Antlion King

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Antlion King
General information
Faction	Xen Antlions
Type	Insect
Health	N/A
Game information
Designer(s)	Ted Backman

 

The Antlion King is a six-eyed Antlion cut from Half-Life 2. In one iteration of the storyline, it was to be met in the Antlion caves set between Eli's scrapyard and the Coast. The idea of a patriarchal Antlion ruling the nests in underground caves was reused for Episode Two, the King being recycled into the Antlion Guardian.

Overview

"We knew our fans had grown up a little in between HL1 and HL2 and wanted to elicit a post-Mr. Friendly response. For the Antlion King design, we took one part solpugid head structure, one part duff, and sprinkled some warty growths on the top as a 'crown.' After the first character concepts for this guy were done, I made a three-foot long version in Roma Plastilina. (Unfortunately, this was my first attempt at sculpting freestanding characters in clay and the maquette eventually crumbled.) The Antlions were to have a patriarchal society, much like ants have a queen, but this was to be a creature even larger than the Strider. For a rough idea of scale, in the maquette, Gordon is stuck between the toes of the beast, which towered some 60 feet. During development, the topside Antlions started working, and more and more of the underground spaces were cut, until eventually there was no place left for the King."

― Ted Backman

Behind the scenes

During the 2023 repository leak, an alleged silhouette of the Antlion King was posted. It is not known whether it's based on an actual 3D model.

Gallery

• 

  The silhouette of the Antlion King, as alleged by the leakers.

List of appearances

• Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar (Non-canonical appearance)