Multi-headed Cow
Guest
On the topic of concept art, there was this mentioned about a year ago.Fact is, we have no fucking idea what Valve have been doing behind closed doors all these years.
... and on Source engine no less.
Although to somewhat seriously address the point: Despite their vast revenues Valve is still a relatively small company. The most obvious answer to what they've been doing all of this time is probably the correct one: little to nothing. Outside of their super-expansions for L4D and Portal and an update of DOTA I doubt they've done anything on any new IP short of maybe brainstorming and concept art. I mean, Christ, HL2 Episode 3?
Valve's biggest problem is that the massive amount of money it generates through Steam only serves to stifle their creativity and production time frames. They probably wouldn't have to put out another game for the next twenty years and could still afford to pay all of their 'developers' to just sit around and spin in their office chairs.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/03/22/u...sts-brand-new-project-spoilers-gordon-absent/
Some better/more pictures from other articles if you're inclined to root around.
It's also worth keeping in mind that since Valve is basically independently wealthy and an independent company without being on the stock market, they seemingly just make whatever the fuck they want to. Assuming you trust interviews and articles by Valve employees, their process for starting a new game is sitting around bullshitting until they hit something the majority of the employees are excited about. L4D2 and Portal 2 and DotA2 all came from this, and supposedly the Glorious God Gaben of Mankind has said he's played DotA2 for 800 hours already. It kinda just sounds like nobody it Valve is that interested in HL3/episode 3.