Valve Employee Handbook Created 12 years ago2012-04-21 23:20:59 UTC by Archie

There has never been a better time to have aspirations to work for Valve.

Clickitybwah

Just finished reading through this myself. Pretty interesting stuff.

Pretty wild shit!

I guess it makes sense that the top fraction of 1 percent in there field would work better in a less-structured environment, but it still seems like it would be anachy at valve, specially with almost 300 employees, i can't even imagine

Yeah, I think my aspirations are renewed.

Seems that nobody at Valve currently thinks their efforts should be focused on a certain Half-Life 2 Episode...

I knew it was coming

When I grow up, I wanna work at Valve.

I would love to just be a fly on the wall to watch the way things work. Sounds like the day-to-day might make a very interesting reality show fo' sho'

I could image that.

"I'm Gabe Newell."

Hahaha, that's Gabe!

It's a very good read, well written, informative, and humorous. It's probably the only employee handbook that says "You don't have to listen to the boss", and says it multiple times. Glossary is awesome.

300 employees not enough?

More employees , more work being done.

More big pink 7000 calorie cookies being eaten.

*Giving this a quick read

That is one helluva exclusive club. Sounds like you have to be a legitimate genius to get hired there.

Seriously, that shit is so far out of my league. Not in this lifetime. Not even in the next. Not if I'd continued pursuing game design.

I read most of it. My feelings are exactly what srry describes.

Christ. I'd love to work at valve but honestly the way they work is just so... odd. I can't handle that responsibility , i'd crumble instantly. You must have some seriously good ideas and skills to work there , no wonder they hire people with multiple years experience...

This book weirdly planted a thought in my head:
What if we, TWHL.info, as an unique community, start a big community project? We just proved to ourselves that we can work out together quite well with the current CSS team mapping project( team mapping projects that were mostly criticized in the past for not being worth the time).
Speaking of this project, we have persons perfectly capable of being leaders(in the sense that was explained in the book). See Captain Terror for example, he's always enthusiastic about team stuff, and can manage with calm the projects.
Archie and Urby are currently working on a big HL mod, after which they'll probably shift their attention to Source. They already have some experience with working on a big mod, and they both aren't shy of hiding their face(they have their own vlogs). So they could actually represent some kind of a "relations with the public" department if our mod/game ever becomes something big.
We even have people like Skals and Hotdog who are actually pursuing a game designer career, so we'd benefit from their expertise really well!
Members like Rimrook who are extraordinarily creative mean a big push forward for a project like this.
We even have guys like DiscoStu, or Collapse or ... whoever posts in the "Post your photos" thread that could provide us with reference photos.

I'd like to give examples and praise everybody from here, but I honestly can't, my sincere apologies. Perhaps other members can help me giving out more examples if they feel alright doing so :).
As for me... if this project ever does happen(and possibly when I'm not in exam periods), I'd like to take part of the project too. Yes, I am aware of my modest skills and what I'm capable of, but as we saw in this CSS team mapping project, every member, talented or not, had their contribution.

Plus, such a project would bring us together in an even more intimate relationship, that of colleagues.

they'll probably shift their attention to Source.

There's no 'probably' about it. If Urby doesn't abandon GoldSource after The Core then I'm going to castrate him with a Big Daddy's drill.

Joking aside though, I like the way you think Striker. A truly invaluable person to get on board would be Rabid Monkey because he has all the experience of working on Black Mesa and can tell us how to avoid the pitfalls they've met which have prevented them from releasing for like 7 years.

I agree Striker, we tend to work pretty well with our community collaborations, and they are basically flat structured very similar to valve, where nobody is really the boss.

Like you said, team mapping is perfect example, with ZERO planning, and it's turning out amazing, because everyone is pulling their weight, PLUS filling gaps and fixing problems where needed, without being told. (that last bit is just huge, and so rare in most workplaces)

If we continue team mapping a couple more times and better learn each other's true talents/shortfalls, there is NO DOUBT in my mind we will produce some truly creamazing results

While Valve's an awesome place for the gods of the industry to prosper in their collective genius, I still think their company structure could work with less experienced talent. If I ever start my own game dev thing, I'm definitely going to try some of the stuff they're doing.

Great read btw.

I'd like to give examples and praise everybody from here, but I honestly can't, my sincere apologies.

Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I don't have much value.

What Valve want is determined, stable, open minded people. Talent is nothing.

If you're a programmer you need the talent. Talentless programmers don't create valve games.

Edit: Except hammer. Hammer sucks.

There's no 'probably' about it. If Urby doesn't abandon GoldSource after The Core then I'm going to castrate him with a Big Daddy's drill.

I lolled a big lol... in the office. Fuck.

I will be moving to Source though, dipping my toe when CS:GO is fully released and hopefully swimming like a pro once The Core is done.

I wish I had been able to stick with the CSS project a little longer but the issue at the minute is that I should be spending more time on The Core. In light of that though, it really helped me, having now made more progress in a few weeks than I made at all last year.

The idea of working on a big project with all you guys at TWHL... I'll be honest, get's me a bit hard.

You're such a fucking freak why do I associate myself with you?

'cause I'm awesome.

Ha, thats a great read. Especially like the glossary.

I have to say, I like the idea of a big team mod. It might be a bit of trouble to get a concept everyone can agree on fully, but it would be nice.
Also, if there was a SVN repository, (which there probably would be on a project that big) I could probably download the mod file by file, avoiding big downloads on my connection.

In our relationship, I am definitely red. You are definitely blue.
I want that to be extremely clear.

Livewire is Lord Tourette.

I am definitely red. You are definitely blue.

I so know it. I just wanted to pretend for a while.

This is completely off-topic, but I want to add that Stacy is disgusting.
[EDIT]Nevermind, this discussion is not appropriate :P.

@JeffMOD: I think it would need to be something familiar, set in the HL universe. After all, that is the one true connection we all have.

Talent is nothing.

Why?

It tends to be quite the opposite really, especially when looking for a job.

Qualifications are nothing, especially when it comes to design work of any sort. Employers want to see previous experience and achievements. Chances are that by the time you're qualified in something, what you learned is already out of date.

Valve is such a unique company so it makes sense that their managerial structure is going to be equally unique. Nice to see we're getting more information lately about how they operate as in the past they have tended to be rather secretive!

The key to scoring a job there is to have a specific skill in some aspect of game development that they can apply to future projects in a production manner. I doubt it matters if you're the biggest Half-Life fanboy out there, or have been developing games/mods on their products for years - what matters is being able to contribute to another Valve-quality release. Here's
a pre-interview sheet from their booth I snagged at GDC. Two questions isn't so bad, hmm? Certainly different from any other employment pre-interview I've seen.

Joking aside though, I like the way you think Striker. A truly invaluable person to get on board would be Rabid Monkey because he has all the experience of working on Black Mesa and can tell us how to avoid the pitfalls they've met which have prevented them from releasing for like 7 years.

While I dont have much mod-time available anymore you guys are always free to pick my brain about Source modding and leveldesign related things!

It's not really related to this thread, but it is recent:

Possible explanation for HL3 delay. Well, at least the title says that... I didn't find much explanation.

What's the link with this thread you say? Well, in that short handbook Valve tells employees that when work spans on a lot of extra hours, something is probably going very wrong. I'm going to quote one of the comments(Dogapult):

Hmm well at least with Episode 3 the point was they were short in both length and development cycle. If you can't finish what amounts to a couple hours of game in a couple years you're just plain doing it wrong. There really isn't much need to change and change and change something like that (sure you might want to, but its supposed to be short anyway). HL3 of course would be a bigger project so I could see it taking awhile, would be sort of silly to not mention it's existence, look at Blizzard and their "when it's done we don't care how long you wait" attitude, which while it took them long enough on Diablo 3 it's not a bad way to do things in my opinion.

I mean, what the fuck is up with Valve. It's like they're stuck on number 2. Their obsession with number 2 must have some meaning. Their only exception will be CS:GO, and since HL2 was released after CSS, I suppose HL3 will get a release after CS:GO. But that is again speculation.

Talent is nothing.

Why?

There are no extraordinary talents at Valve.

Take your trolling elsewhere please.

HL2 was released after CSS, I suppose HL3 will get a release after CS:GO. But that is again speculation.

Consider however, that Valve showed off HL2 a lot during it's alpha and beta phases in order to get people excited. This came a long time before CSS was even announced. I still remember the first time I saw this on a PCGamer disk. That was from E3 in 2003, a good 18 months before the game was released.

I don't expect to see HL3 until late 2014. I also have many concerns.

The position where HL2:EP2 left off is going to be a real challenge for the developers. They need to handle to characters really carefully following the closing scene.

On top of that, they need to ensure that the combine advisors, seemingly very powerful and tough enemies, are going to be fun to fight, while being able to use their psychic attacks to rip up the environment dynamically, rather than the scripted physics effects shown in EP2.

Then, the environments themselves. The arctic, and the interior of a ship. These do not sound like groundbreaking and interesting environments to play in. City 17 was vast, sure, but the restrictions in place made sense due to the plot (Ignoring the whole impenetrable wooden doors of course). The arctic is a massive, open expanse of white and blue. It's going to take some effort to be able to keep the player on track without being obviously restricted. Then the Borealis itself. A ship's interior would take us back to a linear interior section, more cramped than HL2's god awful but thankfully short sewer sections. Maybe I'm just not capable of thinking of ways to make these maps while being fun and engaging. I hope that's the case and Valve's guys know what they are doing...

Wow, long post. Sorry. Just my thoughts. I'll be off...

The podcast Striker's quote is from was awesome. One of the best all-round Gabe interviews I've heard. Nice find!

Wow. Valve sounds like a very large group of talented grown-up kids who just decided to coordinate enough to make games. I bet those two words get thrown around a lot, that "what if" that comes before random golden ideas.

They seem like they have an environment for maximum creative output. I bet there's a ton less pressure and stress working there.

They need to handle to characters really carefully following the closing scene

I'm almost done reading the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Everything in those books is extremely brutal on the characters and personally some of the most critical plot, character, and world development I've ever come to know. If valve pulls some serious King-level genius, they have nothing to worry about. The way Portal 2 was written left that twinge in the base of your mind from going through something extraordinarily circumstantial when you finished the game, or even when certain things were discovered about the people, place, or plot involved. The jenonsaisque was definitely there. (or something that makes your mind say "whoa" on a deep subconscious level)

As far as working at valve, I think I'd have to discipline myself to work in an environment like that. I'd need at least a go-to guy in case I get stumped. The idea of no real superiors is an odd concept coming from the traditions my career was raised.

I think that's the brilliance of it all; though ultimately the onus to choose a task is on the individual employee, everyone is free to suggest or point out where your talents might be best put to use. Your go-to guy is anyone else in the office or the project you're working on!