Inside Valve Studios

Gallery: Valve is one of the great game developers. Atomic recently got a chance to visit... and it's awesome.

You know you’re going to visit one of the most prestigious gaming companies when your PR representative has inadvertently led you to the wrong address in the throes of a frosty Seattle winter. Despite the fact that none of our group was adequately dressed for snowy weather—we were, after all, only supposed to be moving from heated hotel to toasty cab to snug Valve lobby—no-one’s spirits were frozen to the point of negativity. This was Valve we were visiting. And the promise of a tour of their premises was enough of a warm thought to keep us going.

So after many phone calls, a failed cab company and impatiently waiting in the foyer of a small library, our group finally arrived. The waiting area was mostly low-key: a Valve sign here, a fanmade Barnacle there and a TV looping cutscenes and promotional material from titles such as Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2. But in one corner sat the ultimate prop. Weta Workshop, the Peter Jackson-established special effects gurus that work on all his films, had built a Team Fortress 2-inspired sentry gun, complete with noises and motion tracking abilities. Hilariously, it was only tracking movement sporadically today, which led to a few surprises when it started tracking a photographing journalist out of the blue.

Doug Lombardi, vice-president of marketing at Valve, appeared shortly after our arrival to start the tour. As we walked through the hallways of Valve Corporation, it was clear that they had a strong sense of pride about their work. Between the waiting area and the business side of things was a room filled with various global box copies of their retail games on one side, and a wallpapering of magazine covers for their titles on the other (mostly Half-Life 2). Another section of the tour had four shelves filled with various industry excellence awards, all standing in the open air as a testament to Valve’s achievements.

As Doug guided us from section to section, most of his tour was anecdotal. He talked about what it was like working with Gabe, pointed out the Valve-funded guitar lessons for interested employees (there were also complimentary painting lessons on offer, too) and joked about how many Weta Workshop employees had come to work for his company. The corridors were mostly sparse, but the walls were populated with strategically placed concept art from their core titles; one moment we’d be wowing at an awesome rendition of a baton-toting Civil Protection officer from Half-Life 2, and the next we’d be laughing at fantastic Team Fortress 2 art.

One of the most interesting sections of hallway was a part where we were told to turn off our recording equipment. There was a bunch of unfamiliar concept art populating one side of the corridor. It featured futuristic weapon designs and some ape-like characters. Doug was unwilling to talk too far into what it was, but assured us it was an abandoned project. Apparently licencing never came through for whatever it may have been.

We made our way into the cafeteria but were, unfortunately, too late to enjoy the lunch that was being cleaned up. Lunch is also a complimentary service for Valve employees, with their lunchroom decked out with a foosball table and a Johnny Mnemonic pinball machine tucked up against the wall.

After visiting the mess hall that reminded us how missing lunch in winter really does make one’s stomach groan, we got a quick walkthrough of a couple of developer rooms where the Valve magic happens. Doug announced, “Press coming through!” twice before letting us enter the rooms, but what we saw seemed to be last-minute tweaks and alterations to Portal 2; that, or they brought it up onscreen because of Doug’s warning. The most interesting facet of these two rooms was the magnetic name boards that hung outside each doorway. Apparently developers are encouraged to move between projects and this magnetic name tag is what they carry with them between projects, flagging what project they’re currently working on.

As the main purpose of this trip to Valve was to have some hands-on time with Portal 2, the last section of our tour was focussed on this. We all stood in front of a wall of incredible Portal 2 concept art. Honestly, it was difficult to tell if certain shots were hand drawn or computerised concept art; Doug assured us that they were all of the former variety: amazing. Although most images were designed for in-game inspiration, the Valve humour was still present on one concept art shot that had a Facebook-esque ‘1 person likes this’ sticker attached to it.

Having been a massive fan of Valve games prior to my foray into games journalism, it was an incredibly satisfying place to visit; and that was before the tour had even kicked off. I had a chance to sit down with one of the Portal 2 programmers and, quite separately, Doug Lombardi for two very different interviews. Stay tuned for those.