What has Valve been up to? - The Lost Projects 

To me the most hilarious part of The Final Hours was that one dev who admits hes been working at Valve for 11 years, but he hasnt shipped a single game because all of them end up cancelled xd.

The last 12 years of valve basically go like this "Hey we want make a new a game can we use source 2?" "It's not ready yet" "we should work on it then" _*cricket noises *_ "oh okay"

they should release "The Lost Box" with all the most stable versions of all the projects that were cancelled

"Perhaps I treated you too harshly"

*puts a lot of effort into a fully fledged 3d story book* "boo! this sucks! i expected guns and shoot and stuff!"

People have been blaming TF2 and Steam for the lack of Half-Life 3, but really, it was Source 2 this whole time...

The title to this video occupied my mind for 13 years, for it all to be answered at once in 13 minutes

The world is a better place when Valve is releasing games.

its really sad to me how people would say "remember when valve made games" and stuff like that when the whole time they were trying to make LOTS of games

7:32 "The Vader headset might've cost $5,000, but was never made." *Rich people:* Aww, dang. I wanted a budget headset to start getting into VR. :(

1:22 Is nobody gonna talk about how awesome this small hallway looks with the Half-Life 2 Citadel wall design?

I love the "The final hours". It's a 25.000 words document for god sake! Keighley poured a lot of love into this digital magazine and i love that he takes us into a world that most of us can only dream to be apart of (working at Valve, or game development for that matter). I haven't read it all yet cause I'm taking my sweet sweet time with it :)

They cut the Cremator.. again!

11:37 Not only was melee combat a missed opportunity for Half-Life: Alyx, but I think it was also a major opportunity missed to properly include Alyx's socket wrench. In some of Half-Life 2's promotional art, Alyx can be seen standing next to Gordon and holding a big socket wrench. Until a year ago I never understood why she was holding a socket wrench. She had never had one, nor has there ever been a connection with a socket wrench and Half-Life other than that promo art. About a year ago I read a post from a Valve employee on Twitter who worked on Half-Life 2 and commented on the wrench. He explained that Alyx was originally planned to have it as her own melee weapon similar like Gordon, after being inspired by the stories she had heard about him with his red crowbar for years. The socket wrench idea ended up getting scrapped but the artwork of it stuck around. I could sort of understand if Valve didn't want to use a crowbar specifically because it's strongly associated with Gordon (although there were other Half-Life protagonists with crowbars too, take your pick). If there were ever a more perfect chance to introduce Alyx's socket wrench, Half-Life: Alyx would have been it.

I'm so glad to hear that valve didn't just destroy their development team as much of the internet has assumed.

13:37 length, Philip is a Leet Krew member confirmed.

2:41 It seems Francis needs some new pants...

Laidlaw retired specificly because they cancelled borealis vr project, and in frustration he left and released Epistle 3 to show his conclusion for the story. It also explaining how alienating and defeating his late time at valve was, that's the toll of "Wilderness"

I feel like "the wilderness" is probably one of the commonly overlooked flaws of a decentralized business. It's easy to get distracted, or even get overly ambitious with projects in a company, and it was interesting to see Valve go through that quiet time. At least with this video, we got a peek as to why that silence was so long.

So what you're saying is because Source 2 now has more stable foundations, unlike in the 2010s, the chances of more new Valve games just skyrocketed immensely?

Valve has given us their office, which means raiding would be easier to see if they actually will make a Half Life 3 *call the payday gang*

4:36 Same "castle" prop overlooking A site on Mirage. I would be really weird (for me at least) to see such a familiar structure on a "new" game. Also a great example of how much Valve reuses assets between games and within CS:GO itself.

I mean there is a term for what the _Final Hours_ series is, a visual novel. Edit: how the h e c c is there a political mess in the replies, I'm not surprised but _still_

So basically source 2 is to blame for all cancelled and delayed projects... Let’s see if we’ll die before source 3 comes out or not.

I love it when Philip dips his toes in a video like this. Always so well researched and edited. Like a mini-documentory. Keep it up!

My god, they made commically large key!

I long for the day when I can finally stop making Half-Life 3 jokes and start making Half-Life 4 jokes.

8:24 I like how he flips them off after waving to them.

6:50 I dont think it failed. The steam input system and the proton comparability layer are direct results of those efforts and they are an indispensable part of the infrastructure of VR. they allow interop between all kinds of VR input (which stops the market from imploding due to exclusives) and make linux play possible respectively. Its pretty incredible

That first image is cursed. Gaben used to be just one person, not 5

I want to see what the "Vader" headset would have been capable of 🤔

Talking about Melee combat in vr- I guess there kind of is melee in HL:A - Manhats seemed to take damage when I hit them with my gun

Finally! Was hoping for a this type of video, covering the games. Cheers!

3:50 The Half Life 2 soundtrack really added to the vibe here.

That 'citadel' wall at 1:22 is sick.

I recently finished Black Mesa(remake of HL1), which got me interested in the Half Life series. I still have HL2, HL2 episode 1 and HL2 episode 2 to play. I sincerely hope Valve is back in shape now thanks to HL Alyx and their finished Source 2 engine.

Hey Philip, thanks for making these videos without Alyx spoilers. I really love HL but i couldn't buy one vr headset before and now with corona is literally impossible, so i appreciate those videos without spoilers. Thanks again.

Its funny, the only reason I came across this very visual novel yesterday is because Geoff himself was reading it on stream. Glad he did and I got to save it

I hoped there was a better reason for valve's "wilderness" era other than they wanted Valve to be a playpen for very gifted developers. Don't get excited for what they have planned next but what they actually finish.

Great Video due to GREAT RESEARCH! Thank you! Preparing this quality of information must have been a lot of work. So thumbs up!

13:37 leet vid man! I mean neat!

Hopefully Valve is coming out of those dark times with some rejuvinated optimism, L4D3 has been beckoning for a while now

9:32 you can't hide that upscale from me

It sort of seems to me like once they completed Portal 2, their magnum opus, it was physically impossible to make anything better, so they got stuck and didn’t know what to do for awhile.

i did a stream of this and that headcrab scared the hell out of me. Also how couldn't you mention russel's sexy moustache

So strange to me that after all this time period of cancelled projects and experiments, the one that people stuck with and completed first was *Artifact*

RU-vid unsibscribed me recently but this came in my recommended and I'm glad to be back! Hopefully it wasnt many this happened to, cause your content has always kept me entertained! Really sucks that this stuff happens though :c

Just as I finished VNN's highligths video on the final hours, I find out that I'm 30 minutes late for this as well, glad people are jumping on top of this so fast.

Wow. I was worried Valve had basically given up on game development because they thought focusing on running Steam would be more profitable. It's really exciting to know that they've been actually trying to make games all this time. Their work on those projects hasn't gone completely to waste, either! They could still salvage their unfinished projects and complete them or recycle their content.

and now recall the years of thinking about valve, what they are doing. Knowing now that they got such a stupid problem is sobering.

1:08 I love the black abyss in the office. That's were all the abandend project are thrown

Wow! Thank you so much, for bringing this to my attention. I didn't know about it, but I can't wait to look at it. ♥️👍

i love how the 3d scan of the valve office is both normal looking and extremely chaotic at the same time

A realy sad thing is that valve once did a official statement that Left for dead 3 was never in development and they flamed on Valve News network for saying so. And now when they admit it, damage is done and nobody says otherwise.

I really like your use of the chapter thing it’s really nice

I appreciate the video length. 👌

The happiest company With a lot of time and project Without worrying about money

Interesting stuff. I've always been a fan of alternative management structures and employers that seek to benefit their employees... Tho is seems that experiment went wrong at valve. I'm not a valve fanboy to the degree some may be but back around 2008-9 Valve was this dominant powerhouse of quality. Those source 2 engine leaks would literally be mind blowing ten years ago. Now they hold up but are not really anything special, especially with the possibilities of the new PS4 workflow and unreal 5. I think Valve shit the bed in a way. They still have a certain level of quality when they ship, much like Blizzard or other triple A devs. It's fascinating that valve didn't fall behind because of over management or discounected business suits but by being too unrestricted. It is truly sad to think what could have been. I have stronger sentiments towards Bungie who totally ruined Destiny in what it could of been. A similiar story of an engine that just wasn't ready, but they shipped anyway. Though for them there was more internal management problems going on with 2 principal designers, their principal writer, and the solo musical lead all leaving before the project shipped. Crazy stuff, I guess nothing lasts forever. He's to the best for valve.

Look at the the smoothenes of the picture while he showcases the source 1 and 2 engine. Worlds between those

That was great and actually bitterly needed. Thank you for that summary of very solid reasons we may still have no HL3, but also could get one that´s better than one could hope, great work !

I can't understand one thing. Normally a game engine made in one or two years why it took fucking almost 7 years to finish it. Instead of working on several projects, they should've focused on finishing the damn engine.

1:21 We finally know a new reason Episode 3 could have got cancelled: Source 2. Valve must have finished Source 2 waaay too late and people started making half life 3 memes by that time.

That office scan wow

What a great fucken video, hope you cover more of the final hours

I hipe they try making l4d3 again, this time with the complete source 2 engine

How did you get that rendered valve office to walk in? Where do i download that?

I really hope HLA was indeed a starting step and that in future games they will properly introduce more VR features like body tracking, physics, melee, sprinting, jumping, etc.

12:45 dude sips his whisky during particularly exhausting work I guess :D :D

Who knows, maybe all the time that they lost in "the wilderness" means that they have a lot of interesting concepts and ideas just stored up but now with the right hardware and direction, they can tackle and possibly develop these ideas

Imagine TF2 in Source 2

That 3D office looks like if someone crumpled it up, threw it away, then actually needed it, so they did their best to un-crumple it

The biggest oversight Geoff made in this book was claiming that Lazslo appeared in Episode 2, and not just the main game. I also think one sentence in there missed an 'and' between words. But since the book shows a v.1.0 when it's launched, I hope he's able to fix the Laszlo mistake, CS:GO gloves mistake, and maybe even polish up the 3D valve office thing.

That time was not lost, I bet they learned a lot from all these projects. It is probably what makes Half-Life Alyx what it is now.

11:23 "So his friend says "Only one key" so he takes out a comically large key, honestly, some hilarous shit man"

I have to commend Valve for trying to give creative types freedom and have them spread their wings honestly, it's something that's sorely needed in many parts of our modern industry (not just game development, but perhaps the entire working world as a whole) the problem is that it's like Philip said: creativity is good for starting something, but not always good for actually finishing it. Having a few of my hobbies consist of creative endeavors, this really speaks to me on an uncomfortably close level. It's so easy to start a new project after another, to shine in the afterglow of having realized an idea, this high that you get when you see the individual parts get together and you think to yourself "yes, this is it, this I can do something with" but when it actually becomes time to realize this dream, it often becomes a nightmare. I'm glad Valve learned their lesson and I hope they'll stay with the philosophy that the golden middle is always the best path to take.

3:04 did you thought that we wouldn't see that upscaled portal two cover?

2:52 did u freakin AI upscaled the games thumbnails?

Valve starting lots of projects with excitement but never finishing them, that sounds a lot like me.

did anyone else notice that at 3:45 .. "HL3 Developement" tab, proves that they were starting to make a HL3 a some point, i guess that's when it got put on the backburner till ALYX was developed.

this was a really well mad video, good job man

Alyx is for Valve what Doom 2016 was for ID software, the return of a gaming powerhouse that went dark for a long time.

Yeah, Half-Life Alyx was incredibly good, but I totally agree. It makes me excited to see what more Valve can do with VR. Or if this title has even given them fresh ideas for more flat-screen based video games. It definitely has seemed to help them get over the hurdle that Episode three left them at. Kinda seemed like they were fumbling around, like they didn't know exactly what they were doing. That all seems like a bad dream in the past now, hopefully Valve can keep this up.

Are the doors at 12:22 all the places you can see G-Man in past HL Games?

I like the length of this video.

Truthfully, I care more about getting more Source 2 SDK tools into the hands of modders than I do about HL3 at this point. A second renaissance of Sourcemodding this time with VR support sounds way more enticing to me than a sequel I am now waiting more than 12 years for, I'm glad Alyx has more than demonstrated how fucking _good_ source 2 can look.

6:16 damn gman got old

It's cool that they have a image of Medic on the wall.

Damn its so nice to get a look inside what happened in Valve the past few years. Explains a lot :)

Looks like they were working on CS2!

Imagine a world where Valve completely ignored VR and went on to release a Left 4 Dead game on source 2 and half life 3.

It's so heartbreaking to see so many projects cancelled

5:13 It's the Geisel Library! Well, they took major inspiration, at least

The biggest questions is: Of all the games that could have been, why was Artifact the one they released?

TF2: It truly is the final hours Surrounded on all sides by hackers and Valve is no where to be seen

crowbar: *tenderly touching bottle* bottle: *explodes violently*

Love the interesting background on game development

That's pretty interesting life lesson learned. Modern times are about "having the freedom to do whatever you want" but it only leads to loss of motivation. You won't live a good life if you just follow your whims. Making commitments and sticking with them through adversity is needed to achieve things.

11:50 Better choice for melee in Alyx would have been to give her... Manhack with a handle. Basically a saw. Already coded in, has model and damage/hit detection don't depend on player swings so much. And that point was made already by thousands of people before me... I guess? Maybe? At least I was mentioning it since seing the game, surely others also suggested it. Or is there hidden technical difficulty with this approach?

Gaben wearing that 3D-Eye puzzle polo is so '90s.

i love the source engine used for half life 2. every scene looks like a painting because of the way lighting works.