Dishonored boss and Arkane founder Raphaël Colantonio, now creative director at Weird West maker Wolfeye Studios, previously worked with Valve on a Half-Life 2 Ravenholm game before its abrupt cancellation. In a new interview, Colantonio reflects on his time with Valve and shares more about how that unfortunate project put him on a course for immersive sim history.
Speaking with Press Box PR, Colantonio describes the disappointment around Valve's decision to end Ravenholm's development. "It took us a decade to move on from the pain of the Ravenholm project because we were incredibly excited about doing that game and we put in a lot of creative energy into it and eventually when the decision was made to cut it, we did not understand it as it happened," he says.
With hindsight and experience, he suggests, it makes a lot more sense. "It all came down to the economics behind Half Life 2 and how the DLCs were selling," he continues. "They had a business ratio between how much they could spend and how they could make it to be worth it to them because it takes the attention of the entire structure on their side."
Valve had taken a stab at a Ravenholm game before contacting Colantonio and the crew, with internal and external teams failing to produce something that could be greenlit. "Like the two other attempts that they had looked at, we went somewhere with it, and it was cool. What we had was really, really cool," Colantonio says. "But it still needed more time, and too much time to finish. Beyond it being cool there was a business call at some point where it was decided that it didn’t really make sense. It was very painful for us but it made sense, we grew up and got a little bit more mature about it."
Colantonio adds that this project ultimately "led us to work very closely with Viktor Antonov," Half-Life 2's art director and the visual design director of Dishonored. Antonov passed away in 2025. The "final game" from Antonov's works, Guns of Eschaton, was recently revealed by his studio Eschatology Entertainment.
Working with Valve was a learning experience, Colantonio says. "We did not betray the Valve mentality" while working on Dishonored, he suggests. "It’s just that we probably snuck in some of our own Arkane stuff in there as well," whether that's the gadget design or map design and mobility.
Some of that "Valve mentality" is present in play testing. The "Valve way of doing it" is to rotate testers, Colantonio reasons. A group of testers would come in and play a game, and individuals as well group size would be varied between sessions. "Five then 10 then five then 10 and no matter what you realise that somehow this is enough to discover things," Colantonio recalls.
For old times' sake, Colantonio sizes up a potential Half-Life 3. "I think they are the grand masters," he says of Valve. "We've learned from them. We admired them. We still admire them. The bar is so high but I have no doubt that they will rise to meet it because I want to play a fantastic Half Life 3. I just trust that they have the time to do it right."
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