Valve Is Creating its Own Dota Auto Chess

Dota Auto Chess has seen huge success as a Dota 2 mod that offers a very different type of gameplay, so much so that it’s attracted people who don’t even play the MOBA or have never played chess before. Players have received it exceptionally well, and so has Valve itself. The creators of Dota 2 said they’ve played Drodo Studio’s Dota Auto Chess “roughly 1 billion times,” and after speaking with the creators of the standalone game, they’ve decided to pursue their own version of the project with the blessing from mod’s development team.

Valve’s post which discussed the state of Dota Auto Chess and the company’s intentions said that Valve flew the Drodo team out from China to talk about the smaller studio’s plans for the game. Part of those conversations included talks of working together with the two collaborating to work on Dota Auto Chess together, but Valve said no agreement could be reached. From those talks came the decision to pursue two different versions of Dota Auto Chess, both of them developed by one of the companies.

“We had great conversations, but we both came to the conclusion that Valve and Drodo could not work directly with each other for a variety of reasons,” Valve said. “We ended up agreeing that we’ll each build our own stand-alone version of the game, and support each other to the fullest.”

It was also said that Valve has assisted Drodo in its work on a new game. Valve said it worked with Drodo to help them migrate Dota Auto Chess players’ account progress into the new game that’s seen here.

Included in Valve’s post, Drodo shared a statement which thanked Valve and looked ahead to the future.

“We appreciate the great encouragements, support and help that Valve offered on Dota Auto Chess and Drodo’s standalone game,” the statement said. “Valve has been a great company, who gave birth to the Steam Platform and open community like Workshop, enabling millions of players to display their talents. Being a fan of Dota2, we have great confidence in Valve’s new game, and expect the next world-class game. In the meantime, with Valve’s support, Drodo will continue updating the DAC mod, and attempt to design new modes and adaptations in our stand-alone game. We endeavor to offer more to you, all the fans that like Auto Chess. Thank you, it’s you that are making this possible. We look forward to growing together.”

A release date for Valve’s game hasn’t been shared, but more information on ti is said to be released soon.