Skip to main content

Concept art seems to reveal yet another canceled Valve project

drew wolf valve untitled fantasy game office
Tim Eulitz
Last month, it was revealed that Valve plans to launch a brand-new game in 2018 — its first major release since Dota 2 in 2013, other than virtual reality minigame collection The Lab.  Now, we’ve been given a glimpse at another recent project — one that never saw the light of day.

Drew Wolf is an artist who has been employed by Valve since 2009. His personal website states that he’s now independent, although it’s not completely clear whether he’s still affiliated with the studio or not, according to a report from Eurogamer.

Wolf’s online portfolio features artwork produced for Dota 2, The Lab, and various other Valve projects. It also features a multitude of drawings produced for an untitled fantasy game, which seems to have been in the early stages of development at the studio in recent years.

“The project was a fantasy adventure game centered around cooperative combat and driven by story,” reads a description accompanying a set of images. It seems that players would have formed teams of four, choosing from a selection of ten archetypal characters.

This certainly seems to be in line with Valve’s output in recent years. Dota 2 has proven to be an enormous hit for the company thanks to its roster of clearly defined characters, and its capacity for endless additions of new content. It’s easy to see how this project could have been an attempt to offer up a slightly different take on co-operative multiplayer.

Ultimately, it seems that Valve chose not to pursue the idea. Based on the timing of both projects, it seems like next year’s collectible card game Artifact simply took precedence. However, it shouldn’t be too surprising for anyone who keeps up with the studio to find that an idea for a new game never made it past the prototyping phase.

Earlier this year, former Valve writer Mark Laidlaw released what seemed to be a version of his story treatment for Half-Life: Episode 3, one of the biggest ‘what-ifs’ in all of gaming. It’s impossible to understate what the company has done for PC gaming as a whole, but it’s easy to see why longtime fans have their frustrations with the studio’s intermittent output.

Editors' Recommendations

Brad Jones
Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…
The XV concept is yet another preview of Subaru’s next-gen Impreza
Subaru XV concept

Subaru continues to hint at its next-generation Impreza compact with a third concept car debuting at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show. The next-generation Impreza sedan and hatchback have already been previewed by previous concepts, leaving one more variant to tease.

The Subaru XV concept previews the next XV Crosstrek, the pseudo-crossover version of the Impreza. The XV Crosstrek is basically an Impreza with an elevated ride height and some extra body cladding, but like the larger Outback, it's a legitimate competitor to conventional crossovers because of its standard all-wheel drive.

Read more
Apollo, a Reddit app featured during WWDC, is being shuttered
The Reddit app icon on an iOS Home screen.

On Thursday, the developer of the popular Apollo app for Mac, which is a third-party interface for Reddit, announced that the app would be closing. The app will remain live until June 30.

The developer announced the change in a Reddit post, saying "Eight years ago, I posted in the Apple subreddit about a Reddit app I was looking for beta testers for, and my life completely changed that day... Today's a much sadder post than that initial one eight years ago." The developer originally went to the social media platform to protest Reddit's changes to API pricing. After talks turned "ugly," they said Apollo would be closing.

Read more
The best Ethernet cables for 2023
An Ethernet port and plug.

You might have bought some Cat-5 Ethernet cables a few years ago, but as time passes, it’s probably time to think about upgrading them to a more modern, more capable option. Unfortunately, the number of Ethernet cable options has not become any less complicated over the years. But we're here to help with our definitive list of the best Ethernet cables.

Read more