2006)
FIX Korea (2009–2013)
Facepunch Studios (2013–2018)
Pearl Abyss (2018–2023)

Other names

Gooseman

Occupation

Video game programmer

Education

Simon Fraser University

Years active

1996-present

Known for

Co-creator of Counter-Strike

Facts from the source article.

Biography

Minh Le was born in Vietnam. In 1979, he and his parents left Vietnam on a boat and immigrated to Canada as refugees. He attended Simon Fraser University from 1996 to 2001, graduating with a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Computing Science. His coursework focused mainly on computer graphics, including compression algorithms, 3D animation techniques, and image recognition.

Le began playing id Software's Quake in 1996 and started working with its software development kit. After about a year he completed his first mod, Navy SEALs, which was a spiritual predecessor to Counter-Strike. While working on the Action Quake 2 mod, he conceived the idea for Counter-Strike and became friends with Action Quake 2's webmaster Jess Cliffe and Marcelo Dilay. Le started developing Counter-Strike as a mod for Half-Life during his fourth year at Simon Fraser University, spending about 20 hours a week on it and releasing the first beta in June 1999.

The Counter-Strike Team produced several more beta releases as the game's popularity grew. By the fourth beta, Valve began assisting development. In 2000, Valve acquired the rights to Counter-Strike and hired Le and Cliffe to work at its headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. Le continued patching the game until Counter-Strike 1.0, then began work on a prototype for Counter-Strike 2.

After nearly three years, that project was shelved at about 25% completion. Le then worked on Day of Defeat: Source. He left Valve in 2006 to pursue an independent project. After two years with a small team, he moved to South Korea in 2008 to work with FIX Korea, which funded continued development of his new game, later revealed as Tactical Intervention, built with a modified version of Valve's Source engine.