Valve Launches New Website, Teases ‘Top Secret’ New Games

It's been ages since we've heard about new stuff from Valve, the company that brought us such instant classics as Left 4 Dead, Half-Life and the Portal games. We were wondering if Gabe Newell and company were asleep for a while there -- but they appear to have woken up in a big way.

No, they didn't confirm Half-Life 3 -- but they did the next best thing. It's relaunched its web site with a whole new design and, more importantly, a hiring initiative, insisting that it's bringing on talent in an effort to launch some bold new projects.

But along with these job listings is a promise for some "top secret" new games that are in the works. We did a little digging around and weren't able to find information on these new games just yet. However, E3 is just around the corner, so who knows. Newell could easily step out onto the PlayStation stage again and reveal another classic in the making, as he did with Portal 2.

The job listings have some interesting clues though. For instance, there's a level designer position that talks about "building the game world in 3D" and "using entity scripting to create cinematic sequences in gameplay." Valve hasn't dabbled with this in a few years, so seeing them come back to that would be interesting to say the least.

That's not all. It's also bringing on writers that specialize in "cinematic and narrative video game writing," indicating that it's looking to get back in the saddle when it comes to story-focused adventures. It could certainly use the help since several iconic writers that worked on Half-Life and other games have departed from the company.

Right now we only know about two projects that are in the works from Valve. The first is the new project being worked on by Campo Santo, which was acquired by Valve weeks ago. The second is Artifact, a mobile card game that has left some fans less than excited. So whatever the team is working on, it should probably introduce the projects sooner rather than later.

For now if you want to do some looking or you're just curious to see what Valve is hiring for, head on over to their page. Who knows? Maybe you could inspire the birth of Half-Life 3. We know we'd be working on our fantasy pitches if we had the chance.