Half-Life: Alyx, the recently announced Half-Life VR game, is being worked on by several former members of Firewatch developer Campo Santo. The developer became a part of Valve last year, bringing their newly announced project, In the Valley of Gods, with them. While the game was initially announced for a 2019 release, it's been over two years since anything was shown off, and shortly before the next Half-Life was shown off, people started to notice that several developers were removing references to In the Valley of Gods from their Twitter profiles. Fans feared that the game has been cancelled outright.

Now, in a statement to Polygon, Campo Santo co-founder Jake Rodkin has confirmed that the game is "on hold" while the team works on other projects. While this means that the game could be returned to, it's not currently in active development, and still might be cancelled in the future.

"Developers from the former Campo Santo team have joined other projects at Valve, including Half-Life: Alyx," Rodkin's statement reads. "You hear a lot about how at Valve you can work on what you want. It turns out that’s true, and there’s a lot of work available. As we integrated ourselves into Valve it became clear there was a lot of valuable work to be done on Half-Life: Alyx. Some of us starting lending a hand, and have since become full-time on the project as it approaches launch."

It's not just Half-Life that the team are working on: several have moved over to Dota Underlords, while others are working on Steam itself. "So to answer your question as of today," Rodkin continues, "In the Valley of Gods development is on hold—but it certainly feels like a project people can and may return to."

In the Valley of the Gods sounded ambitious. If it ever happens, it will cast players as Rashida, an explorer and filmmaker in 1920s Egypt, seeking to document the first unveiling of the tomb of Queen Nefertiti alongside their partner Zora. Half-Life: Alyx, meanwhile, will release in March 2020.