ValveTime

For anyone participating in the current Steam client beta, their steamui_english.txt file has been updated with some interesting new strings hinting at the possibility of Steam allowing users to borrow games from their friends. The strings in question are:

1. "SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicense_Title" "Shared game library"
2. "SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicenseLocked_OwnerText" "Just so you know, your games are currently in use by %borrower%. Playing now will send %borrower% a notice that it's time to quit."
3. "SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicenseLocked_BorrowerText" "This shared game is currently unavailable. Please try again later or buy this game for your own library."

There's no more information on this system, but it could be a response to the game loan and family accounts systems that Microsoft has announced for the Xbox One. Whatever it involves, we're sure it'll be a great new feature for Steam.

Update 2:

We've put together a complete list of the names of all 791 "projects" we found in this database. You can view it on Pastebin now.

Update 1:
We have recently been sent a copy of the original Jira archive data, which has provided unprecedented access to the entire project tracker. Other listings in the data files for known and unknown projects include "Stars of Blood", "Return to Ravenholm", "Episode 3"/"Episode 3 Movie", "Hardware" / "Hardware Core", "SteamMMO" / "SteamMMO Core" and "F-Stop". A series of joke groups can also be found in the list, including "WUBWUBWUB...", "yo dawg", "gayben" and many more. "Steam Box" is also listed as an official group, showing that Valve's upcoming pre-build PC is still in development, which actually retains the fan created name internally, but whether or not this will feature as the product's final name remains to be seen. On a related note, Xi3's "Piston" is also referenced as "Piston Test" in the files, which most likely relates to some kind of Source Box related development back when Xi3 and Valve were briefly partnered. Unfortunately, the saved HTML file we have been provided is only a local file, and only gives access to a partially complete list of Half-Life 3 developers as previously shown in our original post. Credit to Leverage & Testinglol for their hard work rebuilding cached files!


However, we now have access to the entire list of project groups from within Valve, giving us a clear insight of what exactly is and isn't being worked on within the company's walls. Just remember a lot of the projects we've posted here have already been cancelled years ago. Click any of the links provided in the previous paragraph for a screenshot of the group as listed in the Jira archive.

We have also recently received some more information about the contents of several of the project groups and, while we cannot check the Jira archive to verify the contents, we have no reason to doubt our source. According to our anonymous source, the main Left 4 Dead 3 group contains around 68 people, while one of the subgroup contains "about 40". The total number of employees contributing to the Left 4 Dead 3 project groups combines to make it Valve's third largest project, showing that the game is or was in full development. A set of never-before-seen projects, titled "Cries Unheard" and "Microbe Wars" have also been uncovered, which both only consist of a few select designers. Our source also informs us that the previously unearthed "The Grange" project is most likely nothing at all, as the project group only consisted of a single person.

A series of non-Valve titles also appear in the list including Skyrim, Battlefield 3, Company of Heroes and more, all of which are most likely used for recreational time to organise game play sessions between members of the company. We'll be sure to keep you up to date with more information as we learn more.

Original Post:
Evidence of several internal projects at Valve including Half-life 3, Left 4 Dead 3, Source 2 and many others have been discovered from a mailing list found within project management and bug tracking software, Jira.

Valve were recently forced to react to an issue with Jira. A metaphorical window was left open which allowed people to publicly access Valve's internal tickets. Valve were quick to shut down public access to their Jira database, so we recommend you don't attempt to access it.

The images submitted to us from an anonymous source show several mailing list groups of interest, although we do not have the full list at this stage. The first image shows the mailing group for "Half-life 3" including 42 employees in this cabal, which we believe to be quite a significant number, given Valve employ approximately 300~ individuals. The names of individuals in this cabal are from various development disciplines, many of which you're likely to recognise.

Click here to keep reading, and to check out the screenshot evidence! [...]

Valve's Adam Foster has posted a fascinating article on Gamasutra about the creation of the Portal alternate reality game (ARG) that first revealed the existence of Portal 2. Adam shares his thoughts and experiences on creating ARGs in general, which I'll be briefly summarizing below.

For those of you who weren't around for the Portal ARG, the original Portal was updated out of the blue on March 1st 2010 with a mystery message in the changelog which read, "Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations." Players soon discovered that a series of radios had been placed throughout Aperture Science's test chambers. When picked up and brought to certain parts of each level, the radios began to play morse code beeps and strange noises. Those noises turned out to in fact be encoded SSTV images, which players quickly began to unearth.



Some of these images contained a code, which eventually turned out to be the MD5 hash of a phone number for a landline. This landline happened to be plugged into an old modem hooked up to a PC in Adam Foster's kitchen. Dialling into this number via a terminal with a 56k modem gained access to a BBS which, when given the correct login, yielded several correspondences from Cave Johnson and screenshots or concept art of Portal 2 converted into ASCII images.



After the images were found, Valve released another update to Portal 2 on March 3rd 2010, which altered and extended the game's original ending to foreshadow the opening events of Portal 2 and the Lab Rat comic, which takes place in the interlude between both games. The following ARG, dubbed the infamous "Potato ARG", began almost a month later, even without assistance from Foster, who was too busy working on Portal 2 itself. If you're looking for more information on the Potato ARG, you can read more about it here.

In the main section of Foster's article (which I stress you should read in full), he details the correct way to build an ARG that is fun to solve and allows people to participate. He outlines his core design rules, which included:

• It must be clear that there is something to decode. In the case of the radios the morse code sounds were instantly recognisable which hinted at the noise in the other radio signals hiding something too.

• Similarly to the first, it must be clear what the boundaries are between what is part of the game and what is not. Some players tried to track down the physical location of the phone number to see if that was part of the game. The number was unlisted so they were unable to, but if they had it may have caused a bit of a shock for Adamn when they showed up at his house.

• It must be unambiguous when something has been solved. It would be very frustrating for players to think they had successfully found the correct message, only to later realise they had gotten it wrong and were spending their efforts on false leads. The SSTV images are very clearly correctly decoded when found, even if their purpose is initially mysterious.

• Using real encoding methods makes it easier and more fun for the players to solve the puzzle (and easier to create as well) and easier and more educational for players who may not initially know the encoding method to learn it. How many of you didn't know about SSTV until this ARG?

• Only a select few core enthusiasts will be the ones actually solving all your puzzles but others will want to feel like they are participating too. In the case of the Portal ARG this consisted of an update to Portal with a new feature (the radios) and a related achievement as well as an extended ending to the game.

• Have bottlenecks that will control the pace of the game. The MD5 hash hiding the BBS phone number had to be brute forced. The game could not progress until this was solved, giving a natural downtime that let other players and followers catch up with what was happening and stopping the game from ending too soon.

The actual article goes into a lot more detail, so we highly recommend that you read the whole thing, which you can check out here.

Another week, another fairly robust set of Valve news. This past week saw the reveal of Dota 2's release window, the introduction of the "de_mirage" map for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and the amount of money paid out to Team Fortress 2's content creators surpassed the $10m mark! Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and to follow us on our Facebook, Google+ and Twitter pages to stay up to date with all the latest Valve news.

This week's Dota 2 patch has introduced the usual selection of gameplay bug fixes alongside some new UI additions and a pair of visual improvements for Brewmaster and Puck, who have both received higher quality models, which you can check out below. An update to the settings UI has introduced "Quick Cast", commonly referred to as "Smart Cast" by the community, which, when activated, will cause most magic abilities to immediately fire towards the player's mouse cursor, providing the option to streamline the casting process somewhat.


A series of audio improvements were also made, including the addition of distant tower destruction sounds, the introduction of new "Ownage" lines for the Axe, Juggernaut, Nature's Prophet, Storm Spirit and Pirate announcer packs, and sound effects for a brand new "Caution Ping" system. The new warning ping allows players to alert teammates to their impending doom by using "Ctrl + Alt + Right Click" to highlight an area, creating an "X" shaped icon in the game world and on the mini-map to warn of potential ganks, pushes, potentially dangerous areas and so on. A smaller Dota 2 patch earlier in the week introduced "Compendium Matchmaking", a new game mode accessible only by compendium owners, which allows players "re-write history" using the same professional game hero picks and lane setups found in a featured International 3 qualifier match. Featured matches will be updated on a weekly basis, so be sure to check it at least once a week by clicking the new option on the left hand side of the "Play" tab on the Dota 2 dashboard.


New cosmetic item sets were included for Axe, Lina, Pudge, Skeleton King and Sniper, while the recently released "Treasure of Incandescent Wax" chest was revealed to include a brand new Vengeful Spirit themed ward and a whole host of new cosmetic pieces for a wide number of heroes including Doom, Skywrath Mage, Necrolyte, Bristleback and many more. If you feel like you could use some new desktop wallpapers, you might be interested in checking out the new custom load screens which were added to several of the older HUD designs in this week’s update, including the Driftwood, Gear Tooth, Jungle Ruin and Menace skins, all of which appear as stylishly themed modifications of the original Dota logo. While Legion Commander is still strangely MIA at this point, unreleased hero Abaddon received a number of texture updates which, following the Dota 2 release window announcement earlier today, further hints that this upcoming Dire strength support will feature as the second of the two final heroes set to be released by Valve before the game's official release sometime between now and August 7th 2013. If you're looking for more information regarding this week's Dota 2 patch, you may want to head on over to Valve's official changelog, or maybe checking out CyborgMatt's full patch analysis is more your style. glhf!