The Risk of Rain devs joined Valve less than a month ago, and one of the legendary roguelike’s creators is already working on Deadlock

Valve’s hero shooter MOBA hybrid has even more legendary dev talent than we thought

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

Earlier this month, the devs behind the legendary Risk of Rain - one of thebest roguelikesof all time - announced that they’re going to work atValve. Now, we know that at least one of them is working on the company’s new hero shooter Deadlock, and he’s already directly responding to bug reports from players online.

Duncan “Hopoo” Drummond popped up in the official Deadlock Discord yesterday to introduce himself to players. In no time at all, he was already fielding reports and balance feedback. That Discord is only accessible to Deadlock players, but Drummond’s sudden appearance made enough of a stir to quickly make the rounds on places likeReddit.

Drummond co-created Risk of Rain alongside Paul Morse when they were both students, and eventually his online handle ‘Hopoo’ would become the name of development studio Hopoo Games. The studio grew slightly over the years, bringing in new folks for Risk of Rain 2 in particular, but Drummond remains credited as programmer, artist, co-designer, and co-producer on that original game, and is similarly credited in its sequel.

Back on September 2, Hopoo Gamesannouncedthat “Duncan and Paul, alongside many other talented members at Hopoo Games, will now be working on game development” at Valve. That meant the effective shutdown of the studio - “sleep tight, Hopoo Games,” as they put it - and the end of production on their own unannounced game. What we didn’t know, however, is exactly what role the devs would be taking on at Valve. That mystery has now been cleared up for Drummond at least.

Deadlock does what Valve didn’t get around to with Counter-Strike, turning the hero shooter’s cheaters into frogs.

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He’s been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

Risk of Rain co-creator led the design of one of Deadlock’s new heroes, to the surprise of no one: “Viper is such a Hopoo character”

League of Legends' new champion is a giga-busted Arcane crossover whose kit is so overtuned that even pros are running scared: “Honestly what the f*** at this point”

“At least one” Game of Thrones movie is reportedly in early development at Warner Bros.