Team Fortress TwoOoOO Crowdsourcing Halloween

Good news: Valve are working on a new "major update" for their free-to-play FPS Team Fortress 2 [official site]. Bad news: it's not a Halloween update. This new update has left the TF2 team too busy to create another all-spooking, all-devilling spectraltacular (boo!) so they're turning again to the community.

This year's Halloween update will largely be pieced together from spooky maps, weapons, items, taunts, and so on submitted to TF2's Steam Workshop.

Valve explained in a blog post last night:

"...the TF2 team is busy putting together the next major update, which should be out by the end of the year. It'll feature new maps, cosmetics, and a new campaign with contracts and weapon collections. We’re also working on things like competitive matchmaking, perf, balance improvements and moving Mannpower Mode out of beta with a new map.

"Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that there’s something missing from that list: Halloween. The reality is, if we produce a holiday-specific event map this year, it means we'll have to stop working on everything else. So: We've decided to turn Halloween mostly over to you."

They'll check the Workshop for items tagged Halloween (check out the spooky maps and maps folks have submitted before) then bundle their favourites up, along with activating every previous Halloween event. Halloween cosmetics are usually restricted to TF2's official Silly Days, but this year's additions will be wearable all year round. The whole game's about to get a bit more ghoulish, then.

It's a shame they're not doing a special event themselves - Halloween may be the only time I play TF2 now, I think, to check out the new spookiness - but community creators can be a pretty dang creative lot too. Valve have been sourcing maps and items for TF2 from fans for years - and it's made some of those creators a pretty penny or two.