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Actually, this isn’t true. In The Final Hours of Half-Life Alyx, Valve talked about how their 10 year dead period where no single player games were released was

by easton 6y ago

Actually, this isn’t true. In The Final Hours of Half-Life Alyx, Valve talked about how their 10 year dead period where no single player games were released was caused by their nonhierarchial structure. Half-Life 3 alone was started three times since HL2:E2 and people got bored and stopped touching it. They did work on several original titles and ended up cancelling them due to tech issues or boredom. Alyx, once it gained steam, ended up turning into a hierarchical project and the largest in the company history, and was the only way Source 2 ever got finished (since they now had people waiting on it to get the game working). And it worked, as we finally now have proof that VR is a great way to tell stories. The book is excellent, and goes on sale often on Steam. (A decent summary of the book is here: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/07/valve-secrets-spill-over-including-half-life-3-in-new-steam-documentary-app/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/07/valve-secrets-spill-o...)

908B64B197 6y ago
Hierarchical or not, keep in mind Valve was making an enormous amount of money the whole time. Steam is, by far, their most profitable business. They are also extremely selective when it comes to hiring (they are fairly small but get applicants from literally all over). So that some approach worked for Valve won't necessary work for RandomCo Inc where software is viewed as a cost center, simply because they can't attract the same caliber of talent.
ethbr0 6y ago
I was being ironic, but decided to write the comment in an ambiguous way as was honestly curious which tack HN would take. The Alyx story you link is probably a great example of the greatest strength being diversity: where diversity often means breaking your own rules when appropriate. Even the Roman Republic's Senate reserved the power to appoint an omnipotent dictator in times of need.

by easton 6y ago

908B64B197 6y ago

Hierarchical or not, keep in mind Valve was making an enormous amount of money the whole time. Steam is, by far, their most profitable business. They are also extremely selective when it comes to hiring (they are fairly small but get applicants from literally all over). So that some approach worked for Valve won't necessary work for RandomCo Inc where software is viewed as a cost center, simply because they can't attract the same caliber of talent.

ethbr0 6y ago

I was being ironic, but decided to write the comment in an ambiguous way as was honestly curious which tack HN would take. The Alyx story you link is probably a great example of the greatest strength being diversity: where diversity often means breaking your own rules when appropriate. Even the Roman Republic's Senate reserved the power to appoint an omnipotent dictator in times of need.