During PAX Aus 2024 not only did we get the Steam Deck for Australia announcement, but the project leader on Valve's own Portal 2 did an interview with KIWI TALKZ.
The interview goes over many things about what it was like at Valve, scepticism around the original release of Steam itself, there's a Q&A section and so on. One bit that sticks out is how even the lead on Portal 2 really hopes that Valve return to more single-player games.
Here's an excerpt from what Josh Weier said in reply to a question that brings up how the Risk of Rain creators Hopoo Games joining Valve:
I've been out of Valve for 7 years now. So I don't really have a lot of insight into what they're doing. When I left the company had certainly shifted away from thinking about single player and they were very interested in VR and they were very interested in the counter-strikes and DOTA and kind of more games of service. That never resonated with me, I'm a single player person, I don't care for games as a service, I don't want to do that so that was a big reason I was like eh I'll go do something else. I'd love to see them get back to those roots because obviously that's the thing I think they did incredibly well. And I want to play that as a customer.
Full interview video is below, the particular section above is about 53:00 in:
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Always good to hear more behind the scenes from people who used to work for Valve. You don't get this kind of insight too often, with Valve continuing to be a pretty tight-lipped company.
What single player game would you have as your number 1 for Valve to bring out next?
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[quote=missingno]
Making that kind of game works when you are the first or when you're super innovative and bring something new to keep players' engagement. Otherwise it's a waste of time and money and you'd better do a good solo game instead.
The problem now is that GaaS sector is crowded... See the recent Concord fiasco.Seems short-sighted . . . 200 million here, 200 million there, pretty soon you're talking about real money!Opportunity cost. Why make a game that only makes $200 million when they can make a game that makes several billion instead?
My mind boggles at thinking of $200 million in profit as "only" and not worth going after.
Making that kind of game works when you are the first or when you're super innovative and bring something new to keep players' engagement. Otherwise it's a waste of time and money and you'd better do a good solo game instead.
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When I play single player games, I feel like I'm doing a multi player with the game creators.
It is always been like that and I love that emotion sooo much more than playing with random angry people on the net.
Even if they were friends, the demands of family and work would make it a rare occurrence for all of us to have free time at the same moment."
I'm so grateful I'm out of the whole anticheat issue "by design".
It is always been like that and I love that emotion sooo much more than playing with random angry people on the net.
Even if they were friends, the demands of family and work would make it a rare occurrence for all of us to have free time at the same moment."
I'm so grateful I'm out of the whole anticheat issue "by design".
2 Likes, Who?
I enjoy a campaign you can finish, but I enjoy them the most when they're co-op. So, I liked Portal 2 more than Portal (and I did enjoy Portal, too).
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I enjoy a campaign you can finish, but I enjoy them the most when they're co-op. So, I liked Portal 2 more than Portal (and I did enjoy Portal, too).
Offtopic: Your name is real cool, but can be tricky. I was a bit overwhelmed just now since I thought for a moment that I have 14 new messages on this thread. 😄
14 replied to Portal 2 project lead wants Valve to return to single-player games
Last edited by chr on 26 October 2024 at 2:44 pm UTC
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Comandante Ñoñardo Oct 26
Is horrible what they did to Camposanto..What single player game would you have as your number 1 for Valve to bring out next?
In The Valley of Gods
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Bought them? I don't think it was a hostile takeover.Is horrible what they did to Camposanto..What single player game would you have as your number 1 for Valve to bring out next?
In The Valley of Gods
In fact, after the game was put on hold, one of the Campo Santo people confirmed that their staff had willingly drifted off to work on various other Valve projects. And that's because Valve lets them work on whichever project they find interesting and relevant to their expertise.
It's a shame. I was looking forward to In The Valley of Gods. But "horrible" isn't the word I'd use, unless I've missed something.
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Offtopic: Your name is real cool, but can be tricky. I was a bit overwhelmed just now since I thought for a moment that I have 14 new messages on this thread. 😄Ha. It was originally "014," but at some point the GoL website changed it to "14," as if my name was treated as a number instead of a string. My avatar is a 1 and 4 inside a 0.
Last edited by 14 on 27 October 2024 at 2:32 pm UTC
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Seems short-sighted . . . 200 million here, 200 million there, pretty soon you're talking about real money!Opportunity cost. Why make a game that only makes $200 million when they can make a game that makes several billion instead?
My mind boggles at thinking of $200 million in profit as "only" and not worth going after.
I could think of two reasons actually:
* Fun. If I were a software developer (or say ten), and you'd offer me $200 millions for a single player game or $1000 millions for making hats for years, I'd take the former. It would provide me with more money than I need and satisfaction. (Developers are humans, too!)
* Abilities. I actually am a software developer, but I couldn't design cool hats. If you got both artists and software developers, it would absolutely make sense to give both groups something to do. It's not like you can throw any x people on any task for x people.
Both points are based on me thinking service software games should last much longer than single player games.
Last edited by Eike on 28 October 2024 at 3:47 pm UTC
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* Fun. If I were a software developer (or say ten), and you'd offer me $200 millions for a single player game or $1000 millions for making hats for years, I'd take the former. It would provide me with more money than I need and satisfaction. (Developers are humans, too!)Valve isn't one person making a hobby project. They're a business aiming to maximize profits. If you want auteur-driven passion projects, you will find those from independent developers, not a corporation the size of Valve.
* Abilities. I actually am a software developer, but I couldn't design cool hats. If you got both artists and software developers, it would absolutely make sense to give both groups something to do. It's not like you can throw any x people on any task for x people.Do you think multiplayer games don't need software developers working on them? Just artists?
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* Fun. If I were a software developer (or say ten), and you'd offer me $200 millions for a single player game or $1000 millions for making hats for years, I'd take the former. It would provide me with more money than I need and satisfaction. (Developers are humans, too!)Valve isn't one person making a hobby project. They're a business aiming to maximize profits. If you want auteur-driven passion projects, you will find those from independent developers, not a corporation the size of Valve.
Thy can choose to maximise profits, but they are not forced to.
* Abilities. I actually am a software developer, but I couldn't design cool hats. If you got both artists and software developers, it would absolutely make sense to give both groups something to do. It's not like you can throw any x people on any task for x people.Do you think multiplayer games don't need software developers working on them? Just artists?[/quote]
You deleted what I wrote to avoid this question:
Both points are based on me thinking service software games should last much longer than single player games.
Of course you need both, but if the game flies for years, you need more hat makers than game developers.
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