Following the discharge of its documentary on canceled Valve video games, DidYouKNowGaming has made a set of previously-unavailable Valve idea artwork free to obtain on the Web Archive. The trove comes courtesy of David McGreavy, a video games business skilled and self-professed Valve superfan.
McGreavy, who most not too long ago was a advertising and marketing producer for 2K on video games like Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, describes having a number of inside connections at Valve within the DYKG documentary. One such worker saved the items from being junked when Valve moved workplaces, and later offered them to McGreavy.
Along with The Huge One—Half Life 2: Episode 3—McGreavy’s assortment comprises artwork for Left 4 Lifeless, a really early model of Half-Life: Alyx tentatively titled “Alyx and Canine,” Dota spinoff Underlords, and the legendary Valve house pirate recreation, Stars of Blood. The Web Archive submit additionally makes point out of “Counter-Strike: Supply 2,” which is actually a joke recreation I saved proposing within the lead as much as the announcement of Counter-Strike 2, the fifth recreation within the Counter-Strike sequence and follow-up to International Offensive.
DYKG’s video states that the workplace transfer which prompted this artwork being discarded occurred in 2016, so I would presume the gathering of de_dust mockups right here had been for a follow-up to 2004’s Counter-Strike: Supply, what would ultimately change into International Offensive in 2011.
The Episode 3 items largely encompass rocky, desert vistas full of scrapped ships, all with one other Mix Citadel looming within the background. These may make sense because the arctic environment of the Borealis, the Aperture Science vessel central to Episode 3’s deliberate plot, with the Mix’s terraforming having remodeled the atmosphere into this wasteland. We additionally get a peek of what’s presumably the ship’s inside, in addition to a Mix Advisor-ified model of base recreation antagonist Wallace Breen, who would have gotten the Duke Leto II Atreides remedy in Episode 3.
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Episode 3 idea artwork of Breen as an Advisor. (Picture credit score: Valve, David McGreavy)
Alyx and Canine idea artwork. (Picture credit score: Valve, David McGreavy)
Dota Underlords idea artwork. (Picture credit score: Valve, David McGreavy)
A “Counter-Strike Supply 2” de_dust mockup (Picture credit score: Valve, David McGreavy)
Stars of Blood character artwork. (Picture credit score: Valve, David McGreavy)
The brand new Stars of Blood artwork items had been of explicit curiosity to me as glimpses of one other story-driven Valve recreation, however do not reveal a lot. Essentially the most stunning element to me had been what seem like Mix dropships in one of many photos, a doable trace to Stars of Blood having been meant to share a universe with Half-Life and Portal. I used to be additionally intrigued by the vaguely Giger-y, biomechanical solid to the character ideas.
The Underlords artwork exhibits off a sort of spooky, Halloween-y city, whereas Alyx and Canine options one other set of rocky moonscapes with the titular characters. The Left 4 Lifeless folder options some alternate character artwork, in addition to some scrapped zombie designs.
The entire trove, in addition to DYKG’s deep dive into the topic, are a captivating peek backstage of an iconic and secretive developer. As an added bonus, the documentary was narrated by Clint Basinger, creator of retro PC channel LGR and steward of the Bear-a-Byte PC, a beige Pentium 3 tower inside a large Ikea Teddy bear.
