Gabe Newell often takes the brunt of gamers' frustration over the fact that Half-Life 3 still hasn't seen the light of day. As the managing director of Valve, Newell has a fair amount of say as to whether or not Half-Life 3 ever gets made, and gamers often think of Newell as an all-powerful figure who could produce the sequel that fans want with a snap of his fingers. And yet, he chooses not to.
It's a view of Newell that's larger than life, and not entirely fair. Now one indie game developer is taking those feelings to their logical extreme and is including Newell in their game as a cruel and powerful monster.
Powerhoof, developer of indie game Crawl, released a tweet on April 1st depicting the latest boss character in the multiplayer dungeon crawler: Gabe Newell. The animated gif included in the tweet shows a pixelated, NES-style Gabe Newell casually jogging towards the protagonist and unleashing a Street Fighter Shoryuken. Digital Gabe then grows Newell's modern day beard and shaggy hair and stabs the protagonist with his real-life knives.
Because the tweet was released on April 1st, many assumed that the gif was a joke, but Powerhoof said that Boss Gabe was a legitimate update that had been in the works for some time. However, Powerhoof did not approach Newell or Valve about including his likeness in their game. That was risky, since the game is being sold and is playable in an early access form on Valve's Steam platform. However, just a few days after the initial tweet went out, Valve reached out to Powerhoof and encouraged the developer to use Newell's likeness in Crawl.
It would have been completely within Newell and Valve's rights to shut this project down for not acquiring permission to use Newell's likeness. Thankfully, Newell is known, in part, for both his zany sense of humor and his fondness of indie games, so it's not surprising that he's fine with it. Fans of the Half-Life series may be interested in picking up Crawl just to have the opportunity to take out their frustrations on Newell's virtual doppelganger.
If you're not interested in the Half-Life series, or just want to know what it's like to crush the hopes and dreams of gamers, Crawl's multiplayer mode has a treat for you, too: Crawl's multiplayer mode allows players to take control of enemies (including bosses) and pound their friends into smithereens.
Are you looking forward to Gabe Newell's appearance in Crawl? Would you rather play as him, or fight against him?
Crawl is currently in Early Access on Steam for Linux, Mac, and PC.