I Went to Valve!

Half-Life Series
#1

For this high school dealy, I had to check out a prospective job. I live in the Seattle area, and obviously any excuse to get into the Valve offices is a good excuse, so I called 'em up. I got a tour of the offices.
They didn’t make me sign anything, so I guess I’m allowed to tell anyone I want about the stuff I saw? There’s no such thing as an implied NDA, is there? They never even said, like, “Now don’t tell anyone about this!” So whatever.

The point is… And the reason I’m posting this in the Half-Life Series forum… They were in the middle of remodeling when I visited the office, and there was a lot of concept art just kind of… spread around. In, like, big stacks and piles. Most of it was for Dota 2, and there was a little bit for some weird Team Fortress 2 stuff that I didn’t understand because I don’t really play Team Fortress 2 (and one big ol’ picture that JUST had the word MAGICKA on it, but I dunno what that means), but there were also four or five that I’m reasonably certain were Ep3/HL3 concept art.

There were a couple other ones like the one we’ve already seen, with the sort of jagged metal edges, but they were darker, with a blue tint instead of a green one, and were kind of… more cramped. Like they were of smaller areas? These ones were pretty nondescript and I was kind of being rushed through those parts of the office.

The one that really caught my eye, though, was a wide-shot picture of the ocean with a ship floating in it. I mean, it obviously wasn’t TF2 or Dota, so I’m pretty sure it was the Borealis, but what circumstance would put the Borealis back in the water?

I guess concept art isn’t really that concrete of a source, plus the fact that you’re hearing it from a teenager on the internet. And clearly my recollection really isn’t all that helpful. But it’s nice to know that the next Half Life game is being actively worked on!

#2

You should have taken pictures

#3

Of the concept art? That’d be forbidden.

#4

I wish I could have gone :frowning: .

Pretty cool about the possible HL2E3/HL3 concept art.

#5

:expressionless:

yes, it’s in the law of every country that taking pictures of concept art is a criminal offense

he could have asked “hey bros could i take picture of XYZ, looks interesting” judging by them, and other people also visiting the Valve HQ, they allowed taking photographs of certain, not all, concept art.

jesus fuck

#6

I don’t think he was too serious.

#7

I only meant, that it shouldn’t be made public, if Valve doesn’t want it.

#8

You get me excited! Can you, please, paint, as much accurate as you can, that ocean picture? Please! And check your inbox.

#9

Man you are lucky.

#10

Nice! I’d love to get the chance to go tour the Valve offices, maybe meet some of the development team. The MAGICKA paper was probably for Dota 2, IMO. (or perhaps they’re thinking about doing Prospero again…?) And it’s great to have confirmation that they’re still working on Ep3. (But, come on, it is Valve, was there ever any doubt? Especially with those life preservers in Portal 2- I doubt that model was made just for that room, and I also doubt it was from the HL2 beta.)

#11

Would’ve been cool if you asked when Ep3 is coming out and they gave you a definitive answer.

#12

I can just picture somebody calling Valve HQ and asking the secretary when it comes out — receiving an actual answer. Wouldn’t that be some shit?

#13

Fuck it i think i might do that now.

#14

Skeptical that Valve has large, intermixed, concept art piles, let alone lying about during remodeling of their new offices.

#15

Did you get to see the fan-made replicas of the Gravity Gun and Tau Cannon?
A friend of mine is a cousin of a certain Valve employee. When HE went to their offices he saw a fuckton of stuff he WASN’T supposed to see. This was pre-Episodes announcement stuff. When he got back, he made the mistake of sharing all his findings with me.

Just a word of advice : if you did see something that may be considered secret, don’t share it. Valve will tear teh internets apart until they find your contact info and ruin your reputation on whatever board(s) you post your findings. They will spam your inbox with messages and might somehow get your phone number.

i speak from experience.

-Kawai Tei-

#16

Who did you meet?

#17

They weren’t intermixed. The Half Life ones were the only ones that seemed to be, like, stacked around, and I thought that was weird too. The Dota ones were hung up on corkboards, but I couldn’t actually tell what those were. I think they were just for the UI. And they wouldn’t let me near the Team Fortress 2 ones, and I think that they were just for animation, not for the game, because the guy leading me around said they’d just finished Meet the Medic.

And I’m not sure what you mean about the remodeling, but the offices were on floor five, six, and seven of the building it was in, and the guide-guy said they’d just acquired floors eight and nine (I think) and they expected to be up to floor 12 by 2013. So maybe they were remodeling them to match their new floors?

Also, I totally would have taken pictures, but he wouldn’t even let me take my backpack out of the lobby. I had to leave it behind the counter. Which is another reason I thought it was odd that I didn’t have to sign an NDA…

And no, didn’t see the gravity gun or tau cannon, but there was the motion-sensing sentry gun (I asked the guy if it ever got annoying and he said they tune it out) and a big ol’ rocket with miniature soldiers all over it. I don’t even know what game that was from. Also a cool trophy of a golden crowbar!

I hope Valve doesn’t hunt me down! I’m not trying to leak anything, and they didn’t tell me not to tell anyone. There was just a lot of cool stuff around that I want to tell people about! :frowning:
They weren’t even, like, shy about letting me in. I sent a pretty grovelling email and the lady was like, “Sure, just talk to this guy and come down whenever.” I posted the email on my tumblr a couple months ago (xtaliesin.tumblr.com). You can read it if you want.

#18

Well, they just moved into that building relatively recently. That’s probably why he was surprised by the fact that you seemed to portray “clutter” in your retelling.

But yeah, who did you meet? Any of the bigwigs?

#19

Yeah, I’ve always wanted to do something like that, though living on the other side of the country is problematic.

#20

Dallas is the place to be for PC game developers. It’s too bad Valve and some other great ones like Big Huge aren’t here too. Can’t complain though, Gearbox is 5 floors above our office in Plano.

Wish our office had a turret, though, Valve is ahead of us on that…

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.