Valve had Half-Life 3 and Left 4 Dead 3 in development

In a making-of documentary about Half-Life: Alyx, developer Valve reveals that it has had a number of Half-Life games in development in recent years, including one that was known as Half-Life 3. Work was also underway on Left 4 Dead 3. Both have been cancelled.

Host Geoff Keighley got the chance to shoot the documentary Half-Life: Alyx – Final Hours, which can be purchased via Steam for just over $8. In the documentary, Keighley visits the studio and discusses which games Valve has been working on over the past 10 years. The documentary reveals that the studio had at least five Half-Life games in production before starting Half-Life: Alyx. Including a game that was known as Half-Life 3.

Half-Life 3 was created based on the Source 2 engine and is said to contain gameplay elements taken from Left 4 Dead. Parts of the game would consist of procedurally generated missions, although the game would also contain written story elements. The team had already scanned actor Frank Sheldon, who is the model for the G-Man from the series. Still, according to Valve, the project “didn’t get very far,” in part because the Source 2 engine wasn’t finished yet. The game was worked on for about a year in 2013 and 2014.

Not all of the Half-Life games Valve has worked on are listed, but the documentary does make it clear that the studio has made two previous attempts to make a VR game in the Half-Life universe for Half-Life: Alyx was completed. One of those games was internally known as Shooter, the other as Borealis.

The studio has also been developing Left 4 Dead 3, an open world game set in Morocco, where players would face hundreds of zombies. That game was also scrapped, again because the Source 2 engine was not ready yet. That wasn’t the only attempt at making a new Left 4 Dead. Work was also underway on a project known as Hot Dog, which was also supposed to be a new game in the series. In addition, the studio has been developing a voxel-based game inspired by Minecraft and scrapped a VR game allegedly made by members of the team behind the Kerbal Space Program.

Finally, the documentary reveals that Valve already had a design for a VR system before the arrival of the HTC Vive. However, the first design, known as Vader, was abandoned because it was too ambitious. A set would cost $5,000.