Valve gives nod of approval to Gabe Newell character in Crawl

When Crawl studio Powerhoof posted the above image of Gabe Newell's appearance in its rogue-like dungeon crawler, everyone was thoroughly amused. There was one problem though: what if Newell didn't want to be there? What if he wasn't happy with his outfit?

Well it turns out Valve has approved Newell's likeness, so when he isn't running the world's biggest digital storefront for games and not releasing Half-Life 3, he'll be a playable character in Crawl. Once the next Crawl update is rolled out, all you have to do is use the name 'HL3' when you loadout, and Gabe will appear as one of the monsters.

The studio confirmed the news on Twitter.

@Powerhoof short sweet email from Valve today giving the go ahead for this silly thing :) turns out Valve are cool- who knew? April 9, 2015

Crawl is currently in Early Access and doing pretty well. Our own Tom Marks said it is "an incredibly fun and unique experience" in his Early Access review.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.