Download the Tom's Hardware App from the App Store
The reference for current tech news
Yes No
Ads

Valve Software Trademarks "DOTA"

by - source: Tom's Hardware US

Looks like Valve Software is indeed working on a standalone version of Defense of the Ancients.

Over the weekend, Duke Nukem voice actor John St. John posted a message on his Twitter page revealing that Valve Software is working on a project related to the popular Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos mod, Defense of the Ancients.

"Had a great time in Seattle last week recording for DotA," he said. "The guys at ValveSoftware are awesome!" Sometime later the Twitter entry was deleted.

The "confirmation" arrives after Valve recruited Defense of the Ancients designer Icefrog last year, hired on to tackle an unnamed project. Although nothing official has been released by Valve regarding the supposed game's development, Superannuation recently uncovered a trademark filed by the company for "DOTA," giving the rumor more substance.

Defense of the Ancients is a custom scenario for Blizzard's fantasy-themed RTS. The object is to destroy the enemy team's Ancients--heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the maps. Players use heroes and AI-controlled fighters called "creeps" to complete the mission, leveling up and purchasing new equipment in the process.

Recently Valve released a standalone, Source Engine-powered version of the Unreal Tournament 2004 mod, Alien Swarm. The game is free to download and play on Steam, offering a 4 player co-op "epic bug hunt" viewed in a top-down perspective. It's speculated that Defense of the Ancients may also follow in the footsteps of Alien Swarm, offering a free-to-play experience for Steam gamers as well.

Share:
48
Comments
Read more
X
Submit

Comments
Add your comment
adikos 08/11/2010 8:03 PM
Hide
-20+

i <3 valve

chaosgs 08/11/2010 8:04 PM
Show
Anonymous 08/11/2010 8:05 PM
Hide
-1+

Heroes of Newerth by S@GAmes has already managed to get the job done quite well. though maybe steam can further approve upon it.

sliem 08/11/2010 8:11 PM
Hide
-10+
Ragnar-Kon 08/11/2010 8:12 PM
Hide
-2+

Awww... that probably means Starcraft 2 will never see an official version of DotA from Icefrog.

Oh well.

Darkerson 08/11/2010 8:16 PM
Hide
-0+

I dunno about everyone else, but I though League of Legends was pretty fun, and the whole F2P with the option to buy stuff in the store seems to be working for it pretty well. Battleforge and Demigod, while not completely the same, are still good fun too.

rick4937 08/11/2010 8:25 PM
Hide
-3+

League of Legends is BY FAR the best commercial Dota game.

decoppel 08/11/2010 8:26 PM
Hide
-2+

League of Legends was FUN, but it wasn't competitive. Heroes of Newerth is competitive BUT has balance issues of a growing game. I sincerely hope the Valve-DOTA has that stuff ironed out immediately.

stm1185 08/11/2010 8:33 PM
Show
fulle 08/11/2010 8:37 PM
Hide
-3+

stm1185 :
I wonder how much this new DOTA is going to steal from Blizzards work.



Blizzard's work basically robs the Warhammer Universe blind. So I wouldn't shed your tears for them.

stm1185 08/11/2010 8:51 PM
Hide
-0+

And Warhammer ripped it off from LOTR. But I am thinking more stylistically, and how much its going to copy from the interface and art.

Haiku214 08/11/2010 8:53 PM
Hide
-0+

@decoppel League of Legends is not competitive?? Obviously you haven't played it that much. What level were you? lol! In fact, League of Legends is included in World Cyber Games 2010!!!

decoppel 08/11/2010 8:56 PM
Hide
-0+

Haiku214 :
@decoppel League of Legends is not competitive?? Obviously you haven't played it that much. What level were you? lol! In fact, League of Legends is included in World Cyber Games 2010!!!



It's not as competitive as HoN; being in tournaments doesn't mean playing games unranked or ranked are typically competitive. There are plenty of features in LoL that make the game more noob accessible, and lower the overall skill.

tolham 08/11/2010 8:56 PM
Hide
--2+

not that i'm complaining, but why is valve making mods for other developers' games?

Anonymous 08/11/2010 8:57 PM
Hide
-0+

none of the spinoffs or any of the TFT versions beat the original RoC dota - Mandevar with 2 EB's ftw.

LORD_ORION 08/11/2010 8:58 PM
Hide
-2+

Seriously, play Demigod.

That is how you make this kind of game.

turbotong 08/11/2010 9:15 PM
Show
dasper 08/11/2010 9:21 PM
Hide
-0+

Demigod was great on the fact that they wanted it to be easy to learn yet hard to master. The only gripe I have about DOTA is the fact there seem to be too many heroes and items that it makes getting started in the game virtually impossible without support and education from other players. I blame most of this on the limitations of the Warcraft 3 editor though, probably limiting how many spells a hero has and not having a talent tree possible.

My biggest hope is they try to improve on what makes it fun and not feel limited to clone the original.

xerroz 08/11/2010 9:23 PM
Hide
--2+

Sure this sounds great and all but the thing is that this game will most likely not be remotely close to what the original dota is. I know valve and they want $ and they will go the same route Riot games went with League of legends. They will go with a type of game that attracts the most audiences, a game with low level graphics that anyone can just pick up and play so that they can get the most profits. Dota is a game with a very steep learning curve which is another reason for valve to go for the league of legends route and make it more accessible for noobs to play.

I might have been excited about it at one point but really, if you think about it well enough this game won't be as good as it should be.

milkman172 08/11/2010 9:27 PM
Hide
-0+

tolham :
not that i'm complaining, but why is valve making mods for other developers' games?

I don't think Valve is making a mod for any game, they are simply hiring the developers that made those successful mods of those games to make a standalone game with the source engine.

sneaky jedi 08/11/2010 9:46 PM
Hide
-1+

All I can think of when I see DOTA now is that stupid techno song...

prince_david 08/11/2010 9:52 PM
Hide
-0+

What does Blizzard think of this?

blarg_12 08/11/2010 10:30 PM
Hide
-0+

That noob's building a BF on Leo... with no IAS...

Ciuy 08/11/2010 11:06 PM
Hide
-0+

dont forget techies like S2 did...

BulkZerker 08/11/2010 11:15 PM
Hide
-1+

stm1185 :
And Warhammer ripped it off from LOTR. But I am thinking more stylistically, and how much its going to copy from the interface and art.


JR tolken's orks didn't give two shits about "red wunz go fastah" so its hardly a ripoff. The settings and races may be there but its no where near alike in setting or races additudes.

tolham 08/11/2010 11:29 PM
Hide
-0+

milkman172 :
I don't think Valve is making a mod for any game, they are simply hiring the developers that made those successful mods of those games to make a standalone game with the source engine.


having paid employees make a mod counts as valve making a mod. my question is why.

BulkZerker 08/11/2010 11:32 PM
Hide
-1+

Haiku214 :
@decoppel League of Legends is not competitive?? Obviously you haven't played it that much. What level were you? lol! In fact, League of Legends is included in World Cyber Games 2010!!!


Right alonside halo, ddr, bejewled, and wii sports.

False_Dmitry_II 08/11/2010 11:53 PM
Hide
-0+

Demigod.

I tried the beta of League of Legends but the fact that your character is weak in comparison to Demigod and the fact that people who simply play more will wipe you every time from having something as stupid as account leveling made me never want to play it again.

MetzMan007 08/12/2010 12:03 PM
Hide
-0+

Go Try HON, Heroes of Newerth. Its just like DOTA and it has new and better graphics and it is stand alone and does not need WC3. keeps track of all your scores and runs and plays just like dota. used to be a dota fan but Hon (heroes of newerth) is way better. just search HON in google it should be the first one up. one time fee of 30 bucks and thats it. its great damn game and only online though. you can go practice. but the spells and characters are named different but all do the same shit.

jimmysmitty 08/12/2010 12:16 PM
Hide
-0+

prince_david :
What does Blizzard think of this?



Probably nothign since it was a mod for Warcraft. If they made it then they would be able to control it but since they didn't, its open to anyone.

Next we need VALVe to buy DNF...... And actually release it.


Ads

Best offers

Newsletters


OK
Ads