Valve Devs Show Old Version Of Deadlock With HL Enemies
Last Friday, Valve officially announced Deadlock, a new multiplayer shooter that mixes third-person action with MOBA-style gameplay. The game’s path to its reveal has been unconventional, with Valve keeping silent for months, even as thousands of players were already participating in the action. Now, with the cat out of the bag, Valve’s mystery doesn’t end there—Deadlock’s Steam page remains cryptic, and the game is still invite-only despite its growing popularity.
What makes Deadlock’s development even more intriguing is a recent reveal from one of Valve’s developers. In an unexpected move, a video of an early prototype of the game surfaced, showcasing a rough version of what would become Deadlock. Spotted by Valve aficionado Gabe Follower, the footage shows the player navigating a blocky environment, joined by a squad of antlions from Half-Life 2. The player encounters enemy antlions, engaging in a brief firefight before their AI-controlled minions take over.
Valve dev “Yoshi” shared early footage of gameplay prototype for Deadlock. Placeholder assets from Left 4 Dead, Dota and Half-Life… pic.twitter.com/fmKfl7d1KA
— Gabe Follower (@gabefollower) August 26, 2024
This prototype offers an interesting peek into Deadlock’s evolution. Though at an early stage, you can see the foundation of Deadlock’s current gameplay, where players are accompanied by AI minions as they traverse the map. Notably, the antlions in this prototype are a different color than those in Half-Life 2, hinting at the game’s origins as part of the Half-Life universe, where it was known by the codename Citadel. This suggests Deadlock may have once been set in the Half-Life universe before Valve shifted direction.
This isn’t the first time an early version of Deadlock has been seen. Several months ago, leaked footage revealed Deadlock under its previous iteration, Neon Prime, with a sci-fi setting rather than the current fantasy/supernatural theme. In that version, players were robots in a cyberpunk world, fighting in a futuristic cityscape.
Deadlock’s development journey highlights Valve’s iterative approach to game design. The company is known for its willingness to experiment, rethink, and even scrap ideas that aren’t working. Seeing the different iterations of Deadlock is a rare glimpse into that process, showing how Valve’s creative direction can shift dramatically over time. Despite being in the early stages of development, Deadlock is already drawing significant attention—and with Valve’s history of innovation, it’s likely to continue evolving.
