WillH visits Valve!

[synth]

WillH visited Valve last friday. He came into chat today and I asked him a bunch of questions about his experience. Here are his responses:

(WillH) Gabe's actually a cool guy
(WillH) and the camera doesn't add 20 pounds
(WillH) I don't have pics, I didn't have my cam
(WillH) Met Gabe, their secretary, Mark Laidlaw
(WillH) I don't remember the guys name but he worked on Duke Nukem 3d and HL2
(WillH) er... 1
(WillH) and 2 now i guess
(WillH) Hammer looks practically the same as the currently released version
(WillH) I asked Gabe stuff related to the Video Game industry
(WillH) nothing HL2 related
(WillH) it was for a school project
(WillH) Gabe gave me new found inspiration to make a mod
(WillH) He told me the best way to get into the Games industry is Mods
(WillH) no.1 for sure
(WillH) and the worst way is Quality Assurance
(WillH) He said that there is practically a wall between the QA people and actually devs
(WillH) Hmm... about mods, well if you release a mod and continue updating it that is 10x better than working on a commercial project that was canned
(WillH) He said having released a game is the A, no.1 way to get into the industry
(WillH) We also talked about Programming, EA, Steam,
(WillH) ahh and Digipen
(WillH) About programming, it was pretty much just the whole, Making a mod is the best way to get into the industry, its a good Idea to take Fine Arts classes like drawing and drama if you want to make games
(WillH) He said that a Computer Sciences degree wasn't a requirement at all, one of their best programmers (Yahn, I think) has a Fine Arts degree
(WillH) About steam he said its going to be the way of the future as it eliminates all
the expensive parts of game distrobution like advertising, packaging etc
(WillH) nothing really new but it was relevant to the question I asked
(WillH) He said EA's way of marketing over the TV and in newspapers is going to be less and less effective as the years go on
(WillH) because gamers are getting less and less of their info from print forms and more and more from web sites
(WillH) He pretty much trashed EA's whole business plan
(WillH) Gabe said Digipen is a great school because everyone there is 100% about games, they love games, games are their lives and they aren't there to get drunk waste 4 years etc. they are their cause they love games
(WillH) I didn't see much in detail
(WillH) Saw Hammer
(WillH) it looked like they are still working on HL2
(WillH) not too much left to do
(WillH) the map I saw was really detailed IMO
(WillH) but I was a ways away
(WillH) Gabe also swore quite a bit
(WillH) Well not quite a bit
(WillH) but like twice
(WillH) he didn't seem stressed out
(WillH) he was real cool

 

[WillH]

Synth Lies. i got a poster too! Its spiffy.
*edit* Just to clarify synth isn't lying about the above post. He is just a liar in general.

 

[Cyperion]

Ea?

So you talked about EA huh? What specifically? Is Gabe worried the BFVietnam multiplayer is better than HL2's or something?

 

[WillH]

No actually he was saying that EA's style is business is going out the window and Valve and the other companies will pass the by.

 

[synth]

Synth Lies. i got a poster too! Its spiffy.
*edit* Just to clarify synth isn't lying about the above post. He is just a liar in general.

Bastard! My secret is revealed! Ahhh!...

 

[Ruroni]

Good Stuff. Im guessing Valve just wants to shut its mouth until they have HL2 on discs already.

 

[Quixote]

Lots of good that did them with CS:CZ! =o{)

 

[Ruroni]

Hmm. lol true.

 

[hero]

wow everyone is going to valve

good info thanx

 

[Naft]

wow everyone is going to valve

because valve is teh kickass game developer.

if im ever in washington im going there, even if its in 20 years and valve doesnt exist, ill go to that building and say "hi, i'm a blast from teh past!!! HL2!

 

[Lavrik]

They'll look at you real funny and close the door on you.

 

[tCh]

synth, wut were the questions that you asked WillH

 

[Sandman]

Man with all these people gettin' into Valve, I think it's about time I visit :-p

 

[Brian Damage]

For once I feel sorry that I live in Australia.

 

[_-_-SELAS-_-_]

Too bad your parents had to use the digicam

Nice stuff though its always good to hear at least something... Could you elaborate a bit perhaps? WillH?

 

[Gorgon]

Man I need to pay £1000 for two ways tickit to go from London to Valve and come back.

 

[mortiz]

The release must be getting relativly close with all these visits they are authorizing.

 

[sharp]

The release must be getting relativly close with all these visits they are authorizing.

Yeah maybe you are true. First with this SDK release and now suddently hl2.net members going visiting valve HQ...

Maybe soon they will be releasing some last small videos.

 

[daveodeth]

but the game itself will never appear. ever.

 

[CrazyHarij]

Hey guys, you're right! Maybe the game will be released earlier than we think? Indeed that'd be an awesome surprise, one day I just browse this forum like normal and notice 500.000 "OMG HL2 RELEASED" , "OMFG I BEATED THE FIRST PART*" , "OMG I WILL NEVER PLAY ANOTHER GAME" ..

That'd be so dang awesome. Except the time I have to sit on the bus on the way to town will be torment and hell x 10.000 .

 

[Brian Damage]

I wonder what it's going to be like on these forums when HL2 is finally released?

I see at least two possibilities:

1. There are a crapload of threads and discussions about the games content (as CrazyHarij said), and almost the entire membership is logged on (maybe the site will go down under the strain)...

OR

2. There's nothing and nobody on here (everyone's too busy playing it), except for those who are unable to afford/run HL2 yet, and a single thread from the staff saying something along the lines of, "HL2's been released. Buy it. Bye.".

 

[Cunni]

I would be inclined not to come to the forums for a long time after it is released, as someone who has gotten further in the game might reveal something I don't want to know.

 

[Sandman]

I wouldn't have this problem, because I tend to play a good game non-stop until I've beaten it :-P

 

[CrazyHarij]

Yeah that's true, Cunni. If anyone on this forum reveal the slightest info I haven't gotten in my own progress I'll find out his IP and send a couple of nukes to his house.

 

[Kadayi]

No doubt the mods will organise an ingame discussion thread then. I think activity will drop off for a few days after the initial release, but I expect there will be a great deal of discussion about the game experience and what did, and didn't work (if anything) and the possibilities of future developments. I'm interested to see how soon the first mods begin appearing after the initial release, though I expect the best mods won't appear for some considerable time.

 

[Letters]

Gabe's a cusser, eh?

 

[Orange]

dirty dirty.

haha jking.

I find the development and professional side of working and getting into the industry some of the more interesting things to read about VALVe. Or any company.

I liked the QA question vs other fields, and needing a good sense of Liberal arts. Im no drawer, but i a thesbian . . .


maybe in a million years :'(

 

[WillH]

I'd be more than willing to elaborate on anything. Just say which topic and I'll try to remember more.

 

[Jhahn2k4]

Elaborate on how detailed the map was.. like was it shoot a chunk of wood off of a building and watch it splash into the water with super-realistic ripples detailed? or what?

 

[Jackal hit]

oooh! oooh! willh! were the textures or anything looking more polished? or did it look the same as in bink vids? btw, gj willh :cheese:

 

[NSPIRE]

Lol @ Gabe swearing... never saw that one coming, lol.

 

[SubKamran]

Hehe, DigiPen is on my list. Now. To make a mod. Um. Help? I KNOW NOTHING! ARRGGHH!

 

[Vegeta897]

Sigh, the best support we can give valve is not bothering them and let them get the game out. Patience... And I can't imagine what the forums will be like when the game is out. Total "OMG HL2 IS OUT GET IT NOW IM GONNA GO PLAY BYE!!!" And then it will be silent for a couple hours, with the occasional guy posting saying "well, my game glitched when i threw a grenade at alyx while she was handing me my mp7." so he'd thawt he'd post it. And also there's the moaning section where people who can't get the game are just whining about it. Then poeple will take a little brake and talk about their first impressions. And more playing... then the next day some walkthroughs will be developed, people will update their HL2 info sections on various fan-sites, bug reporting, busy day for Valve. After a month or two poeple will have beaten the game, and will start forming clans like -_M4nipuLATOR onLY XxlZ RTSDF CLan_- And perhaps a patch will be released fixing the reported bugs. Mod makers will be busy modeling and mapping away. Poeple will start posting thier fun game experiences and "physics testing" levels. Forum mods will be busy cleaning all the spam they got on the initial release... What a happy time it will be...

Yeah, that just aobut sums it up. C'mon Valve get the game out!

 

[Letters]

Hey... speaking of clans reminded me...

Hear anything on the elusive MULTIPLAYER?

 

[WillH]

About the map, it looked to me like an indoor area with quite a bit of wood, I was about 6-10 feet away from it so I didn't get any real details sorry. About for the bink videos, I wouldn't know haven't seen em. No multiplayer info. Oh yeah, I just remembered when we came to Marc Laidlaw's office Gabe mentioned that Marc did all the voice acting before the pro's did it, and I mean ALL even the girls Just a bit of humor that I thought was funny.

 

[He@t!]

Release date????? :E

 

[spitcodfry]

Congrats on your visit to Valve m8 :cheers: It's great to see others getting to see this incredible developer's offices. I'm sure glad Valve allows this sort of openness with their fans. The mark of a true gaming company by gamers.

 

[WillH]

Not to be rude or anything, but if I heard about the release date don't you think I would have mentioned it?
*edit*:Spit got his post in before this so heres my reply to his message
Ha, thanks spit, yeah Gabe is real cool about this stuff, he was even fashionably late strolled in around 10:35. They are all gamers for sure, every office I saw was decorated with gaming stuff and their lounge room has a bunch of consoles.

 

[Cunni]

I agree with Vegeta. We shouldn't be emailing them unless we have an important/interesting question that HASN'T ALREADY BEEN ASKED 5 MILLION TIMES. The more time they spend reading/answering emails, the less time they spend working on the game (or the more late late nights they put in). So before anybody emails them, check a few forums to see if your question has been asked/answered already.

 

[WillH]

Actually, I think you could email Gabe all you want and it won't affect the speed the game is made. He has other people that make the game, he is more of a PR person than anything, of course I could be wrong