Valve Company Handbook

[tyler]

A neat read.

http://cdn.flamehaus.com/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf

 

[Sel]

Read this earlier, was definitely very interesting. If more companies adopted this kind of a collaboration model I might give the professional game development industry studios a second look, since the way Valve operates is more or less exactly (Ignoring for the moment that most of us are usually specialized in one thing) how this entire community, and every other modding community functions, and most importantly what I'm used to and enjoy.

 

[Prestige]

thought this model succeeded at valve because the people are really multi-talented, but i suppose it could work anywhere

 

[grazr]

Apparently Google use the same setup; and to a certain extent the Pixar studio(s).

Appprently-apprently Facebook also works this way, but who gives a real shit about Facebook.

 

[Vaconcovat]

And you're naming extremely successful companies there. I think it works.

 

[LeSwordfish]

This will come in handy.

EDIT: This will come in VERY handy:

 

[Kiddnils]

I can't imagine a better place to work.

 

[grazr]

I can't imagine a better place to work.

Well that all depends on the kind of career you intend to take. I know some people that really enjoy customer service and wouldn't trade their minimum wage job for a 6 figure salary in an office. A bit loony... but you can't argue with where someones heart lies.

I know many people here aspire to work at Valve one day, i tend to take a more realistic approach and believe i probably wont end up at Valve, but that doesn't mean it's unrealistic to end up somewhere else in the games industry and that's not bad either.

 

[TheKieranator]

I've gotta say, I love this entry in the glossary:

Australia—A place that’s either very near or is New Zealand where more
than half of Valve’s employees were born.

New Zealand: 1
Australia: 0

 

[Trotim]

Yeah, sounds a lot like Pixar to me.

 

[Yacan1]

14-Year-Old Boy—If you see one running your project, don’t worry. That’s
actually 57-year-old Josh Weier (see Josh Weier). If you have any extra stem
cells, give them to him! He bathes in them daily.

Odd.

 

[YM]

The problem with companies adopting this structure is they need to be startups or fire all their staff. Because traditional companies have a very structured hierarchy they just couldn't make the change easily at all.

 

[Micnax]

This part always makes me chuckle: