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Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

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Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#131

Post by keyringlight »

scrollaway wrote: post #18
piker wrote: post #13

Surprising amount of discussion on work/life balance and kids/family for a game dev. Is Valve known for this or is it just relative?

Valve is not an ordinary company. They make a ton of money, have no outside investment, reinvest everything internally on R&D and keep very small. On top of that, they run completely flat management. They're the idealized version of what a small company making a shitton of cash would be. They can afford plenty in terms of work-life balance.

Even at the start they were unusual as they were funded by Microsoft millionaires, and presumably had little pressure to release before "when it's done", and HL1 being a huge hit started the ball rolling allowing them to acquire the team fortress and counter-strike mod teams, picking up even more momentum.

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#132

Post by SXX »

ploxiln wrote: post #128
SXX wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As consumer I very much agree with you, but as game developer 30% is abysmal amount of money. Imagine you're indie developer or owner of a small 3-10 people studio that finally released reasonably successful game: 1 - Let's say you invested $100,000 of your own money for vertical slice and managed to find a publisher to give you $200,000 to complete the game. 2 - Ignore that you had some failed games before, but this…

This math is missing a step: $200k went to your publisher who already gave you the $200k, so really you got about $394k total (before your taxes). And it's worth remembering that your publisher got $194k ... I'm not sure if this publishing arrangement makes sense for the publisher ($200k risk for not much more reward?) or for you (30% of your net income from the game, after valve's 30%) (I'm not in the industry so ho…

This step is certainly not missing. And yeah I somewhat simplified the agreement not to go into details. Usually publishers that invests money take 80-90% or even 100% before full recouperation of investments. This usually includes not only provided budget, but also whatever publisher spent on porting, QA, localization and LQA.

Then after recouperation is complete all income is split between 50/50 and 40/60 for either side. And yeah in gamedev ROI like x2.5 is a good deal for publishers even if 90% of games never recover development costs.

Everyone just hopes to make the next hit and make a bank.

PS: This is math for indie and AA games with budgets under $5,000,000.

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#133

Post by donperignon »

ChocolateGod wrote: post #102
rjzzleep wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve has hired a bunch of FAANG engineers that brought their own toxic hiring practices to Valve. It's only a matter of time before those people promote their culture in that organization if they haven't done so already.

What culture?

Corporate bullshit culture. Hell on earth. If you have worked in one big tech organization then you know.

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#134

Post by cubefox »

matthewfcarlson wrote: post #124
cubefox wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried VR once, with a bunch of short 360° documentaries and video games like Beat Saber and Half Life Alyx. It was incredible, far beyond any immersion one could ever create on a conventional screen, even with the best ray tracing in the world. I don't really understand why VR helmets they aren't more successful. My first guess is that any console needs exclusive high-profile games to be successful, and producing m…

As some with a gaming PC, a few VR headsets, and a steam deck, I find myself reaching for the steam deck most often. It’s a good enough experience and easy to just turn on and play. The friction to getting the VR headset out is surprisingly high so it really only happens when I’m playing with a friend, which only three friends have headsets. So it just ends up not happening.

I don't quite understand this. The friction on ordinary desktop PC gaming is also fairly high. I can't imagine playing on Quest 2 or 3 is significantly more complicated. Also, if you are playing a large RPG (like Asgards Wrath 2), a few minutes of setup won't make much of a difference in playing time. I agree it's a different issue for more casual games.

I think the more relevant difference is that there are vastly more (and therefore: better) PC games than VR games.

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#135

Post by martin-t »

xandrius wrote: post #84
AddLightness wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very scared about the future though. What happens when Gabe is gone? The entire PC Gaming industry is essentially locked in to a single platform. If Steam decided to charge $10/mo people have so much invested into their libraries they would likely do it. What about $20 or $30 per month? I'm not sure why Steam always seems to be exempt from the "perils of digital ownership" arguments

At that point I'd feel entitled to keep the games I bought by pirating them.

This is the right approach. I only buy games if the money goes to the original creators, not some parasitic company who bought the "IP".

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#136

Post by cupofjoakim »

ailbet wrote: post #125
j1000 wrote: post #10

Anybody working for Valve here? Can somebody confirm how many % percentage of this is BS?

This is a common question from people interviewing at Valve. I was suspect how accurate it was before I joined given how long it's been since it was updated. However, it still 100% represents the culture within Valve. Desks are still on wheels, structure is still completely flat, etc... It's been on my list of "eventual todos" to make a trivial update to help reinforce that it's still relevant.

Personally I'm interested in this proposed flatness. I understand that it's the aim, but at the end of the day someone approves vacations, manages budgets for projects and is the person that has to have hard conversations with an employee right? Someone will have higher mandate for hard decisions?

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#137

Post by Thaxll »

Hendrikto wrote: post #75
AddLightness wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very scared about the future though. What happens when Gabe is gone? The entire PC Gaming industry is essentially locked in to a single platform. If Steam decided to charge $10/mo people have so much invested into their libraries they would likely do it. What about $20 or $30 per month? I'm not sure why Steam always seems to be exempt from the "perils of digital ownership" arguments

> I'm not sure why Steam always seems to be exempt from the "perils of digital ownership" arguments Because they have been consistently good citizens for more than 2 decades. They built a reputation. Something other companies are eager to piss away at the first opportunity to sell out or squeeze their customers. It’s not surprising that Valve is successful and trusted with this approach. What is surprising is that it…

30% cut and the shit they do with CS ( fomo, gambling ect .. ) they're not a good citizen.

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#138

Post by fnordpiglet »

intellix wrote: post #61

I think it's funny that this is passed around as a great example of how to run a company, but I really don't think Valve are producing much.

I can play any PC game I want and I don’t have a single windows install anywhere in my life. They made, beyond all the other contributions, Linux gaming a reality.

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#139

Post by vintermann »

cubefox wrote: post #121
ralphc wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a "Mega Replay" store near where I live, it has second-hand electronics, games and DVDs. The biggest section in electronics is the VR goggles, a lot of people have given up on them.

I tried VR once, with a bunch of short 360° documentaries and video games like Beat Saber and Half Life Alyx. It was incredible, far beyond any immersion one could ever create on a conventional screen, even with the best ray tracing in the world. I don't really understand why VR helmets they aren't more successful. My first guess is that any console needs exclusive high-profile games to be successful, and producing m…

The terrible screen of the Gameboy didn't make you physically sick.

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#140

Post by const_cast »

moomin wrote: post #98
FatalLogic wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"they pretty much killed off our project.” That project was CastAR — augmented reality glasses which Jeri Ellsworth is now working on as a separate project, having been handed the legal rights to do so by Valve . But how many billion-dollar companies would do that? Just give the rights to the ex-employees? I think most other companies would have not. So, in that sense, Valve is unusual, even if it's not the oranizat…

Unfortunately, no-one’s investment in AR or VR has worked out. Even the “winner” (Oculus/Meta) has found the market to be disappointingly small.

Well that's because AR and VR are strictly worse for most use cases as compared to traditional human computer interfaces.

The mouse, keyboard, and monitor is pretty much just right. Highly productive, you can go super fast, with extreme information density.

VR and AR are obviously much slower to navigate because physical worlds are slow to navigate and that's what they're mimicing. We might assume a 3D world has more information density than a 2D screen... But 90% of the time it doesn't. I don't have eyes on the back of my head. And, usually, I'm going to be staring at a 2D thing.

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