On September 1st 2013, Valve's Jira database was momentarily made accessible to the general public once again, much to the delight of users over at the Steam Powered User Forums and Neogaf. The project management and bug tracking software was previously left accessible back in late June 2013, which resulted in an extremely infamous incident which confirmed the development of several unannounced Valve projects including Half-Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3, Source 2, and much more.
The updated database only features several new groups, most of which appear to be related to recreational activities or miscellaneous traits. However, some existing groups highlighted during the previous incident have once again been brought to light as the Half-Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3, and Source 2 groups seem to have grown substantially in size, with far more employees focusing their attention on each of these projects. In regards to Left 4 Dead 3, we now understand that Emily Ridgway, Valve's new musical composer, is working along fan favourite Valve composers Mike Morasky (Team Fortress 2, Portal 2) to create an original soundtrack for the upcoming game. Composer Kelly Bailey (Half-Life, Half-Life 2) previously left Valve a number of years ago, but has since returned to the company as he is currently listed on a number of projects, including both Left 4 Dead 3 and Half-Life 3. Whether or not Kelly is actually working on the soundtrack for Left 4 Dead 3 remains to be seen.
Valve's three person composer team! Comprised of: Emily Ridgway (left), Kelly Bailey (middle), and Mike Morasky (right). Your ears are not ready for this.
Several other key designers who have appeared on the Left 4 Dead 3 list include Josh Weier, one of Portal 2's lead designers, and Doug Church, a prominent developer who has previously worked on a number of high profile games including the System Shock, Ultima, Thief, and Deus Ex series. Overall, our staff team are extremely happy with both the quantity and quality of the talented developers currently listed in the project's mailing group.
In regards to Half-Life 3, we mentioned in our last post that the group was substantially smaller than the Left 4 Dead 3 team, as the Left 4 Dead 3 project featured numerous different groups with a variety of purposes and a huge number of employees. However, the Half-Life 3 project appears to be gaining momentum, as the list now features an additional "Half-Life 3 Core" group, which is listed alongside the previously available "Half-Life 3" group. The project groups has also gained many more developers over the past few months, which highlights how the project is continually growing and attracting more of Valve's workforce to the development.
We should once again remind everyone that Half-Life 3 will more than likely not be seen or announced anytime soon, and we feel it is far more likely we will see Left 4 Dead 3 appear on the Source 2 engine before Valve are ready to talk about the third main installment in the Half-Life series. While the Source 2 groups have also expanded with a number of newly hired developers and prominent engineers, there is little else to discuss regarding the project at this time. You can check out the full list of all developers involved with Half-Life 3 and Left 4 Dead 3, and you can find all of the engineers involved with Source 2 here. The list has been slightly edited to remove all employee emails. As always, we'll be sure to keep you posted regarding the future of Valve and any of their upcoming projects.