Deadlock is a game that Valve formally says is "in early development."

For months, the multiplayer game was essentially undiscovered.

In the most understated manner possible, Valve has finally and formally unveiled Deadlock. The game now has a straightforward announcement and a Steam page with Valve listed as the publisher and developer:

Deadlock is a work in progress that features a lot of impromptu artwork and experimental gameplay. Right now, only friends invited by our playtesters can access.

Valve only offers an animated teaser image without any other information. (A still screenshot of it is shown above.) All that is specified in the system requirements is that the game needs an operating system and processor that are 64-bit.

Although the game has supposedly been kept under wraps until now, information about it has been leaking for months. Data from closed playtests began to surface in May. Tens of thousands of individuals have joined the game by August as more players encouraged their friends to give it a try. The Verge published a hands-on preview last week after receiving an invitation.

Shroud is among the several streams currently playing the game in real time after game administrator Yoshi announced in the Discord channel that Valve was relaxing its ban on talking about the game in public.

It is unclear if Deadlock will maintain its popularity like Counter-Strike or Dota 2 or if it will eventually fade away like Artifact, despite the fact that it appears to be another exciting addition to Valve's catalog of large multiplayer games.