Neon Prime

“Farewell, my friends.”

This page contains game content that has been removed from the game.

Neon Prime screenshot

Neon Prime was an early development version of Deadlock. It was created after Citadel.

The game was cancelled late in development and reworked into Shadowline and later Deadlock, due to negative feedback from playtesters regarding its art style and setting. Neon Prime reportedly had issues of poor visibility due to the heavy use of neon lights in VFX and models.

Many of Deadlock's current features and assets have been inherited from Neon Prime, and are expected to be updated or replaced over the course of development.

Neon Prime Mods (items) menu

Early HUD

Setting

Main article: Neon Prime lore

Neon Prime had a Cyberpunk sci-fi aesthetic featuring supernatural elements.

The game took place in an alien world called Fracture, a former prison planet that was taken over by inmates and turned into a tourism hotspot where crime is legal. The game matches were elections in the form of organized bloodsports in the city center, in which each team represented a mayor candidate.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Neon Prime was similar to Deadlock. 6 players on each side would use ziplines (then called hyperlines) to traverse 4 lanes and fight guardians and walkers to destroy an enemy boss called the Titan. The players would unlock tech (abilities) and use coins to buy items, called mods. In Neon Prime, the players had 6 item slots for each category instead of 8 universal slots.

A notable difference is that Neon Prime had a 3-hit combo melee system, instead of Deadlock's light and heavy melee.

There were two major versions of the Neon Prime map. V1 was developed around 2021 and was set during daylight. V2 was developed around 2022 and was set during night time.

Killing the midboss gave you the ability to immediately respawn after the player's death, as can be heard in the unused tutorial voice line from the Deadlock files.

Tutorials and gameplay footage (unofficial logo)

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  3-hit combo

Heroes

A list of known Neon Prime heroes and their Deadlock counterparts.

The ID indicates the order in which heroes were created in the game files (though not necessarily the order of development).

ID	Hero	Fate	Notes
34	Akimbo	Removed	Was a robot gunslinger
14	Astro	Stayed as Holliday	Was in a relationship with Forge
6	Atlas	Stayed as Abrams	Wore a jetpack. Was a time soldier of the Lost Battalion
36	Ballista	Removed	Was an anarchist artist and founder of the Wreckage Movement. Used to be in a relationship with Lash
15	Bebop	Stayed	Same as current model
30	Butcher	Became Wrecker	Was a female werebear
10	Chrono	Stayed as Paradox	Was the leader of the Paradox organization
18	Digger	Stayed as Mo & Krill
32	Duo	Removed
8	Forge	Stayed as McGinnis	Same as original model, was in a relationship with Astro
2	Gigawatt	Stayed as Seven
13	Haze	Stayed	Original design was an alien with long ears. Was a Disciple of Kreela
??	Heavy	Removed	Based on Heavy from Team Fortress 2
3	Hornet	Stayed as Vindicta	Had wings, was the leader of Strike Team Endeavor
1	Inferno	Stayed as Infernus	Was a man in an orange sci-fi uniform
21	Kali	Accessible via console commands	Was a retired Bear Pit fighter. Animations were reused for Ivy. Vyper's model is currently based on Kali's
12	Kelvin	Stayed	Had an astronaut suit that was reworked as Viscous' current model. Worked at a meat-packing plant
31	Lash	Stayed	Owned a dojo, used to be in a relationship with Ballista
25	Murphy	Stayed as Warden	The name was reused for Captain Murphy in Holliday's storyline. Was a Constable (robot police)
16	Nano	Stayed as Calico	Had metallic implants in her head and arms
17	Orion	Stayed as Grey Talon	Similar to current model, but used to be bald, had a long beard and wore goggles
19	Shiv	Stayed	Same as current model, but with a red shirt and metallic arm
??	Skymonk	Removed
4	Spectre	Stayed as Lady Geist	Also known as Ghost. Was a man wearing a cape and hood and a member of the Eighth Sun. Was related to Yamato
11	Sumo	Stayed as Dynamo	Also known as Jeong. Was an Asian chef and black market smuggler
33	Tempest	Removed
20	Tengu	Stayed as Ivy	Was a person wearing a red yokai mask
35	Viscous	Stayed	Same as current model, portrait was a blowfish in a green suit
7	Wraith	Stayed	Went through multiple iterations, including a woman with a purple arm and a magician with handcuffed hands and two ghost arms
27	Yamato	Stayed	Same as current model, with different colors

Later Heroes

The following heroes were created at some point before April 2024, but it's currently unclear if they were playable in Neon Prime or made later for Shadowline or Deadlock.

ID	Hero	Fate	Notes
54	Cadence	Accessible via console commands
38	Gunslinger	Accessible via console commands
52	Mirage	Stayed
49	Rutger	Accessible via console commands
53	Slork	Added to Hero Labs as Fathom and later removed
40	Spade	Removed
50	Synth	Stayed as Pocket	Also known as Fairfax
39	The Boss	Accessible via console commands	Also known as Yakuza Boss
51	Thumper	Accessible via console commands
47	Tokamak	Accessible via console commands
48	Wrecker	Added to Hero Labs and later removed	Wrecker was based on Butcher, but has a different ID

Gallery

Gameplay

• 
  Night-time gameplay
• 
  Night-time gameplay
• 
  Daytime gameplay

Heroes

• 
  Bebop
• 
  Cadence
• 
  Chrono
• 
  Digger
• 
  Forge
• 
  Gigawatt
• 
  Gigawatt
• 
  Gunslinger
• 
  Haze
• 
  Haze
• 
  Edited Haze icon, used as Cadence's temp icon
• 
  Hornet
• 
  Inferno
• 
  Inferno
• 
  Kali
• 
  Kelvin
• 
  Kelvin
• 
  Lash
• 
  Mirage
• 
  Nano
• 
  Nano
• 
  Rutger
• 
  Skymonk
• 
  Shiv
• 
  Shiv
• 
  Spectre
• 
  Sumo
• 
  Sumo using Black Hole
• 
  Synth
• 
  Tengu
• 
  The Boss
• 
  Tokamak
• 
  Viscous
• 
  Wraith
• 
  Yamato
• 
  Yamato

NPCs

• 
  Trooper
• 
  Trooper 2
• 
  Healing Trooper
• 
  Walker v1
• 
  Walker v2
• 
  Walker v3
• 
  Titan (Patron)
• 
  Chefbot
• 
  Punkbot
• 
  Cleanbot

UI and Graphic Design

• 
  Training - Guided
• 
  Training - Hero Testing
• 
  Training - Guide
• 
  Training - Bots on Easy
• 
  Lane Training trooper Coin
• 
  Posters

Concept art

• 
  Map concept art

External Links

Neon Prime hero voice lines compilation

Trivia

• Neon Prime's portraits were drawn by former Valve artist Claire Hummel.
• Vasili Zorin was the character designer of Neon Prime. Vasili has been working at Valve since 2018, when development on Citadel began.