The game was originally created and released by Daniel Fearon Fearon at the time was one of the maintainers of the Half-Life fan website Atomic Half-Life created in anticipation of the game's release. The game can also be played in single player mode, taking advances of improvements over the original Half-Life that were made by the modifications, particularly for the artificial intelligence used by non-player characters. Multiple levels may be put together to make a longer campaign by the level designer. The modification was initially based around the levels from Half-Life, but since have expanded to include the other Half-Life games and user-made levels. The modification enables a server so many players can cooperate (along with and allied non-player characters) to complete levels against creatures and other enemies that are controlled by the computer. Sven Co-op is a first-person shooter based on Half-Life, using its GoldSrc game engine. The standalone release, representing version 5.0 of the mod, was released in January 2016. In 2013, Valve, which owns the rights to the Half-Life series, gave the development team the rights to publish the modification as a standalone title on Steam, and further allowed them to distribute the maps and assets of Half-Life to support its release.

Since its original release, the project has been overseen by David 'Sniper' McDermott. In addition to the cooperative gameplay, Sven Co-op includes improvements from the original Half-Life, including improved artificial intelligence for both enemy and allied non-player characters.

The game, initially released as a mod in January 1999, and created by Daniel 'Sven Viking' Fearon, enables players to play together on online servers to complete levels, many which are based on the Half-Life universe but include other genres. Sven Co-op is a co-op variation of the 1998 first-person shooter Half-Life. GoldSrc (heavily modified), Svengine (v 5.0+)

Sven coop opposing force maps