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> steam is big, but it's not a product so complex you'd need over 100 people to maintain it I dunno, I think Steam is pretty complex: - The steam store (credi

> steam is big, but it's not a product so complex you'd need over 100 people to maintain it I dunno, I think Steam is pretty complex: - The steam store (credit card processing, optimizing search, review bombs, gift buying, features around various ways to hide games you've purchased, marketplace) - Workshop (Uploading, managing people's subscriptions, SDKs) - Cloud Saves - Remote Play, works remotely without any port mapping (so they're running a service for that) (clients for macOS, Windows, iOS/iPadOS/tvOS, Android) - Controller Mapping (DualShock 4, Dual Sense, various Nintendo Controllers, Xbox controllers, pretty intense UI) - New Video Recording with SDK for games to integrate with - Friends / Chat - Broadcasting games - The client itself, for Windows, macOS, Linux) And a whole lot more (forums, profile customization, guides)

csande17 2y ago
According to the article, Valve is in fact currently maintaining all those features with a team of ~80 people. So this is a good opportunity to improve your understanding of the number of people it takes to maintain software. One thing Valve seems to understand better than most big tech companies is that once a product/feature is done, you don't need the same size team to maintain it. A lot of parts of Steam have been functionally unchanged for the last few years and just... keep working. The people who worked on Cloud Saves have presumably moved on to something else, instead of entering a Google-esque cycle of pointless Cloud Saves feature launches and deprecations.
- c-hendricks 2y ago
  Oh, at my day job we are about 5 engineers maintaining and adding features to support thousands of users, I'm aware of how few people are actually needed to maintain and build software. My objection was to the phrase "Steam is not complex", which I guess wasn't the posters point.
ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago
I think the real trick is to not hire twitter engineers.

csande17 2y ago

According to the article, Valve is in fact currently maintaining all those features with a team of ~80 people. So this is a good opportunity to improve your understanding of the number of people it takes to maintain software. One thing Valve seems to understand better than most big tech companies is that once a product/feature is done, you don't need the same size team to maintain it. A lot of parts of Steam have been functionally unchanged for the last few years and just... keep working. The people who worked on Cloud Saves have presumably moved on to something else, instead of entering a Google-esque cycle of pointless Cloud Saves feature launches and deprecations.

c-hendricks 2y ago
Oh, at my day job we are about 5 engineers maintaining and adding features to support thousands of users, I'm aware of how few people are actually needed to maintain and build software. My objection was to the phrase "Steam is not complex", which I guess wasn't the posters point.

ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago

I think the real trick is to not hire twitter engineers.