14 DAY TRIAL // It's not often that companies talk about the video games that they thought about creating and never got around to completing, but Valve is not the typical developer and its boss has recently mentioned that, at one point before the appearance of Half Life, their main project was a submarine game.
Talking on The Steamcast, Gabe Newell, who is the leader of Valve, has said that, “The other game that Mike and I were talking about before we’d even had anybody other than us working on – it was a submarine game.”
He explained, “Mike was absolutely certain there was an opportunity to create fantastic underwater visuals and gameplay, so if people want to know the even furtherest back thing we have haven’t gotten around to shipping yet it would have to be the unnamed submarine game.”
Newell has also said that the team at Valve, especially those who were with the company from the beginning, often look back on the projects they abandoned early in the development process or in the idea stage in order to draw inspiration for the games they are currently creating.
Steam is well known for its philosophy that games will be released when the company deems them to be ready, with little attention paid to launch schedules that have been communicated to the public.
There's also a chance that a project get canned late in the development process if the quality just isn't there.
Fans have long waited to hear from Valve about another installment in the Half Life series, but the company has not officially talked about a new game linked to Gordon Freeman.
At the moment, the only serious submarine franchise is the Silent Hunter series from Ubisoft and its development studio in Romania, meaning that there's enough space on the submarine market if Valve is still interested in developing its idea.