Well, Tuesday I did something a little different before work. I took a tour of Valve Studios, the makers of such games as Portal and Half Life and Team Fortress 2. This was arranged by the NW Science Fiction Society, so big thanks to Jeanine!
The tour officially started at 3:30, but actually got off five or ten minutes late. No big deal — the lobby where everyone was gathering had promo videos for Valve's games running on a big screen, and there was plenty of art inspired by those games to look at. Hanging on the wall, sitting on tables, bolted to the ceiling. (Finally, someone who agrees that ceilings are woefully underutilized for art space!)
Our tour guide was Tom, who works in their Steam department. The first stop was a wall of fan letters. It couldn't possibly be all of it — it was only 8' x 4', give or take. But it was likely a representative sample. Tom says they're always happy to hear from their fans, which certainly makes sense to me. I mean, wouldn't you?
Next stop was another lobby/rest area type place, where Tom talked about the founding of the company and some of the games they've made. Someone asked about Half Life 3, and he made a tally mark in the air ("one in every group") and then proceeded to evade the question. I got the definite impression from that and other things said on the tour that Valve is moving away from the franchise, focusing more on Steam and other community gaming ideas rather than single-player first-person shooters.
Here he also went into some detail about how Valve works. Few people work in offices, or even cubicles. Most everyone works in what he called "cabals," which means basically groups of desks in a large open area. There are no bosses or team leads or the like; you work communally. There's no HR department; when a person is being interviewed, it's by whoever needs the help on their project. There's no QA department; when a piece of hardware or software needs testing, they put out a notice and people sign up to give it a go. It's very, very team-oriented. If you want to work on something else, you unplug your desk and move it to the new department which is working on that. Or you can start your own project. The whole system is geared towards letting people work on whatever it is they want to work on, the theory being that if you work on what you're most interested in, you'll do your best work. Seems reasonable to me!
After that, we took a peek into the IT area, where they build the custom high-end computers that their developers use. Not much to take away from that area, except that Valve believes in giving its employees the best hardware and support available. Give them the best, and they'll produce the best.
For that matter, it soon became clear that Valve treats its employees like royalty. We passed a massage table (unoccupied) on the way to the next stop on the tour, and Tom said each employee gets one free per week. They also have a hair stylist in their offices, a laundry service, and of course a fully stocked lunchroom, where everything's free. Add in health and dental, that they pay any gym or athletic club fees, they'll pay for your hobby supplies if you care to do any, say, sculpting on the side, and they hold classes in yoga, art, and foreign languages in a large open space, and you start wondering how you can get in on this gig.
We'll get to that.
The fourth stop was their resident psychologist's office. He actually works on games, not treating the employees; they're working on biofeedback devices, which struck me as odd. Until Tom explained at least one rationale for it. As he told it, there's two types of stresses: good stress, like being excited at reaching the next level or solving a puzzle. And bad stress, when you're angry or frustrated at, say, dying over and over. Both elicit changes in skin conductivity, but they're different changes. Now imagine a controller that you're holding in your hands that can read those changes and knows you're about to ragequit, so it scales back the difficulty some. Neat idea.
Also in the room was a set of Oculus Rift goggles. They're smaller than I expected, but then the last set of VR I wore was in the early 90s. (No, we didn't get to try on the Oculus.) He talked a bit about porting their games to VR, which of course would be awesome. I should mention here that, back in the main lobby, there was a crate that the receptionist said contained an omnidirectional treadmill for VR use. So they're apparently taking VR seriously.
I believe it was then that we took the stairs up to the 9th floor (we were on the 5th) which is where their sound and motion capture studios were. But first there was a wall of photos from a gaming tournament they sponsor heavily. Unfortunately, I didn't catch its name, but Valve apparently puts up a $1M grand prize for one of the games there, and smaller but not insignificant prizes for lesser winners. They're also making a documentary about three of the top-notch gamers that attend. Tom was very proud that Valve was getting into the actual movie business. He was also proud that they support the people who support video gaming. He said Valve (and he himself) believes that people help support the games and, by playing in these tournaments, they promote them, so they're plenty happy to promote and support the fans in turn. Good for them, says I.
We tried to check in on the motion capture room, but it was in use. So we had to make do with a quick refresher on what mocap involves. Apparently, for much of it they just use their fellow employees, but if they need something special, like coordinated moves or dancing, they'll hire professionals.
Then we stopped by a mixing studio, the one where apprently they put the final touches on the audio and video of a game. They used to rent out a studio, but after their offices expanded they put in one of their own, and now nearly everything is done in-house. As for the studio itself, it was... weird. You never quite realize just how much ambient noise there is, until there is absolutely none at all. That room was soundproofed out the humminnahum. No echoes, no noise from outside, nothing.
Next came a trek down to the seventh floor. Immediately off the stairs were a pair of life-sized models of turrets - one from Team Fortress 2, and one from Portal. They were made by WETA, who made the effects for Lord of the Rings, and so very realistic. The TF2 one was even active, homing in on movement and "firing" with gun sounds every ten or twenty seconds. Then we entered "the classroom," which is a sort of communal space and, reportedly, Tom's favorite room. It's where they hold classes in yoga and foreign languages, pursue their hobbies, and perform press interviews. It's pretty much a blank slate that can be made into anything.
Our last stop was the lunchroom, where Tom went into further detail about all the awesome things Valve does for its employees. It's also where we learned how to get in on this great gig. The essence is that Valve interviews people to sift out people who are only mediocre, and those who are interested in being managers and leaders. They don't want leaders, remember; they want team players. And they want the best people out there, so long as they're not trying to push their opinions and methods. They'd rather fire a million-dollar diva than let them corrupt their corporate culture.
So, how do we get in on this? Basically, be awesome. Do something great, something that makes them really laugh or gasp at its quality. Then come knocking. Don't go to Valve hoping to make it big. Show them, and the world, your stuff and then they'll talk.
I suppose, technically, our last stop was not the cafeteria, but the Valve lobby. Everyone got a little goodie bag (two bumper stickers, a large "companion cube" patch, a booster pack of TF2 trading cards, and a lanyard) and a few parting words, and then it was over.
All told, it was a great tour. I did wish we could have gotten a peek at some works in progress, but I understand why we didn't. And it was of a good length - we got out after 5 PM. I had a good time, and got out just in time to go to work. At my, unfortunately, NON-Valve job.
Oh well.
The tour officially started at 3:30, but actually got off five or ten minutes late. No big deal — the lobby where everyone was gathering had promo videos for Valve's games running on a big screen, and there was plenty of art inspired by those games to look at. Hanging on the wall, sitting on tables, bolted to the ceiling. (Finally, someone who agrees that ceilings are woefully underutilized for art space!)
Our tour guide was Tom, who works in their Steam department. The first stop was a wall of fan letters. It couldn't possibly be all of it — it was only 8' x 4', give or take. But it was likely a representative sample. Tom says they're always happy to hear from their fans, which certainly makes sense to me. I mean, wouldn't you?
Next stop was another lobby/rest area type place, where Tom talked about the founding of the company and some of the games they've made. Someone asked about Half Life 3, and he made a tally mark in the air ("one in every group") and then proceeded to evade the question. I got the definite impression from that and other things said on the tour that Valve is moving away from the franchise, focusing more on Steam and other community gaming ideas rather than single-player first-person shooters.
Here he also went into some detail about how Valve works. Few people work in offices, or even cubicles. Most everyone works in what he called "cabals," which means basically groups of desks in a large open area. There are no bosses or team leads or the like; you work communally. There's no HR department; when a person is being interviewed, it's by whoever needs the help on their project. There's no QA department; when a piece of hardware or software needs testing, they put out a notice and people sign up to give it a go. It's very, very team-oriented. If you want to work on something else, you unplug your desk and move it to the new department which is working on that. Or you can start your own project. The whole system is geared towards letting people work on whatever it is they want to work on, the theory being that if you work on what you're most interested in, you'll do your best work. Seems reasonable to me!
After that, we took a peek into the IT area, where they build the custom high-end computers that their developers use. Not much to take away from that area, except that Valve believes in giving its employees the best hardware and support available. Give them the best, and they'll produce the best.
For that matter, it soon became clear that Valve treats its employees like royalty. We passed a massage table (unoccupied) on the way to the next stop on the tour, and Tom said each employee gets one free per week. They also have a hair stylist in their offices, a laundry service, and of course a fully stocked lunchroom, where everything's free. Add in health and dental, that they pay any gym or athletic club fees, they'll pay for your hobby supplies if you care to do any, say, sculpting on the side, and they hold classes in yoga, art, and foreign languages in a large open space, and you start wondering how you can get in on this gig.
We'll get to that.
The fourth stop was their resident psychologist's office. He actually works on games, not treating the employees; they're working on biofeedback devices, which struck me as odd. Until Tom explained at least one rationale for it. As he told it, there's two types of stresses: good stress, like being excited at reaching the next level or solving a puzzle. And bad stress, when you're angry or frustrated at, say, dying over and over. Both elicit changes in skin conductivity, but they're different changes. Now imagine a controller that you're holding in your hands that can read those changes and knows you're about to ragequit, so it scales back the difficulty some. Neat idea.
Also in the room was a set of Oculus Rift goggles. They're smaller than I expected, but then the last set of VR I wore was in the early 90s. (No, we didn't get to try on the Oculus.) He talked a bit about porting their games to VR, which of course would be awesome. I should mention here that, back in the main lobby, there was a crate that the receptionist said contained an omnidirectional treadmill for VR use. So they're apparently taking VR seriously.
I believe it was then that we took the stairs up to the 9th floor (we were on the 5th) which is where their sound and motion capture studios were. But first there was a wall of photos from a gaming tournament they sponsor heavily. Unfortunately, I didn't catch its name, but Valve apparently puts up a $1M grand prize for one of the games there, and smaller but not insignificant prizes for lesser winners. They're also making a documentary about three of the top-notch gamers that attend. Tom was very proud that Valve was getting into the actual movie business. He was also proud that they support the people who support video gaming. He said Valve (and he himself) believes that people help support the games and, by playing in these tournaments, they promote them, so they're plenty happy to promote and support the fans in turn. Good for them, says I.
We tried to check in on the motion capture room, but it was in use. So we had to make do with a quick refresher on what mocap involves. Apparently, for much of it they just use their fellow employees, but if they need something special, like coordinated moves or dancing, they'll hire professionals.
Then we stopped by a mixing studio, the one where apprently they put the final touches on the audio and video of a game. They used to rent out a studio, but after their offices expanded they put in one of their own, and now nearly everything is done in-house. As for the studio itself, it was... weird. You never quite realize just how much ambient noise there is, until there is absolutely none at all. That room was soundproofed out the humminnahum. No echoes, no noise from outside, nothing.
Next came a trek down to the seventh floor. Immediately off the stairs were a pair of life-sized models of turrets - one from Team Fortress 2, and one from Portal. They were made by WETA, who made the effects for Lord of the Rings, and so very realistic. The TF2 one was even active, homing in on movement and "firing" with gun sounds every ten or twenty seconds. Then we entered "the classroom," which is a sort of communal space and, reportedly, Tom's favorite room. It's where they hold classes in yoga and foreign languages, pursue their hobbies, and perform press interviews. It's pretty much a blank slate that can be made into anything.
Our last stop was the lunchroom, where Tom went into further detail about all the awesome things Valve does for its employees. It's also where we learned how to get in on this great gig. The essence is that Valve interviews people to sift out people who are only mediocre, and those who are interested in being managers and leaders. They don't want leaders, remember; they want team players. And they want the best people out there, so long as they're not trying to push their opinions and methods. They'd rather fire a million-dollar diva than let them corrupt their corporate culture.
So, how do we get in on this? Basically, be awesome. Do something great, something that makes them really laugh or gasp at its quality. Then come knocking. Don't go to Valve hoping to make it big. Show them, and the world, your stuff and then they'll talk.
I suppose, technically, our last stop was not the cafeteria, but the Valve lobby. Everyone got a little goodie bag (two bumper stickers, a large "companion cube" patch, a booster pack of TF2 trading cards, and a lanyard) and a few parting words, and then it was over.
All told, it was a great tour. I did wish we could have gotten a peek at some works in progress, but I understand why we didn't. And it was of a good length - we got out after 5 PM. I had a good time, and got out just in time to go to work. At my, unfortunately, NON-Valve job.
Oh well.