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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
Duncan "Hopoo" Drummond, co-creator of the acclaimed roguelike Risk of Rain, has joined Valve and is now working on the company's new hero shooter Deadlock, directly engaging with players on Discord to address bugs and balance feedback.
Earlier this month, the devs behind the legendary Risk of Rain - one of the best roguelikes of all time - announced that they're going to work at Valve. 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 like Reddit.
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 Games announced that "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.