Valve Pipeline

http://pipeline.valvesoftware.com/

by pizza • 13 years ago

180 78 13 years ago

pipeline.valvesoftware.com

hobs2• 13 years ago

Every time I read something like this I just think, "My highschool experience sucked."

tfgg• 13 years ago

Back in my day if you were at highschool and wanted attention from Valve you created a mod played by thousands of people!

Joking, of course, this is cool. I wonder how they'll recruit, whether it'll be from pre-existing modding community (does that still exist, given how relatively creaky their games are now?) or completely fresh. I imagine that these days, due to mobile apps and independent engines like Unity, there are more good young devs outside gaming/modding than before.

laumars• 13 years ago

Depends on your age. When I was at highschool, IBM PCs were just hitting the market. So games developers were still very much a couple of nerds in their garage. This meant that the industry was relatively level pegged (ie I could leave highschool and write a relatively professional game). However these days kids don't have that opportunity (generally speaking of course. There's still your Minecrafts and other indie games that have gone on to be hugely successful for their developer(s)). These days the entry bar is so much higher that I think that's part of the reason so many students are drawn towards web development; where it costs next to nothing to set up a web dev workstation and anyone can throw together a professional looking site. And because of that, the more lower level programming industries are missing out on talented developers.

I appreciate that the Raspberry Pi foundation was set up in an attempt to readdress this issue, but I for one consider myself very luck -perhaps more so than this generation of kids- to have grown up in an era where school kids had the same (dis)advantages as the games studios. And I think it was that which cemented my desire to work in IT at such an early age - as I felt part of the industry even though I was just throwing together silly BBC / Amstrad BASIC, and later DOS games in Pascal, for my own amusement.

churchNumber• 13 years ago

I think that's part of the reason so many students are drawn towards web development; where it costs next to nothing to set up a web dev workstation and anyone can throw together a professional looking site.

You are absolutely right. I am currently in high school, and I enjoy doing lower-level stuff like game engines, compilers, OSes and hardware.

I am currently thinking of dropping out of school, but it will probably force me to do freelancing and web dev.

It's almost impossible to get a job in any of the areas I am interested without a University degree.

Back in the early days of PCs, I could easily make a hardware startup and earn a decent living, or maybe even get rich. But now it's virtually impossible to do so.

It costs billions of dollars to setup a semiconductor fab and the field is encumbered in patents and politics. Majority of games studios also have budgets with about the same number of digits.

6d0debc071• 13 years ago

Well, cool things are pretty much inherently outliers ^^;

codemonkeymike• 13 years ago

Yep my Highschool had 1 class on programming an the teacher told us strait up not to become a programmer. I just wanted to GTFO of there.

bherms• 13 years ago

This is pretty awesome... I hope to see more tech companies try to connect with younger audiences and help foster growing interests in the engineering fields. Pair this with the quickly changing education landscape and we could see some big changes -- and hopefully big innovation -- in the near future as kids move away from the traditional college education structure and focus on developing skills around their interests earlier in life.

ChrisNorstrom2• 13 years ago

Wow.

1) Good for Valve. I think this is the beginning of an already awesome company evolving even further.

2) Jeri Ellsworth (fired valve employee) was right. Some of the older Valve employees really have been holding the company back in terms of culture and new hires. This seems to be Valve's response by fixing itself and focusing on recruiting new younger staff. The problem with being an awesome place to work is that employees don't leave even when they should. They might in turn refuse to let younger employees in out of fear that they'll be replaced. So slowly it destroys the natural cycle of replacement of old ideas with fresh new ones. It might not be set up as a recruitment platform but it sure can be used like one to Valve's advantage. They can support kids who want to get into the industry and at the same time snap up the best of the best before other companies do.

3) Also, Valve hires only the most experienced who can self manage themselves. This has allowed them to do a lot with only 300 or so people but expanding seems to be slow. Other companies hire juniors, work them hard, pay them below market wages, and can expand faster and create more IP. If Valve wants to launch more IP or expand they're going to have to change their ways. And it seems they've come to terms with that.

CaveTech2• 13 years ago

Aren't high schoolers the wrong crowd? I mean it lets them get their feet wet, but most (read: 99.99%) of high schoolers won't be valuable employees to a technology company.

jmgrosen2• 13 years ago

Speaking as a high schooler, I think there are plenty of us out there who would be plenty helpful to a company like Valve. (I like to think I would be one of them!)

As for this project, I, for one, would like to learn about 3D rendering -- that's always been something that I'd admired from afar.

zachlatta2• 13 years ago

I wouldn't say so. I'm currently in high school and working at a small indie studio on our flagship game. Working with other professionals on a title that matters is invaluable experience, at least in my opinion.

bloaf• 13 years ago

If nothing else, they might be a good audience for Valve's older employees to bounce ideas off of. They could provide information about what teens (a big consumer of Valve's products) want and think are cool.

nadaviv• 13 years ago

I was a full time dev at 16, and believe that I was quite valuable to the company. Some other comments tell similar stories, so it seems like its not that rare. I wouldn't be so quick to say that high schoolers aren't valuable at all, but I do agree that most of them probably aren't.

1123581321• 13 years ago

Valve is a company that has the margin and the culture to support products that don't pay an immediate return. That said, I see some immediate benefits:

1. This will attract a large pool of young talent and some of them will make direct contributions and contributions through feedback and interplay of ideas.

2. This creates goodwill in the developer and education community which helps experienced industry professionals to think more highly of Valve. They will be more likely to apply or recommend applying.

3. This, as has been said, improves conditions at Valve and helps to shine light on more stultified areas of the company.

jauer• 13 years ago

They are cheap and you can cycle them quickly without too much grief until you find the good ones.

We (little ISP) get them for a few hours each day after school and put them to work answering phones. They get some work experience and credit under the high school's "industry as shop class" scheme.

The better ones get a job for the summer and a raise. If they show the right blend of bordom doing phone support combined with motivation to learn systems stuff we promote them and give them sysadmin projects.

Worst case they end up with some clerical work experience in a office environment. Best case they learn some combination of Sysadmin/Netadmin/Coder. Either way it beats working fast food or stocking shelves.

brandonbloom• 13 years ago

You forget that Valve's offices are in Microsoft's backyard.

I helped out at http://studentrnd.com/ a few times. Hooooly crap. Some of those 14 year olds can code! Having two Microsoft Devs as parents is a pretty good strategy if you want to grow up and be valuable to Valve.

pbsdp• 13 years ago

The ageism in your post is disconcerting. On one hand you equate youth with innovation, age with stagnation, and on the other you posit that overworking youth for below market wages is simply a cost of doing business.

ChrisNorstrom2• 13 years ago

Youth haven't been conditioned and molded yet by their industries, they're young, stupid and make mistakes and in the process find new ways of doing things. Because they're young they don't have experience nor families to take care of, and thus will take low wages. They don't demand too many benefits, and you can work them like mules. They also flood the market and are over supplied and under demanded. The average game developer is a 31 year old white male. As soon as they start settling down and wanting to have a family they leave the industry. They burn out, and they are replaced.

It's not the "right" way for every company. Valve and other companies do the opposite. But for most of the industry it is a cost of doing business.

I could have chosen to be politically correct or realistic & honest. I chose realistic & honest.

T-hawk• 13 years ago

Yes, it's ageist, and so is Valve if they really have been cleaning house of older employees in favor of fresh college-age kids.

But, is that bad?

As ChrisNorstrom's sibling reply points out, companies really do want young workers in technology. They're more up to date on languages and tools. They'll produce more work and dedicate more time when unencumbered by family concerns. They don't have an expectation of or a lifestyle that requires a six-figure salary. Experience is less of a concern in game and entertainment development than in other industries; it doesn't matter so much if a young hotshot clutters up the codebase a bit or reinvents some wheel algorithm, when this game will be shipped and a new one begun within a year. Even bugs stemming from inexperience are less of a concern for Valve than anyone else, when they own the distribution platform that can automatically push patches and updates anytime.

It's also not illegal if the "older" victims are under age 40. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act only forbids age discrimination against workers 40 or older. http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/age.cfm

Sure, it sucks for the fired workers. Sure, it sounds ruthless and inhumane. And sure, if Valve is blindly firing everybody between age 30 and 40, then they're being dumb, since of course some programmers are still 10x animals at any age. But Valve is not a charity or a government, and is presumably smarter than that. It's a business in mission to make games and money. Every business should be seeking to replace low performers with fresh faces. And in game development, the performance and business value of an employee does bear an inverse correlation with age, so lower performers will skew older.

corresation• 13 years ago

Reading your post -- in particular the held-high observations of someone who was fired -- one would think that Valve was a relic of a company full of apparently useless seniors who are just waiting out their days until they can retire to go fishing. You know, the same Valve that is one of the most successful software companies operating, and is a company that is pretty much universally understood to have an incredible ability to execute.

It's a weird conflict, really. As others have said, there is a bitter taste of manifestly unwarranted ageism in your post.

jwarkentin2• 13 years ago

Age has nothing to do with anything. Old or young, people can be intelligent, productive and very forward thinking. It is true that many people who have been in the industry a while have found a job and technologies where they're comfortable and don't want to change; but it's just as true that many continue to move forward and try new things.

r00k• 13 years ago

Fine job on the video, young Valve employees!

Can I make a suggestion? Make your email capture form immediately visible and give it equal emphasis with the video.

Don't let intrigued people leave without giving you a way to contact them later. People who offer their email address are your biggest fans, and having that information will be valuable to you almost instantly.

Rickasaurus• 13 years ago

Very cool, but they really should have had more women in the video.

ecuzzillo• 13 years ago

It's hard to find high school girls who are really stoked about Valve. I suspect the video reflected that ratio.

TeMPOraL• 13 years ago

Why exactly? Serious question. Is there any reason for this except political correctness?

Fomite• 13 years ago

Because when people are considering aspirational activities, "People like me" doing those things helps a huge amount.

cromwellian• 13 years ago

How about shipping Half-Life 2 Episode 3? :)

6ren• 13 years ago

  the reasons for this and the tradeoffs are covered in the Valve employee handbook

I don't think we're going to see the Valve employee handbook...

jackmaney2• 13 years ago

The Valve Employee Handbook was made public some time ago:

http://media.steampowered.com/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployeeHa...

elq• 13 years ago

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1074301/Valve_Handbook_Low...

jackmaney2• 13 years ago

Excellent! Even though the program seems to be aimed at high schoolers, I hope it eventually expands to those (like myself) with experience in other industries who are either considering or trying to break into the video game industry.

eridius2• 13 years ago

Without watching the video, I have absolutely no clue what this is. I should not be required to watch a video to understand the site.

Also, for some reason, the header image doesn't show up in Safari.

Zikes• 13 years ago

Header image is hotlinked from wallpapersus.com.

grinich• 13 years ago

"This website was created entirely by teenagers..." -- Gabe (in the first 15 seconds)

eridius2• 13 years ago

Not the texture. The logo (http://pipeline.valvesoftware.com/images/logo_final_gray.png). The <div class="clearfix"> it's wrapped in ends up being 1x0 in Safari.

sublimit• 13 years ago

Even after watching it, I don't get what it is.

Like, yeah it's supposed to help high school students familiarize themselves with commercial game development, but how? Do they visit your high school and hold a presentation? If it's just information on a website, why do you need to register? If it wasn't by Valve it'd sound like a scam.

muratmutlu• 13 years ago

The video stated there will be a forum set up for discussions with the students where you can get answers to questions and insight into the industry. Also said the site will be ever growing and content will be determined by questions people ask.

Don't really understand how it sounded like a scam, you just have to submit your email address to get updates.

Jach• 13 years ago

I wonder how many students will be funneled through DigiPen's summer workshop programs. (https://projectfun.digipen.edu/summer-workshops/workshops-gr...) Students who have done some of those workshops would have a huge competitive advantage over those who haven't. (I'm told by a friend who teaches some of the Engineering workshops they get a good selection of bright kids too.)

remixz• 13 years ago

As a high schooler myself who's working at a company (DIY) that's promoting the same ideas, this is extremely awesome. I totally think more companies should be doing this, so major kudos to them.

hmind• 13 years ago

Cool idea, but the page needs serious redesigning. Also, for the love of god put 'cursor: pointer;' on the FAQ links (or just make them links)

But yea, definitely awesome to see Valve wants to engage a younger workforce, though we'll see if they actually commit.

oceanstone• 13 years ago

I would so choose this over Auto Shop.

johnpowell• 13 years ago

Free labor.

dindresto4• 13 years ago

Seriously, the website is crappy. No doctype, images for quotes, the hidden text in the FAQ is completely unnecessary and the site looks like crap on mobile devices. I'm 16 and I could do better than that. In fact, I claim that my websites already looked better when I was 14.

That said, the video looks quite nice.

javert6• 13 years ago

I didn't have any problems with it whatsoever. I think you're being too picky.

dindresto4• 13 years ago

"I think you're being too picky." Oh well, screenshots following... https://www.dropbox.com/s/cfftfq8ubq4rn5q/Foto%2013.07.13%20... https://www.dropbox.com/s/axsg6e27byqy1y6/Foto%2013.07.13%20...

dindresto4• 13 years ago

Anyhow, I would've contacted them directly and help them sort it out but I can't seem to find any contact details.

javert6• 13 years ago

Looks like someone (Gaben) finally got around to reading Ender's Game.

zerr• 13 years ago

Anyone noticed that related videos are very interesting? (About real pipelines).

Valve Pipeline

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