Valve leaker claims Deadlock used to be a Half-Life spinoff game

In the wake of Deadlock’s public release, a lot of information has come out regarding the game’s development. Data mining points toward Half-Life 3 being in development, but also reveals prior versions of Deadlock. One of these versions was a Half-Life spinoff according to a prominent leaker.

Outside of Half Life: Alyx, the series has been dormant for a long time. Valve rarely releases games as they are, but HL fans have especially felt neglected. Half-Life 3 is a meme for a reason.

However, details about Deadlock’s development have since been revealed. The game had several code names across years of dev time as it was ported into different settings according to Valve leaker and dataminer Game Follower.

He compiled all those thoughts now that Deadlock is in the wild, with him reviewing some of the game’s prior code names and iterations.

Note: conversation starts at 2:20

“Initially Deadlock, aka Shadowline, aka Neon Prime, aka Citadel took place during the Seven Hour War where the Combine fought against the rebels on the streets of City 17.”

The Seven Hour War sets up much of Half-Life’s story. It was a conflict that ended the war between humanity and the Combine in, as you may have guessed, seven hours. He also shows footage of the game in a Tokyo-esque setting, something confirmed to have been scrapped by Valve in favor of their current steampunk/voodoo aesthetic.

Additionally, there’s concept art of Dynamo that has since been discovered in Deadlock’s files, including a reference to Half-Life 3 in the equation he’s writing out in the form of h/3λ, spotted just under the eye sigil that mirrors the Deadlock logo.

Found this Deadlock artwork in the /v/ boards of 4chan (I was looking for more leaks but this is cool)
byu/ExxiIon inDeadlockTheGame

What’s more, Deadlock is still titled Citadel in the game files themselves, which is the current version at the time of writing. Without any data mining tools or knowledge, you can browse local files and see the game listed as “Citadel” rather than Deadlock as one of the main folders.

And, as cited in a prior Gabe Follower video, Deadlock has been in development since 2018 according to datamining. It went through several evolutions until it began limited Alpha playtesting around May 2024.

If you’re just hopping into Deadlock yourself, check out our tier list to get up to speed on which characters you should be playing.