Prerelease:Half-Life: Alyx

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Half-Life: Alyx.

Sub-Pages

Day One Build Content that was initially shipped with the game but later patched out.

September 2019 Build An early in-development build leaked by an inside source, given to a very passionate gamer.

Final Hours

The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx is an interactive book written by Geoff Keighley that chronicles the development of Half-Life: Alyx and the canceled projects worked on at Valve in the decade leading up to it.

Jeff

Referred internally as the "Blind zombie sequence", Jeff's design went through many iterations; for a long time, it was a Combine robot with a damaged face to make its blindness apparent. The developers eventually decided on a unique appearance, not affiliated with the Combine or any of the game's creatures, as a way to signal to the player that this enemy requires a different approach. A couple of early concepts for Jeff depict a baby Tentacle among the Xen flora protruding from his head.

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Early Robot Design

Ditto.

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Early G-man Model

This render leaked sometime between 2010 and 2019, and was originally thought to be a fan-made asset, but it turned out to be legitimate.

A render of an early sculpt of G-man's head

Early Kleiner Model

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Early Armored Headcrab Design

This design has pink crystals protruding from the Headcrab instead of the hard carapace-like shell with spikes seen in the final game.

Early Sequences

Early Vortigaunt Hideout

According to the developer commentary, Matthew Scott and Karen Prell describe that, originally, the scene involved a more dramatic and interactive plot where the player would revive a wounded Vortigaunt by squeezing nectar from headcrab hearts. This version was engaging and memorable but caused playtesters to focus more on the actions they took rather than the critical gameplay information. The scene evolved into a more humorous version, with the key information split across two rooms to help players retain it.

Strider Fight

A sequence created to test the Strider enemy AI, It features brand-new, never previously heard voice lines recorded by Alyx's original voice actress, Merle Dandridge.

Project "Shooter"

Codename "Shooter", also known as "City17Sim", was a minigame intended for The Lab, set in a Half-Life 2 City 17 Simulation. Leftover code was discovered in The Lab files following its 2019 "Hands-On" update.

The minigame was to be set in a theme park-like holographic simulation of City 17. It is described as a simple arcade-style shot-em-up, a series of six quick in-universe gunplay scenes where one plays as an unknown character, and must fend off waves of combined soldiers, it comprised of levels called: Puzzle, Corridor, Window, Doorway, Pillar, and Ducking, and including a shooting range.

The minigame was designed to take place in a theme park-like holographic simulation of City 17. Described as a simple arcade-style shoot-'em-up, it features a series of six quick in-universe gunplay scenes where players control an unknown character and fend off waves of Combine soldiers. It featured a shooting range, alongside chapters named:

• Puzzle - Involved an unspecified puzzle you had to solve to progress;
• Corridor - The first chapter involving combat. Two waves of enemy "enforcers" (most likely Combine Metropolice, as later sections refer to soldiers) have to be killed in order to progress. The first wave is two soldiers, second one is three;
• Window - Begins with a fight between Dog and an APC, similar to a cutscene in Half-Life 2. A soldier spawns in, and for the next 30 seconds a soldier spawns in every two seconds. After that, a Strider call is heard, signalling the spawning of two soldiers; after that, the Strider itself spawns with two more soldiers;
• Doorway - The player has to deal with three waves of soldiers. The first wave has two soldiers (transitioning into the second wave once one soldier is left), the second wave has two soldiers, and the third wave has three soldiers.
• Pillar - Almost identical to Doorway, the only difference being that the second wave waits until there's one soldier left before spawning two more;
• Ducking - The final sequence and similar to the above two, with four waves. The first two waves include two soldiers, which both wait until there's one remaining soldier before continuing. The third wave includes three soldiers, with this one properly waiting until all soldiers are dead until beginning the fourth wave, which has four soldiers. After all four waves are done, a Strider spawns, with the sequence ending after 14 seconds.

Scenes were to feature existing Half-Life 2 assets such as the Combine Soldier, the Strider, the OSIPR, the pistol, the G-Man, and the Breencast. Each scene was to feature a holographic score card at the end, showing the total of points earned during the scene and the number of headshots and/or misses.

E1M1

A rudimentary prototype created in only six weeks by four veteran Valve Employees to prove whether Half-Life-style combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving could translate from traditional keyboard and mouse gameplay to the six degrees of freedom in virtual reality. It was referred to internally as "The prototype" or "E1M1". It reuses assets from Half-Life 2 and its episodes as well as CSGO.