Lessons from Valve - How to build a designer's paradise

[99.vikram]

An interesting article by someone who got to see Valve's workflow first hand:

http://m.garrettamini.com/2011/08/lessons-from-valve-how-to-build-a-designers-paradise/

It's amazing, the enormous lengths to which Valve goes to keep innovating and maintain quality. This blog really highlights the importance of putting the product - and it's design - at the heart of everything you do. Here the author compares them to Apple, and I think I agree: in the eyes of fans, Valve can do no wrong. They are the brand that will not be tarnished, almost synonymous with quality. It's amazing how a team of around 250 guys can kick ass while armies of developers can't be arsed to produce anything of lasting value these days (notable exception: Deus Ex!)

In the world of gaming, where crap regularly gets pushed in our face as new, cutting-edge gameplay *cough CoD cough*; where every second game claims to redefine a genre... Valve delivers the goods. Mostly.

I still think hats ruined TF2 and microtransactions are the work of the devil.

 

[Stylo]

CoD is awesome.

 

[Stigmata]

I laughed

Valve sounds like paradise.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

The Valve offices are not based in Bellevue, its based in Nellis

 

[Godron]

Stories about Google's offices spring to mind instantly. It's just a shame there aren't more companies out there that operate like this, particularly game developers. The very best may all go to Valve, but it's not like there's a shortage of very talented people out there who would thrive in that kind of environment. With the number of resumes Valve turn down every week you could spawn whole new companies making games the way they're meant to be made, but instead <insert something about Bobby Kotick here>.

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

Volition was pretty good too. Haven't heard much about them in a while. They got screwed on the Freespace franchise by Interplay (who refused to sell the rights to the franchise basically killing it)

 

[Barnz]

Volition is known for firing their devs after they complete the game, many times.

 

[MiccyNarc]

I remember when hating Valve and especially Steam was the cool thing to do. How times change.

 

[Acepilotf14]

I remember when hating Valve and especially Steam was the cool thing to do. How times change.

When? If anything now is the time it's cool to hate Valve and Steam.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Team Hatress United Global Zombie Ancients w/ persistent stats or whatever.

 

[ricera10]

I visited Valve a couple months ago. Having open rooms, 30" monitors, and unlimited free candy makes Valve a company I'd want to work for.

EDIT: After reading the article, I'm happy somebody else found out how hard it was to find the offices; I somehow managed to get in through the service elevator and freaked everybody out.