The Valve Handbook!
polycounter lvl 12
they released a PDF of it check it out:
http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valve-employee-hand-book-released.189828/
gotta say its cool to see how they set up everything over at Valve, give it a read you might learn something or not :P
http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valve-employee-hand-book-released.189828/
gotta say its cool to see how they set up everything over at Valve, give it a read you might learn something or not :P
Replies
Interesting read to say the least.
I can see many companies failing with this setup generally because there would be too many employees taking advantage of it (in a bad way).
I do think it's impossible for most companies to "switch" to this method of operation. Like they say in the article, it falls apart if you've got people that are not able to operate in such a system, and a lot of people in companies probably fall under that category.
They also mention how they have multidiscplinary people, which again not many people are.
On top of that, I can't imagine an entire company's hierarchical structure suddenly going "flat"... (bosses not having final say in everything anymore, etc..)
Great read and much of what I have known over the years. But definitely nice to get a different side of the hand perspective when actually becoming one of Valve!
It's just so beautiful...
Also, here's an interesting question. Why have I not seen ANY valve employees active on forums like polycount and stuch? Why cant I find any online folios? strange, no?
I'm given the impression that the overall atmosphere and workflow of that place would actually make being a dick person difficult, and undesirable.
Much like the New Church (Christian denomination) view of people in Hell - Being evil is just so normal to them that heaven would be a horrible place to live!
They wouldn't take one person's word, nor would any other studio. If you're in a studio like that you need to GTFO.
Peer reviews are most likely done by about 5-10 people and they see what everyone says. If one person says some totally crazy shit that no one else did, then the real issue would by why did that one person say so many horrible things when no one else did?
Read the whole thing, was pretty cool! Definitely need to take on a lot of responsibility... I like that.
The answer to A seems to be because they only hire good people that will function in the company.
And there are a few, Kite/Andy Nisbet is a member but I don't think he visits often. And I remember seeing someone's portfolio here a few years ago who is now at valve as well apparently.
There's this apparent effect that happens whenever someone gets hired by Valve: that is, all outside communication ceases. And, honestly, who needs to converse with us peons when you're in paradise?
Also, I wonder how much of Valve's hires are based in "I know a guy" and just full-on team hires (Like Turtle Rock, Walker's TF team back in the day, the Alien Swarm guys, Portal team, Day of Defeat?) - I imagine they don't go through the full interview process. And let's not forget, any time Valve "invites" someone over to check stuff out = job offer.
prolly because a valve job seems to be way more stable than any other job in the industry.
in most other companies, a game ships, and you get fired because they no longer need your role, vs valve your project ships, so you find a new role to be usefull at.
Going to read through this today fo sho!
Hah, yeah, that's what I thought too, doesn't hurt to have a little propaganda around
It's a very interesting thing, and certainly actually the way I'd like to work "in an ideal world"... however, that ideal world is very difficult to attain!
The only reason this could possibly work for Valve (as they mention in a few places) is because they self-publish, and self-fund, and have no deadlines or clients beyond what they set for themselves.
Other studios do not have this luxury - they have deadlines imposed externally, financial requirements to meet, all sorts of other concerns that arise from not sitting on a ready pile of cash.
That said, there is a lot of info in there that other companies could consider and adopt (if they're not doing it already), such as being able to put people more in charge of their own work if they aren't already.
Basically it all sounds good if you're a certain type of person, and other types of people have little to no chance of working there because their mindset requires a different type of environment.
It all seems like an interesting social experiment to me, and it's certainly why we haven't seen any more Half Life games... they just don't want to work on them any more
I wish all companies could be like this, because it takes two to tango.
1.It operates closer to a Think Tank, which researches and then publishes the findings.
2. They are looking for Superhero's (or Super villains) that can continually push the envelope, but not get burned out by doing so. Which in turn requires smart thinking on the balancing of life.
3. Creative is good, technical is better. Be a master in at least one area and highly skilled in several other's. The result will mean you can hop on a task and lend a hand, when it's not your specialty.
4. Open communication and transparency are absolute keys to success.
5. You must be very sociable, both a good speaker and a better listener to be successful.
6. Maturity will be a premium to do well at Valve with no one to tell you what to do.
7. Have fun, but be productive.
At this point in my life, I could work at a company like that.
Actually, if you are on LinkedIn you can find several of them by browsing through employee profiles. There's over 200 of them on there, granted not all have portfolio links.
Here are a few that I know of:
http://www.andreawicklund.com/
http://www.peterhkonig.com/#/
http://lauradubuk.blogspot.com/
http://mattikaarts.com/
I also found the T-shaped person to be an interesting idea. Makes perfect sense, but just sounds so difficult to achieve with the majority of companies wanting focus. I suppose it just takes the right kind of person to quickly master skills outside their specialty outside of normal work hours. Certainly something to aspire to be.
Being able to learn more and take on a different role from time to time to refrain from a repetitive process, that alone is so rewarding.
Thanks for sharing.
This handbook confirms everything I suspected... and also kind of makes me sad. As acutely ADD as I am, I've found I function best as a second in command, with somebody at least one level above me in a formal supervisory role that can be a guiding force (and final overriding say) in goal analysis, scheduling, logistics, that kind of thing - the kind of stuff I'm full-on impaired with. My wife wears this hat at home and does it with grace and aplomb and deftness (and the occasional smack upside the head). I can guarantee you that without her, I'd forget to pay bills, spend three hours in the middle of a busy day trying to do something irrelevant like sorting the cupboard, go out the door without my keys and my wallet, forget to pick up our son at the bus stop in the afternoon... you get the idea.
I doubt I could ever hack it in Valvehalla.
Mr.kite occasionally posts. You can find his art dump in a search 'fill my hole mr.kite'.
Bay Raitt used to post a bit as spiraloid on other CG forums.
HR is what creates policy and culture (theoretically) long after everyone is no longer AT that studio.
say someone like me i love doing hard surface stuff, sci-fi is my bread and butter which entails alot of HP work if i were to be put on something like a mobile tree generator game not only would that not interest me at all but also remove my key skill that makes me valuable to the company.
but unfortunately when you have management that doesn't really interact with you on a daily basis or understand what your good or bad at you will probably be put on a project that might not best suit you.
What valve does which i find kinda interesting is it operates almost as a mod team someone has an idea and if your interested in the idea you can help them on it that way you only choose the projects that interest you and benefit from your key skills if you dont see one that does interest you make your own!
thats probably why we see games like alien swarm come out of valve because it was an idea a few people had and wanted see it finished.
I don't think it would be hard for a companies to take some of valves values to heart but that wont happen at alot of studios because it cuts out all the people that have power and if you have power why would you give it up?
You see him around the 3D Coat forums quite a bit.
People at HI have titles but they don't mean much inside the company they are more a designation of "expertise" than a hierarchy. I have no problem by-passing my AD and talking to the CEO about crazy new ideas and getting them funded. I still talk about it with my AD because I want his feedback but I'm not begging for approval or permission but asking him what he thinks and we debate its merits.
Its no surprise that Gabe and my CEO Megan Gaiser both came from MS and started companies that have polar opposite work environments to that of MS. A lot of people from MS left to start local companies and they all had similar "Anti-MS cultures" at their core. Most have sold out to publishers or just closed their doors or bent to investor pressure to "standardized and monetize" their workflow so its easier for investors to understand, track and get rid of "waste" which actually meant squash creative freedom.
I started out working for Humongous (just before it imploded), which had a similar culture structure but was sold to a publisher and subsequently destroyed as it was digested. They thought the genius was in the IP and that it could be recreated in any structure but figured out way too late it was the creative freedom that made the games great, by then they had driven everyone off. To be fair they did give a few people a lot of creative freedom and they didn't have a clue what they had gotten themselves into "AMEN The awakening" and that did more to damage the structure and tarnish the culture's image than being bought and sold did. So it is very important to get the right people.
Sooo... while I know I'm no where good enough to work at Valve, I would have a hard time working at some place that is much more rigid which is probably why if I can't find some place similar I would leave the industry. I'm 35 and I'm just not up for the endless abuse and constant soul crushing job hunting. I'd rather find a nice stable 9-5 with predictable hours and work on creative projects in my spare time rather than have the one thing I love twisted and tortured into something I hate.
sounds great though, I think alot of studios are doing similar things now. As people continue to work at studios and learn new things you get alot of really high quality multi-discipline developers that can work in systems structured like this, there was a talk by Todd Howard of bethesda about how the longer their company was around the more gamedev "ninjas" they had, so at the end of skyrim they let all their ninjas loose on whatever they wanted to add to the game. It looked way better than what they actually shipped, they should have just done that for the rest of the project.
I actually always have wanted to learn to code - I refer to myself as a "tool junkie" and love an under-the-hood understanding of what game engines and 3D tools and everything of the sort. I mostly never caught on because the intro to programming class I tried to take in high school had a very kind but very inept teacher that left me adrift and discouraged for most of a semester, and I'm not very good at self-teaching from complete scratch. I did learn just enough to make me a danger to myself and others, though. :poly142:
I'd LOVE to see somebody start a "coding for artists" mini-school. Understanding the code under the hood could give so many of us a much more powerful and nimble skill set, and we're not stupid people - I adamantly believe it's just a case of presenting the material in a format that we, as artists, can sink our teeth into it. Sooner or later somebody is going to figure out how to do that and I won't be able to sell a kidney fast enough to sign up.
Ever try Processing?
My God, it's full of stars.
It comes in handy. Especially with writing shaders these days. And also stuff like Unrealscript, Maxscript, LUA, etc. Once you learn the principles, you'd be surprised just how much you can accomplish. I probably won't be writing any engine code ever. But it's still good to understand how things work.
I'd say just try and write a CGFX Blinn shader. Or do some stuff with unreal script or Maxscript to make your workflow better. You'll pick up the basics.
On programming, I guess I need "Programming for people that didn't find easy languages that easy after all". I've given up on learning programming. I'm content with expanding into characters, animation, FX and concept - basically everything to do with the art department.
Here at 1p we have a very similar way of functioning. From constantly moving our desks to be close to our new projects, to the mentality and importance of hiring the right person. I think some people take this lightly, but its all about the right mindset and work ethic that is compatible with the rest of the people in the company. Who brings more to the table with their expertise, but also has the ability to adapt and take initiative, and i think that's a big keyword. People that take initiative and are driven by learning and pushing the boundaries and capabilities not only in art, but through tech. I think someone that is not afraid to mess around in code, to learn it and make it better brings better results. I believe in Epic they have this mindset.
Apart from that i do wonder how some of the projects are sprung to life, and managed. Here the big boss commands some of those, but is driven by what we want to work on and how we can make it work. But i can't grasp how they would fund a project without deadlines. I guess it helps that their games are generating lots of money all year round generating a good cash flow until the next game is done. Because seriously, when valve is done with a game its the day it comes out. No warnings or anything haha
Anyways... I like that most of the people here at polycount agree that this kind of management is more preferable, or that we debate and argue ideas with rational thinking and not what makes the most money. At some point we will mold the next generation to this kind of thinking, and that is when change happens. I can see it happen already with teams like Double Fine or Valve.
edit: there was spam above my post