NEW HALF-LIFE 3 LEAKS, JUST FOR YOU! - HLX Files #4

| Summary status | complete |

Overview

This installment collects roughly six weeks of Tyler’s datamining findings rather than presenting a single new leak. Its centerpiece is the reappearance of surface attributes in a recent Deadlock update, now carrying material properties such as flash points and heat conductivity, which Tyler links back to a 2015 account of a “post-human” Gordon Freeman with an Aperture Science robotic arm from a purported 2013–2015 Half-Life 3 iteration. He also recaps a 2013 project description quoted from The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx, describes a 2021–2023 hiring wave drawn from major studios, and quotes two LinkedIn profiles about unannounced-project work. Confidence is mixed: the Deadlock file observations and quoted profile text are presented as evidence, while the 2015 conversation, the arm’s connection to current systems, and David Speyrer’s ongoing involvement are Tyler’s inference. He states plainly that this is a periodic catch-up video and that his research time is reduced while he moves house.

Mentioned events

Alleged 2015 Valve employee contact and “post-human” Gordon Freeman concept art

• Description: Tyler recounts a conversation “back in about 2015” with an individual claiming to be a Valve employee, which continued over several weeks. The main item to come out of it was post-human Gordon Freeman concept art from a version of Half-Life 3 in development from 2013 to 2015. He notes the person’s truthfulness was never confirmed, that much of what was discussed eventually happened, and that people he trusts have tried to convince him there is no evidence of this ever being in the game’s files.
• Confidence: Speculation — hinged on an unverified self-described Valve employee; Tyler says “it’s never truly been confirmed that this person was telling the truth” and that “it’s never truly been confirmed that this was something that happened.”
• Category: Development state
• Source: Tyler’s account of a 2015 conversation with an anonymous person claiming to be a Valve employee; the concept art is described but not shown or cited to a file.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: unverified — would require the concept art itself with file metadata, a named artist, or corroboration from a confirmed Valve source.

Robotic arm powers, Aperture Science origin, and Portal testing-track opening

• Description: In that account, Gordon Freeman had a robotic arm attached at his side that allowed him to control temperature, fire, and air — described as “control Earth” and being “effectively the Avatar.” The arm was said to be an Aperture Science piece of machinery, and the first section of the game was a Portal testing track used to teach the player how to use it.
• Confidence: Speculation — the entire description derives from the same unconfirmed 2015 conversation.
• Category: Gameplay
• Source: Tyler’s retelling of the 2015 anonymous-employee conversation.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: unverified — no artifact, filename, or map name is given; corroboration would need concept art or level files.

Speculation that the arm concept relied on the “Rubicon” physics system in Source 2

• Description: Tyler recalls that it had been speculated the arm feature would have leveraged “Rubicon,” described as the at-the-time-new physics system within Source 2, essentially simulating basic thermodynamics so players could control the environment and level geometry at a level not seen before in a Half-Life game. In 2024 he argues the same capability is now baked into the world rather than carried by an arm: “no, Gordon’s not going to have a robotic arm to do all of this, it’s just baked into the world itself.”
• Confidence: Speculation — Tyler explicitly frames the Rubicon link as prior speculation (“it had been speculated that this feature would have leveraged Rubicon”) and the 2024 reading as his own inference.
• Category: Engine feature
• Source: Tyler’s recollection of community/industry speculation about a Source 2 physics system; no code, document, or datamine is cited for the term “Rubicon.”
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — Source 2 or HLX binaries/documentation referencing a “Rubicon” physics system would confirm the name and its thermodynamics scope.

Surface attributes return in a Deadlock update with flash points and heat conductivity

• Description: Tyler reports that a recent Deadlock update brought back surface attributes, long-standing Source engine data that gives geometry different behavior depending on what it simulates — concrete, metal, or wood — and how it reacts to player input. Surfaces now carry new behavior including their “flash point” (how hot a material must be to ignite) and heat conductivity (how quickly a material absorbs heat from nearby heat sources), and these values allow material destructibility to change based on how the player interacts with them.
• Confidence: Fact — presented as a direct observation of the Deadlock update’s data, with the terminology (flash point, heat conductivity, fuel attachment) stated concretely.
• Category: Engine feature
• Source: Datamine of a recent Deadlock update; no build number or file path is given in the video.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — identify the Deadlock build and the surface-property fields (flash point, heat conductivity) in its files to confirm the values and naming.

Fuel attachment modifies surface properties, enabling interaction-dependent destruction

• Description: According to Tyler, a surface’s flash point and heat conductivity can be altered by the type of fuel attached to it — pouring gasoline on a surface changes both values. He presents this as the mechanism by which destructibility of certain materials and surfaces changes according to how the player interacts with them, the same effect he says the 2015 robotic arm was meant to provide.
• Confidence: Mixed — the fuel-driven attribute modification is described as datamined behavior in Deadlock, while the claim that this is the successor to the 2015 arm concept is Tyler’s inference.
• Category: Engine feature
• Source: Datamine of the Deadlock surface-attribute system, plus Tyler’s comparison to the 2015 account.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — a Deadlock or HLX data dump showing fuel types overriding flash point/conductivity values would substantiate the mechanic.

Vehicle simulation tied to surface attributes and wheel drag

• Description: Tyler says the surface properties tie into a vehicle simulation Valve has worked on “for years”: depending on the surface type and the attributes attached to it through fluids and temperatures, the drag on a wheel changes. He frames all of this as one interconnected simulation system “nearing immersive Sim levels of interactivity.”
• Confidence: Mixed — the surface-attribute values are datamined, but the coupling to wheel drag and the duration of the vehicle work are Tyler’s characterization without a cited file.
• Category: Engine feature
• Source: Tyler’s analysis connecting Deadlock surface data to prior datamining of HLX vehicle simulation.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — vehicle entity/VData dumps showing surface-type-dependent drag parameters would confirm the coupling.

Expanded surface interactions: blood, gasoline, soft-body contact, and decals

• Description: Tyler lists additional surface-attribute interactions he says are present: surface attributes for blood and gasoline, soft-body contact, and “grazing” with decals, meaning decals applied by bullet holes or liquids affect a surface’s overall attributes. He summarizes this as an extreme amount of simulation devoted to surface destruction, geometry destruction, and interactivity between level geometry and player actions.
• Confidence: Fact — enumerated as observed data categories rather than guesswork; the accompanying qualitative judgment (“insane amounts of simulation”) is commentary.
• Category: Engine feature
• Source: Datamine of Deadlock surface/decal attribute data, as summarized by Tyler.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — file evidence for blood/gasoline surface attributes and decal-driven attribute modification would confirm the list.

Hair, lighting, and a rebuilt NPC behavior system

• Description: Tyler states that “a lot of work” is going into hair and lighting, and that there is a huge system for NPC behavior in and out of combat zones which “has completely changed from Half-Life 2 and the Source engine.” No specific assets, shaders, or entity classes are named.
• Confidence: Unclear — the claims are asserted without any named artifact, and the video does not make the basis (datamine, source contact, or inference) explicit.
• Category: Engine feature
• Source: Tyler’s summary of ongoing HLX research; no files or builds cited.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — HLX material/shader and AI schedule dumps would substantiate the hair, lighting, and NPC behavior claims.

NPC behavior keyed to held weapons and dynamically available weapons

• Description: Tyler says NPC behavior changes based on the weapon they are holding, and that held weapons dynamically change based on which weapons are nearby. He acknowledges this “basically already existed in Half-Life 2” but says HLX takes it further, with the interaction extending beyond NPCs, enemies, and entities to level geometry, and with surface properties affected by NPCs as well as the player.
• Confidence: Mixed — the Half-Life 2 precedent is factual, while the HLX extension and its integration with geometry are Tyler’s description without a cited entity or schedule.
• Category: Gameplay
• Source: Tyler’s analysis of HLX AI/weapon systems compared with Half-Life 2 behavior.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — HLX NPC weapon-selection logic and geometry-interaction code would confirm the extension.

Dynamic propagation of ammo and resources through containers

• Description: Tyler describes a dynamic propagation system for in-game ammo and resources. He notes the precedent in Half-Life: Alyx, where the type of ammo granted and its rate change based on the weapons the player uses, both to tune encounter difficulty and to encourage weapon variety. In HLX, he says, the change is that any container can hold anything at any given time, with most empty, and contents dynamically change based on player behavior, nearby surface types, and the player’s prior decisions.
• Confidence: Mixed — the Alyx ammo system is factual, but the container-level propagation system is described without a named file, build, or entity.
• Category: Gameplay
• Source: Tyler’s comparison to Half-Life: Alyx combined with his datamine-based description of HLX resource distribution.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — item-spawn or loot-table data referencing player state and surface context would confirm the system.

The Final Hours quote on a 2013 project using “proceduralism in concert with crafted experience”

• Description: Tyler quotes The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx (which he calls “the final hours of Half-Life: Alyx,” by Geoff Keighley): sitting in a Valve conference room, David Speyrer begins to talk about the genesis of a project that began in 2013, saying “we were working on this single player game that would use proceduralism in concert with crafted experience to create something played in an open-ended way.” Tyler states that this project was Half-Life 3.
• Confidence: Mixed — the quotation and the 2013 date come from a published book, while the identification of the described project as Half-Life 3 is Tyler’s inference.
• Category: Development state
• Source: The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx by Geoff Keighley, quoted in the video; Tyler notes he is “not entirely happy with the end result of” the book but considers the quote important.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — check the quotation against the published text of The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx.

Valve’s impatience with Source 2 and work on proprietary voxel-style systems

• Description: Around the same period, Tyler says Valve was getting impatient with Source 2 and began working on proprietary “boxal”-based systems (as rendered by the auto-transcript; apparently voxel-based) to allow more player freedom, both in how players interact with the world and how the world interacts with them.
• Confidence: Mixed — the Source 2 frustration framing is tied to the Final Hours material on the 2013 project, but the voxel-system detail is given in general terms with a garbled term and no citation.
• Category: Engine feature
• Source: Tyler’s retelling, partly grounded in The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx; no separate artifact cited.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — locating the corresponding Final Hours passage and clarifying whether the term is “voxel” would resolve the ambiguity.

David Speyrer said to still be working on HLX in 2024

• Description: Tyler asserts that “in 2024 we still have people like David Speyrer working on hlx,” presenting this as part of the evidence that the 2013 project’s threads are converging.
• Confidence: Speculation — asserted without a cited profile, credit, or company record.
• Category: Development state
• Source: Tyler’s assertion; no LinkedIn page or other document is referenced for this specific claim.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: unverified — a current Valve credit, profile, or statement naming Speyrer on the project would confirm it.

2021–2023 hiring wave from id Software, Sucker Punch, MachineGames, Insomniac, and Naughty Dog

• Description: Tyler says that between 2021 and 2023 Valve began hiring from across the industry much faster than before, scouting designers through LinkedIn pages. He names id Software, Sucker Punch, MachineGames, Insomniac Games, and Naughty Dog as studios whose people are now at Valve, describing them as “artists and level designers almost entirely,” and adds that level design, concept design, and VFX design hires are arriving “at a rate never before seen at least not within the last 15 years.”
• Confidence: Mixed — individual hires are presented as documented on LinkedIn profiles, but the profiles are not named and the characterization of the hiring rate as unprecedented is Tyler’s assessment.
• Category: Development state
• Source: LinkedIn profiles of Valve employees, as reviewed by Tyler.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — named profiles with studio histories and Valve start dates would allow the hiring claim to be checked.

Creator of the Half-Life: Caged mod said to have returned to Valve

• Description: Tyler recalls the mod Half-Life: Caged, which he says was made by a former Valve employee after leaving because he lacked the opportunity to experiment within a linear single-player first-person shooter at Valve, and claims “that guy came back to valve.”
• Confidence: Speculation — no name, profile, or credit is given to support the return.
• Category: Development state
• Source: Tyler’s claim, referencing the Half-Life: Caged mod’s history; no artifact cited for the rehire.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — identifying the mod author and a current Valve credit or profile would confirm or refute the return.

LinkedIn profile: prototypes for an unannounced project, AI, player mechanics, and puzzles

• Description: Tyler quotes a level designer who worked at Valve between 2021 and 2023, whose LinkedIn profile says they “created a variety of prototypes with my team focused on ambitious never-before-seen gameplay for an unannounced project” and “developed AI, player mechanics, and puzzles from scratch” (transcript: “from scratched”).
• Confidence: Fact — the wording is quoted directly from a LinkedIn profile, though the individual is not named.
• Category: Development state
• Source: LinkedIn profile of a level designer employed at Valve 2021–2023, quoted by Tyler.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — locating the profile would confirm the exact wording and employment dates.

LinkedIn profile: October 2023 lighting and character-background hire

• Description: Tyler quotes another person hired in October 2023 and still at Valve, whose profile describes working with “color, lights and ink” on “various established characters and backgrounds of diverse settings and locations,” designing lighting “to lead the eye to areas of focus and effectively establish mood,” and accurately matching established styles for lighting, character designs, and locations set by team artists and previous designers.
• Confidence: Fact — quoted directly from a LinkedIn profile; the person is not named in the video.
• Category: Development state
• Source: LinkedIn profile of a hire dated October 2023, quoted by Tyler.
• Earlier mentions: None identified in this video.
• Verification: needs follow-up — the profile itself would confirm the quotation and dates.

Restatement of the first HLX video’s 2020–2023 level design claim

• Description: Tyler ties the hiring evidence back to “the person that we talked about in the very first hlx video we made,” who stated that between 2020 and 2023 they were working on level design layouts, lighting, combat encounters, and puzzles. He frames the new LinkedIn material as reinforcing that earlier account.
• Confidence: Mixed — the LinkedIn quotations are evidenced, but the connection between them and the earlier anonymous source is Tyler’s own inference.
• Category: Development state
• Source: Tyler comparing new LinkedIn profile material with the source cited in his first HLX video.
• Earlier mentions: HLX Files #1 (the first HLX video) — the 2020–2023 level design, lighting, combat encounter, and puzzle claim is restated without change; this video adds hiring and LinkedIn material as purported corroboration.
• Verification: needs follow-up — the original source’s identity and any documentation of that 2020–2023 work would be needed.

Production cadence, house move, and plans for live datamining streams

• Description: Tyler restates that instead of one massive HLX/HL3 video he releases smaller ones periodically, since otherwise he would be datamining every day of his life and would likely publish after the game’s trailer. He says these are findings from the last month and a half, that he is in the middle of moving (move-out date Halloween 2024), and that datamining and research time is reduced until then, after which he will resume full-time. He also proposes live datamining streams on Twitch and YouTube, noting that with Deadlock now public he can “dig through that code publicly without any threat of being in trouble with valve legal.”
• Confidence: Fact — direct statements about his own plans and circumstances; the legal-risk characterization is his own assessment.
• Category: Other
• Source: Tyler’s own statements in the video; no external document.
• Earlier mentions: Refers to his previously announced plan of periodic smaller HLX videos rather than one large video; restated here unchanged.
• Verification: needs follow-up — subsequent uploads and stream announcements would show whether the stated cadence and live-datamining plans were carried out.

New or changed in this video

• The Deadlock surface-attribute observation is the main new datamine content: flash point and heat conductivity as per-surface values, modification by attached fuel, and interaction with vehicle wheel drag, blood, gasoline, soft-body contact, and decals.
• Tyler newly links the 2015 “post-human” Gordon Freeman robotic-arm account to the current surface-attribute systems, arguing the arm’s functions are now “baked into the world” rather than wielded by the player.
• He states that Valve’s 2013 project described by David Speyrer in The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx was Half-Life 3, and pairs that with a claim of Source 2 impatience and voxel-style system work.
• New hiring evidence is presented in the form of two LinkedIn profile quotations (a 2021–2023 level designer and an October 2023 lighting hire) plus a list of contributing studios; the profiles are not named.
• No release date, build number, or store-listing information is offered; the video is explicitly a periodic catch-up of roughly six weeks of findings, and Tyler notes reduced research output during his move.
• The video’s own framing downgrades certainty on the 2015 account by acknowledging that trusted contacts dispute any file evidence for it.

Notable quotes

• “we’re almost entirely certain that it is going to happen” — on the likelihood of Half-Life 3, based on how far along he believes development is.
• “no Gordon’s not going to have a robotic arm to do all of this it’s just baked into the world itself” — distinguishing the 2015 concept from the current implementation.
• “a flash point is how hot a material needs to be to be able to be lit on fire” — defining the new surface attribute.
• “it’s nearing immersive Sim levels of interactivity of in-game systems” — on the scope of the simulation stack.
• “we were working on this single player game that would use proceduralism in concert with crafted experience to create something played in an open-ended way” — David Speyrer, quoted from The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx.
• “people who are predominantly known for single player experiences are being hired at valve” — on the pattern behind the 2021–2023 hiring wave.

Open questions

• Whether the 2015 contact was genuinely a Valve employee, and whether the post-human Gordon Freeman concept art exists in any verifiable form.
• Which Deadlock build introduced the flash point and heat conductivity surface fields, and whether the same fields are present in HLX data.
• Whether “Rubicon” is the actual name of the Source 2 physics system referenced, and how far its thermodynamics simulation extends.
• Whether the voxel-style (“boxal”) systems described are the same technology now shipping in current builds.
• The identities of the quoted LinkedIn hires, the returning Half-Life: Caged author, and the source behind the 2020–2023 level design claim.
• What “a lot of work” on hair and lighting concretely consists of, and what evidence supports it.
• Whether David Speyrer is currently attached to the project in a role that can be documented.