Valve wanted to make a submarine game

Valve's Gabe Newell has said way back in the misty dawn of the company, he and co-founder Mike Harrington tossed around the idea of a submarine game - something of a departure from sci-fi dystopias.

Speaking on The Steamcast, Newell said the untitled submariner was in the works even before the ill-fated and legendary Prospero.

"The other game that Mike and I were talking about before we'd even had anybody other than us working on - it was a submarine game," he said.

"Mike was absolutely certain there was an opportunity to create fantastic underwater visuals and gameplay, so if people want to know the even furtherest back thing we have haven't gotten around to shipping yet it would have to be the unnamed submarine game."

Speaking of Prospero - the game-that-never-was, canned before Half-life launched the company - Newell said the team remain fond of the idea.

"A lot of the ideas for Prospero have sort of influenced our other games subsequently," he said.

"Whether or not we actually go back and do that specific game I don't know, it actually has a lot of appeal to us, we're all sort of fond of it.

"Nothing every really dies here, it's just a question how long until we get around to doing it. We just have so many opportunities to do so many different things."

Thanks, CVG.