Here is the list of all resources I will be using.

Software

While Linux is my OS of choice for development, it is only experimentally supported, not officially so. Furthermore, the SDK must have been developed in Windows (for Windows) originally, which gives me confidence in getting it installed and set up properly on modern Windows.

Windows 11 needs to be "Pro" edition or better for RDP to be supported (which is my workflow of choice for this project). If Windows 11 Home (for example) was used instead, I would have resorted to some alternative to RDP (such as VNC).

Visual Studio is not my IDE of choice (VSCode is), but I concede that for commercial game development in 2013, Visual Studio on Windows was a tried-and-true tool set. There is no reason for it to fail today, considering Microsoft's commitment to backwards compatibility.

On that note: for Source 2013 SDK specifically, apparently the ideal Visual Studio setup is to:

Just install both VS 2013 and 2015 (or newer) , open the solution in VS 2015, and skip the dialog where VS 2015 tries to upgrade your projects.

I dislike having a single version of Visual Studio installed, let alone two. I will start by using just VS 2013. In any case...

Hardware

All development will happen on a small, dedicated machine running Windows 11 Pro, 8 GB of RAM, an Intel N100, and 256 GB of storage; all running at ~35 W. The machine cost me $150.oo USD.

Given my previous experiences with Visual Studio (being very intrusive and hard to uninstall afterwards), I decided it was best to avoid installing it on my daily drivers (a Windows desktop for gaming and a Linux laptop). For the price, I get the peace of mind that if anything goes horribly wrong, I can easily wipe this machine; and secondly, it serves as a "mindset shifter." When I sit down to use this machine, it feels intentional. It is much easier to focus on the project this way.

Wetware

On YouTube, the Valve Source Code Tutorials [Source SDK 2013 Singleplayer] playlist will be the guiding material. One detail, however, is that it explicitly says it will use the single player SDK, whereas I will be using the multi player SDK. There be dragons – I can sense them already.

VALVe's own Wiki will also be used, despite most likely being out of date, and maintained by the community rather than the company.