The binned fantasy co-op game Valve could have been working on

It's been a heartbreaking slew of what-could-have-beens concerning Valve lately, with Half-Life's lead writer having revealed his plot behind Half-Life 2: Episode 3 just last month. Now, artwork from former employee Drew Wolf suggests that fans might have missed out on a four-player co-op fantasy game.

Wolf released details on his website concerning an “Untitled Fantasy Game” that was an Internal R&D project. “The project was a fantasy adventure game centered around cooperative combat and driven by story.” Despite not directly stating that these concepts and ideas were for Valve, Wolf is not known to have worked anywhere else and the key word is that it “was” a game.

“The goal was to present as many groups of four adventures as possible in order to establish a diverse cast of archetypal characters. After discussion and feedback the group was paired down to ten characters. They would become the project's main characters.”

Wolf is particularly notable for crafting the visual style for Dota in his 9-year stint at Valve, to which this new artwork shares much in common with. I personally find that Dota characters are quite rich with fantasy lore that isn't explicitly stated in the game itself, so it's a shame to see a potential story-driven game with similarly colourful characters not come to light.

KitGuru Says: I do love Wolf's art style, finding that he has quite the knack in threading such unique and unusual characters into fitting together seamlessly. I look forward to seeing what projects he is working on in the future. What do you think about this missed opportunity?

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