Kim Swift Leaves Valve for Airtight

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DigiQ8

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The Portal lead developer Kim Swift has left Valve to join Airtight as a project lead on "future projects". According to Airtight, Swift will "build and lead a team in the development of games aimed at a more diverse audience."

"I've learned so much and had some amazing experiences at Valve," said Swift in a statement. "But when I heard I had the opportunity to work on innovative titles with my friends over at Airtight, I couldn't pass it up."
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What are the reasons behind this? And what will happen with Portal 2? Discuss.
 
Dark Void looks semi-interesting, I have to admit.

But this won't mean that much for Portal 2 I guess. The big gimmick of Narbacular Drop were the portals. Valve made it into a great game by adding context, a great story and one of the best evil robots ever.

Falcon(Nate) said:
Sounds to me like she got the opportunity to be a team lead and jumped on it.
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There was/is a job opening for a lead designer so you could be right.
 
Samon said:
A more diverse audience? Amusing.
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I don't know.

I mean leaving Valve (a highly successful developer) for another developer months away from releasing an uncertain make or break project. I'm just not buying that.
 
She got offered more money and a better position. There, mystery solved.
 
She was at TGS recently doing an interview for L4D2, and when I asked Chet about what Kim was up to he said again...L4D2.

I can't imagine if she was heavily involved in a major project (in development) she would want to leave before seeing it through. Either she didn't feel involved enough or the timing of this other job meant she had to go now?

Next mission: Get her new email address and extract internal Valve projects from her.
 
Clearly she wants to actually get games done.
 
Good move by her.

There were probably more monies involved.

And the fact that Valve are too busy crapping out L4D..crap to focus on stuff we've been waiting for ***king ever for!

Damn it, give us something on EP3. ANYTHING!
 
I'm very happy for her, she is talented. As for the "more diverse audience", Valve is becoming more and more devoted to multiplayer games, maybe there is not much space for Kim Swift in that kind of projects.

Personal note: Portal is a game from 2007. No news about a possible Portal 2 in two years is a bad thing.
 
fffuuuu.jpg


I bet everybody since the Orange Box came out has been working on nothing but L4D and then wanted to work on Episode 3. L4D proved so successful though they made L4D 2 and have just made concept art, etc for Episode 3.

She is putting her friends first before herself and career. People would absolutely kill to work at Valve. She made a fantastic game and got multiple awards too for Portal. Instead she leaves Valve and joins Airtight in which she makes games for "a more diverse audience". That means she is gonna make games for the Wii. ;(
 
hool10 said:
I bet everybody since the Orange Box came out has been working on nothing but L4D and then wanted to work on Episode 3. L4D proved so successful though they made L4D 2 and have just made concept art, etc for Episode 3.
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You know what, I don't even want to reply with a sarcastic rebuttal outlining all the fallacies in your post here. I'm just going to let you sit and think about what you've said today hool, and I hope you come to your senses and are filled with shame.
 
Darkside55 said:
You know what, I don't even want to reply with a sarcastic rebuttal outlining all the fallacies in your post here. I'm just going to let you sit and think about what you've said today hool, and I hope you come to your senses and are filled with shame.
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In before:

301254-doug_lombardi_screen_large.jpg


Doug doesn't want anybody to say anything about Episode 3 yet because it's in such an early stage.
 
It is a strange move but that's what she wanted then power to her :)

Admittedly valve has been pulling some crazy moves lately: l4d2, nothing on episode 3 and EVEN LESS on portal 2 (I honestly wouldn't be surprised if any work has been done on this except for preliminary ideas >_>)
 
AHA-Lambda said:
Admittedly valve has been pulling some crazy moves lately: l4d2, nothing on episode 3 and EVEN LESS on portal 2 (I honestly wouldn't be surprised if any work has been done on this except for preliminary ideas >_>)
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This. But I understand that L4D = cow to milk = (a lot of) money. Electronic Arts influence? ;)
Dark Void looks very intriguing. Maybe Kim Swift can bring some new fresh ideas to Airtight, like she did with Valve.
 
I love how everyone is intimately familiar with the inner workings of Valve.
 
hool10 said:
I bet everybody since the Orange Box came out has been working on nothing but L4D and then wanted to work on Episode 3. L4D proved so successful though they made L4D 2 and have just made concept art, etc for Episode 3.
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I'll try to pretend that you're being sarcastic.
 
Sweet. Airtight are ****ing awesome (Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge). Dark Void looks awesome. Hope Kim can make it even more awesome.
 
Dark Void comes out next month, so I doubt there will be much she could do for it in that time. They did say that if Dark Void sells well there will be a sequel (with multiplayer).

Also, if Airtight keeps making flying games, there will most likely be no motion controls involved. They specifically said that they were leaving it out of Dark Void because players tend to lean in the direction that they wanted to go.
 
Hmm, I guess if "they can't do" Portal 2, I guess here comes Left 4 Dead 3!
 
It is amusing to me that people seem to be able to come to completely unsupported conclusion about what goes on behind Valve's door.

hool10 said:
I bet everybody since the Orange Box came out has been working on nothing but L4D and then wanted to work on Episode 3. L4D proved so successful though they made L4D 2 and have just made concept art, etc for Episode 3.
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Do you actually think about what you post before you click 'Submit Reply'? See I don't believe you do.
 
Valve are masters at what they do, but what they do & what they produce are very tight focussed linear games, which isn't necessarily the sort of thing that all game designers want to work upon all the time. For all we really know she might be a big RPG fan and want to ultimately head in that direction, and that quite clearly isn't something the Valve has any interest in doing.

The older members of the site no doubt recall when albeit it briefly Warren Spector & Valve were in cahoots to work on a project together, but quite clearly there was not a meeting of minds when it came to how to make games, and Warren moved on to Disney (more is the pity...).
 
They just are not making anything right now except for TF2 updates, Steam, and L4D 2. Once they get L4D 2 out the door, they will start actually making Portal 2, etc. Right now it's all concept art and we will not even see a trailer for Episode 3 this year at all.
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-hool10 http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=3010175&postcount=27

It feels good making completely baseless assumptions, doesn't it?
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-Samon http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=3011953&postcount=30
 
Is that supposed to make it seem like your assumptions aren't baseless?
 
Yeah, sorry hool. You can't quote yourself as a source.
 
hool10 said:
-hool10 http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=3010175&postcount=27
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hool10 said:
nor was it designed for a GPU to have a CPU.
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Do you know how a dedicated graphics card works?
hool10 said:
They need to make a Source engine 2 with DX10/11
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DX10/11 severely is overrated. Most of the time it isn't worth the overhead.
hool10 said:
up to 8 CPU support
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Multithreading is multithreading. You don't define a CPU number.
hool10 said:
and have VAC 2 to go along with it.
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VAC2 has existed since 2005.


Looks like your source material wasn't fact checked.
 
Yeah, I can quote myself as a source because way back in August I said there would be no update on Episode 3 or anything other than L4D 2. You guys basically scoffed saying I don't have a clue. Now we are at the end of 2009 with still nothing. This will continue with next year but I hope around Fall they start talking. :rolleyes: Foxfire, you need to get a new computer. VAC also showed it's inability to do anything with hackers in the new Call of Duty. *Wait they did ban pirates and hackers once. I believe they found a work around already though.
 
VALVE HASN'T SAID ANYTHING JUST LIKE I SAID THEY WOULDN'T WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY BACK IN AUGUST

THEY HAVEN'T BEEN WORKING ON EPISODE 3 BECAUSE THEY'VE ONLY BEEN TALKING ABOUT L4D2

ALL THEY HAVE RIGHT NOW IS CONCEPT ART

I DON'T UNDERSTAND MARKETING, KEEPING SECRET ABOUT PROJECTS, OR HOW VALVE'S CABALS WORK
 
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