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Deadlock (Valve's Unannounced Title) Passes 12k Peak Players in Closed Alpha

steamdb.info/app/1422450/charts/

Valve keeping up with the trend of “worst kept secrets”. You need an invite to join the alpha but since everyone who owns it can refer their friends, it spread very quickly.

I’ve been playing it the past few days and it’s honestly very fun. Still a bit rough around the edges (especially in terms of balance) since it’s in early access, but it has serious potential to be dota 2 levels of popular.

For the unaware, Deadlock is a 3rd person shooter MOBA. It feels like a mix of Dota and Overwatch/Team Fortress. Nobody is allowed to share footage or screenshots, but obviously with so many playing there’s a ton of leaks out there.

Picture of 12k player peak on steamcharts
gibmiser ,

Hype trains a comin

doodledup ,

They are trying to build hype. The leaks are intentional and expected.

catloaf ,

I’d like to give it a try. Anyone got an invite?

themusicman , (edited )

DM me your friend code

qooqie ,

Icefrog is an extremely talented dev so this game is for sure to be real fun. I trust in the frog as a life long dota player

BuboScandiacus ,
@BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz avatar

Heyyyyyyy buddyyy !

https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/b6ae04b2-7b2a-4130-a932-f0e057e7755b.jpeg

https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/fb7275eb-a7cb-4f18-aa07-cb2c034a3ffe.jpeg

Dequei ,
@Dequei@sopuli.xyz avatar

Heyyyy buddyyys!

Luci ,
@Luci@lemmy.ca avatar

Friends! Pals! Fellow lemmy users!

simple OP ,

Shot you a message.

Zoidsberg ,
@Zoidsberg@lemmy.ca avatar

I love your personality and think we could be great friends, too.

LolcatXTREME ,

Is there a limit to referrals?…

simple OP ,

I think so, but it doesn’t say how many you get.

sxt ,

If you’ve got an extra still I’d be down

chronicledmonocle ,

Same here. I’d love to see what Valve have been up to.

exorcism895 ,

deleted_by_author

    •
    Hellstormy ,
    @Hellstormy@lemmy.world avatar

    Same here! :)

    XenBad ,

    Same over here :)

    Statick ,

    Would love an invite if you don’t mind!

    Anissem , (edited )
    @Anissem@lemmy.ml avatar

    Any chance you can invite anymore? I’d love to give this game a try, huge TF2 fan.

    Blisterexe ,

    Wait how can i refer friends?

    StrangeName ,

    idk, but please remember me once you figure it out.

    Oha ,

    me too pwease

    Coelacanth , (edited )
    @Coelacanth@feddit.nu avatar

    Reminds me of the old Dota 2 closed beta days… Good times. Also on an unrelated note, if anyone has a spare invite my DMs are open.

    DScratch ,

    I slept on my DOTA2 invite and only years later dumped 3k hours into it.

    I won’t make that mistake again, given the chance.

    Coelacanth ,
    @Coelacanth@feddit.nu avatar

    I remember playing Dota 1 and 2 in parallel for a while because so few heroes were in the beta and I wanted to play new hotness like Ember Spirit. Fun times.

    Quitting Dota has been great for my mental health, though. But I guess I’m at least curious enough about what the frog is cooking to risk getting addicted to something new.

    EarMaster ,

    As you got invited by OP would you mind sharing your invites too? Asking for a friend me.

    BuboScandiacus ,
    @BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz avatar

    I don’t have the game yet. It used to be instantaneous but now it may take several days according to some people on the internet

    Zoot ,
    @Zoot@reddthat.com avatar

    Thats a shame… gives us time to become your friend though, right? I heard you enjoy games

    padge ,

    I can invite too if people need it, shoot me a DM

    arudesalad ,

    I heard you got a referral, remember all those times I’ve helped you with (insert problem)? You wouldn’t mind if I asked for a referral from you?

    Oha ,

    We are friends, right?

    umbrella ,
    @umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

    hi fren.

    ludicolo ,

    Been playing it, it’s actually really fun!

    catloaf ,

    I will give you one (1) good vibe in exchange for an invitation

    themusicman , (edited )

    DM me your friend code

    Anissem , (edited )
    @Anissem@lemmy.ml avatar

    Any chance you can invite people? Would be grateful!

    bionicjoey ,

    For the unaware, Deadlock is a 3rd person shooter MOBA. It feels like a mix of Dota and Overwatch/Team Fortress

    So like SMITE?

    TheCreeperFace ,
    @TheCreeperFace@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    from the 1 video I saw more like Paladins with Smite item shop

    simple OP ,

    Not really, SMITE is a moba that happens to be 3rd person, Deadlock actually plays like a 3rd person shooter that needs proper aiming and headshots and a much faster pace.

    bionicjoey ,

    I see. This is probably a pretty niche reference nowadays, but is it more similar to Monday Night Combat? That was an actual shooter IIRC and had moba mechanics like lanes and creeps.

    drphungky ,

    Good, cause I played the Smite 2 alpha and it was kinda garbage. I literally said out loud “this is like Dota for babies”. It didn’t even have good FPS mechanics to make up for no depth.

    Virkkunen ,
    @Virkkunen@fedia.io avatar

    It's actually closer to Battleborn. Like the other commenter said, it's more of a third person shooter with MOBA elements. There's focus on movement (you can dash, double jump, crouch slide, some characters fly), headshots and distance change the damage and melee/parry are just a button, while every character has guns as their man attack means. For the moba elements, it changes a bit since there's 4 lanes and it's a 6x6.

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    Somebody needs to tell the games team that they make their own operating system. This is Windows-only. WTF.

    Virkkunen ,
    @Virkkunen@fedia.io avatar

    Runs perfectly fine on Linux though, with DX11 or Vulkan. On Windows, Vulkan has some performance issues that make it quite unenjoyable, but in Linux for me it plays a lot better with Vulkan than Windows DX11.

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    Runs perfectly fine on Linux though

    The quality of Proton is not the point, the point is that they’re not dogfooding their own platform. They’ll likely follow the same course as CS2: Lengthy prerelease test exclusively on Windows, then a few days before actual release someone will port the game to Linux/SteamOS and release day is the first day of the Linux port’s alpha test.

    How can anybody at Valve expect game publishers to take Steam Deck and SteamOS seriously if the developer of the actual platform is not dogfooding it with their own games?

    Virkkunen ,
    @Virkkunen@fedia.io avatar

    Yeah I get what you mean, but with Linux gaming I think it's great enough that it runs with Proton and no one is blocking it. I also believe they'll port it to native Linux after the alpha stage is done, but remember that the game is in a closed alpha state, so at no point this should be taken as "Valve not dogfooding their platform". All we can do right now is wait and see.

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    with Linux gaming I think it’s great enough that it runs with Proton and no one is blocking it.

    You clearly missed many news from the gaming sphere.

    remember that the game is in a closed alpha state, so at no point this should be taken as “Valve not dogfooding their platform

    Yes, it is. Sony is developing their games for PlayStation first and Windows as an afterthought. I’m not saying that Windows should be an afterthought but SteamOS should be a development target from day 1.

    All we can do right now is wait and see.

    Grab your Steam Deck, install Counter-Strike 2, and look at the state of Source2 games right now.

    Vilian ,

    They are beta testing, remove the OS issue and they van focus on games issues

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    They are beta testing, remove the OS issue and they van focus on games issues

    SteamOS needs to be day 1 development target for all things at Valve. With your attitude we end up with CS2 broken on Steam Deck until now.

    Vilian ,

    A yes, because Steam Deck is the most optimal platform to play competitive FPS

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    A yes, because Steam Deck is the most optimal platform to play competitive FPS

    That’s not even the argument. The argument is that Valve’s own game teams should be able to support their own hardware.

    KeenFlame ,

    No. Development occurs on windows machines, so this is where they deploy. It’s essential for a studio to work on core mechanics, gameplay loop and feel. It’s obviously going to be steam deck day one.

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    No. Development occurs on windows machines

    “Development occurs on” and “development target” are different things.

    It’s obviously going to be steam deck day one.

    Sure, like CS2 is on Steam Deck since day one and still broken.

    KeenFlame ,

    Who the actual fuck do you think wants to play cs on a motherfucking steam deck? And again, you of course target your own machine first for a pc game. It’s how 99% of all editors work. Why would you try to argue something that you don’t know how it works?

    ngwoo ,

    Valve is probably perfectly happy with just making sure proton compatibility is good. They don’t expect developers to change their whole workflow to cater to the Deck, that’s why they’ve done so much work with proton.

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    Valve is probably perfectly happy with just making sure proton compatibility is good.

    Valve is happy that games break all the time? Yeah, sure buddy. If anybody at Valve was happy with that, maybe that Microsoft agent should lose their job.

    They don’t expect developers to change their whole workflow to cater to the Deck

    The point of cross-platform middleware is specifically not to “change their whole workflow”. 🙄

    that’s why they’ve done so much work with proton.

    Valve is also doing much work with SDL and so on to target native development, that’s why it’s embarrassing that they don’t target their own platform. All successful platform holders treat their platform as 1st class citizens: Sony targets PlayStation from day 1 of game development, so does Nintendo with Switch. Apple is not prioritizing Windows either.

    Failing platforms are those where the platform vendor doesn’t even believe enough in it to properly support it. Since over a decade Microsoft makes ARM-based Surface devices and to this day Microsoft has ported not a single game, not even casual stuff like Minesweeper, over to Windows ARM. “Microsoft is perfectly happy with just making sure Prism compatibility is good” and yet emulated applications crash, perform worse, and result in battery drain. Similar with Steam Deck: The only way to ensure games perform to their best and don’t unexpectedly break on an update is proper SteamOS native versions.

    arefx ,

    They are going to add Linux support the game is in alpha.

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    They are going to add Linux support the game is in alpha.

    That’s not day 1. Why do I need to say it over and over again? It’s not like I spelled it out already: CS2 had a Windows-only pre-release and the Linux port was only added to the formal release, resulting in the Linux port being very buggy to this day! Their own platform needs to be the top tier development target from day 1. How is that difficult to understand?

    arefx ,

    Because they are developing the game for windows first since that’s where 93% of the customers are. Are you even thinking this through?

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    Because they are developing the game for windows first since that’s where 93% of the customers are.

    Why not develop for Windows and Steam Deck equally then?

    Are you even thinking this through?

    Definitively more than you.

    arefx ,

    You’re pretty funny but you clearly aren’t smart.

    BaroqueInMind ,

    It’s almost as if they are a for-profit company that doesn’t want to waste development time on an OS that have significantly fewer players to sell to and will choose to optimize for Linux as an afterthought.

    I use Arch, btw and play only on Linux, so I’m not being biased, just speaking truths.

    Virkkunen ,
    @Virkkunen@fedia.io avatar

    I wouldn't say that's the case because it's Valve, and they work on a very unique way. Besides, the work they did with Proton, SteamOS and Steam Deck shows that at no point they believe developing for Linux is waste of efforts or an afterthought. They go out of the usual way to make things better for Linux. I fully expect them to port Deadlock to Linux once it hits beta or release.

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    I fully expect them to port Deadlock to Linux once it hits beta or release.

    Like CS2 that has severe bugs on Steam Deck to this day? www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PycIuATXaw

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    It’s almost as if they are a for-profit company that doesn’t want to waste development time on an OS that have significantly fewer players to sell to and will choose to optimize for Linux as an afterthought.

    Yeah, why would Nintendo develop for Switch or Sony for PlayStation when it’s clearly a waste of development time and and money and Windows is clearly the superior development target?

    I’m not being biased, just speaking truths.

    No, you speak nothing of truth regarding game development has a platform holder.

    skulblaka ,
    @skulblaka@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Yeah but Valve, who is making this game, made SteamOS and the Steam Deck in house. It’s their own product. It would be a monumentally stupid move to release a first party game that doesn’t run on their own first party hardware.

    0xD ,

    It’s still niche. You’re living in your dream world, not reality. It’s the entire point of proton - not to have to create two versions of the game. As long as it’s compatible it’ll run nicely on their hardware.

    mox , (edited )

    I’m with you in principle, but I think it’s unlikely that Valve are building the game themselves, given that they haven’t done much of that in ages.

    It’s reasonable to think their first priorities were finding a development studio [Edit: or even in-house developers] capable producing a good game, and helping them to do so. If the developers are most familiar with Windows tools and APIs, then the path to a successful game would be letting them use those, at least to begin with.

    Let’s just hope that they’re being guided along to way toward design decisions that make a native port relatively easy if the game turns out to be good.

    Edit:

    The project is reportedly led by “IceFrog”, which looked like a studio name when I first read it, but it’s apparently a person. So maybe this is in-house development after all. Great! It would be nice to see Valve making significant games again.

    Nevertheless, gathering a team with the talent and vision to make a good game is harder than finding people who can learn a certain API or platform, so if they have the former, it would make sense to let them target the platform they already know and get the game out the door. Doing it in-house just makes it even easier for Valve’s linux folks to guide them in design choices that would simplify multiplatform support later. (Cross-platform development isn’t all that hard if you plan for it from the start instead of painting yourself into a corner.) If the game is well received, it would then make sense to invest more time into training the devs on linux and doing a linux-native port.

    Or to put it another way: Yes, Valve has an OS that keeps them independent from Windows, but that’s just one tool in their kit. Proton is another tool. That gives Valve flexibility in how they bring a game to market, and how they prioritize/schedule various phases of the project. This still-unannounced game might be Windows-only for now, but I would not assume that will be forever.

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    If that studio’s developers are most familiar with Windows tools and APIs, then the path to a successful game would be letting them use those, at least to begin with.

    So you’re saying, if Sony or Nintendo made a new console and contracted an outside developer, that developer should develop for Windows instead of the new consoles because they are unfamiliar with the new tools and APIs? Why even develop using Source Engine (2)? Why not also give in to a total Unreal Engine monopoly because that’s what every game developer knows? CS2 on Steam Deck is bad right now.

    mox , (edited )

    No, that is not what I said at all. Either you’ve misunderstood, or you’re arguing in bad faith. Given that you’re now pushing an unrealistic all-or-nothing point of view and putting words in my mouth, I think it’s some of both.

    0xD ,

    Don’t waste your time. These people are blinded by idealism and don’t care about reality, just being angry.

    themusicman ,

    Valve is absolutely developing this game themselves

    pycorax ,

    I expected this from the start once proton was introduced, just not from Valve themselves… Welp. It’s now inevitable.

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    I expected this from the start once proton was introduced, just not from Valve themselves… Welp. It’s now inevitable.

    Clueless people act as if Proton was like Java, a “write once, run everywhere” environment…🙄

    pycorax ,

    Not sure what you mean here with your sarcasm. Proton means that developers can just write games for Windows and expect to make that version compatible with Linux with minimal changes as opposed to making a native Linux version.

    As a developer myself, I know that it doesn’t make sense for a developer in most cases to write a Linux version and support it when the Linux user base is tiny by comparison. It happened with OS/2 and it can happen again. Not to mention Linux game developer tooling pales in comparison to Windows with DirectX.

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    Proton means that developers can just write games for Windows and expect to make that version compatible with Linux with minimal changes as opposed to making a native Linux version.

    SteamOS is Valve’s own OS. Steam Linux Runtime is Valve’s own development target. Steam Deck is Valve’s on hardware. It’s a stable platform that doesn’t move constantly like chasing Windows compatibility through reverse engineering. Win32 is not Java, Proton is not OpenJDK. Windows games on Proton break constantly. The only way into the future is proper SteamOS versions, not buggy afterthoughts.

    As a developer myself, I know that it doesn’t make sense for a developer in most cases to write a Linux version and support it when the Linux user base is tiny by comparison. It happened with OS/2 and it can happen again.

    Steam Deck is not OS/2. Steam Deck is more like a video game console and needs to be treated like one with proper ports instead of broken shit like CS2, especially for Valve’s own games. Portal on Nintendo Switch works better than CS2 on Steam Deck because it’s a proper port, not an afterthought.

    Stop repeating the same false arguments to me over and over again, as repeating those would make them right. If anyone of you would ever be put in charge of PlayStation, that entire business would collapse within months.

    Not to mention Linux game developer tooling pales in comparison to Windows with DirectX.

    Maybe Valve should improve that for their own platform then instead of relying of tools by a hostile competitor. It’s just dumb.

    Thunderphenol ,

    It’s really not? You can play it perfectly fine on linux. Performs great for me with 0 issues so far.

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    It’s really not?

    The quality of Proton is not the point, the point is that they’re not dogfooding their own platform.

    You guys making the same comments over and over again. I can literally paste previous replies because nobody of you cares to actually read.

    Thunderphenol ,

    That’s because I don’t understand your point. You complain about it being only for windows yet push away their efforts of bringing windows games to linux (which is proton). So indeed, the quality of proton is very much the point as it dictates the quality of the game on linux to a general extent.

    Not to mention that this IS an early development build, I would say that its perfectly reasonable for them to only make the early builds for windows since that is where a majority of the play testers are likely to be (not to mention that linux -> windows tools don’t exist unless you want to game on WSL2).

    So what are you trying to complain about? The fact that they aren’t exclusively pandering for steam deck users? If that is the case, I must admit that it’s very childish to just expect that and I hate other companies for making this the norm.

    x00z ,
    @x00z@lemmy.world avatar

    All of their games have native Linux builds. So if this one doesn’t support Linux out of the box, his opinion is quite valid.

    Thunderphenol ,

    It’s not out of the box though is it? Considering that this is a game that hasn’t even been revealed to the world in the first place.

    x00z ,
    @x00z@lemmy.world avatar

    My bad, I meant when it gets released.

    Thunderphenol ,

    Ah I see. Sure, if there is no native linux build on the games release, I’ll be complaining too.

    Virkkunen ,
    @Virkkunen@fedia.io avatar

    Valve keeping up with the trend of "worst kept secrets"

    Well it's very intentional I believe. You can invite an unlimited number of friends and there's no NDA or anything, they just casually ask you to not share details about the game since it's still a work in progress and in alpha, despite it looking like mostly finished to be fair. Characters are fully voiced and nothing really screams placeholder content, and most updates are regarding "balancing" and mechanic changes, just trying out what's best.

    themusicman ,

    The release notes don’t mention it much, but the map detailing and art is getting massive improvements in each update

    TheEighthDoctor ,

    Hi, it’s me your friend!

    themusicman , (edited )

    DM me your friend code

    Minnels ,

    Looking for new friends with benefits. If you know what I mean.

    ivanafterall ,
    @ivanafterall@lemmy.world avatar

    Sorry, I only date people with Deadlock invitations to share.

    rimjob_rainer ,

    Dota 2 wasn’t that popular.

    SuperIce ,

    It literally has the second most concurrent players of any game on Steam at the moment and still has over half of the concurrent player numbers compared to its peak 8 years ago.

    djsaskdja ,

    Are there certain markets where it’s significantly more popular? I’ve never met anyone in the US that plays it.

    ECB ,

    The US was always kind of a dead region for Dota, but it is/was very big in europe (especially Russia), south America, China, southeast Asia

    djsaskdja ,

    I always kind of suspected that. Thanks for confirming!

    drphungky ,

    Where would we meet you? Outside? I don’t go there, I’m too addicted to DOTA.

    djsaskdja ,

    On Lemmy with the rest of the nerds, duh!

    DrDominate ,
    @DrDominate@lemmy.world avatar

    Would anyone spare me an invite? This game looks amazing.

    themusicman , (edited )

    DM me your friend code

    loam ,

    Oh Valve, knowing threads of people asking for invites will build hype.

    Tap for spoilerI am asking for an invite maybe please

    themusicman , (edited )

    DM me your friend code

    histic , (edited )

    If anyone would be so generous my dms are open

    themusicman , (edited )

    DM me your friend code

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