7 ms·

Valve Pipeline

180 points by pizza 13y ago

hobs 13y ago
Every time I read something like this I just think, "My highschool experience sucked."
- tfgg 13y 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 13y 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 13y 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.
    - fzzzy 13y ago
      It's totally possible to get a job in those areas without a degree.
      - redorb 13y ago
        Highschool can help grow you up a bit.. And it's expected you finish in today's society.. Please let's not encourage people to drop out and yes, let's encourage them to stay in.
      - hobs 13y ago
        Correct, but its harder and you need work experience typically. Which can be hard to get with no GED equivalent.
    - emddudley 13y ago
      Drop out of high school? Don't be stupid. You don't know nearly as much as you think you do.
    - snoman 13y ago
      Dropping out of high school, especially if you are interested in and want to work in computing, will be the worst mistake you ever make. Whatever is making school unbearable for you, fix that problem instead (or ask for help to fix it) of trying to get away from it.
- 6d0debc071 13y ago
  Well, cool things are pretty much inherently outliers ^^;
- codemonkeymike 13y 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 13y 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.
ChrisNorstrom 13y 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.
- CaveTech 13y 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.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - jmgrosen 13y 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.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
r00k 13y 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 13y ago
Very cool, but they really should have had more women in the video.
- ecuzzillo 13y ago
  It's hard to find high school girls who are really stoked about Valve. I suspect the video reflected that ratio.
- TeMPOraL 13y ago
  Why exactly? Serious question. Is there any reason for this except political correctness?
  - Fomite 13y ago
    Because when people are considering aspirational activities, "People like me" doing those things helps a huge amount.
cromwellian 13y ago
How about shipping Half-Life 2 Episode 3? :)
6ren 13y 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...
- jackmaney 13y ago
  The Valve Employee Handbook was made public some time ago: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployeeHandbook.pdf http://media.steampowered.com/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployeeHa...
- elq 13y ago
  http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1074301/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1074301/Valve_Handbook_Low...
jackmaney 13y 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.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
eridius 13y 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 13y ago
  Header image is hotlinked from wallpapersus.com.
  - grinich 13y ago
    "This website was created entirely by teenagers..." -- Gabe (in the first 15 seconds)
  - eridius 13y ago
    Not the texture. The logo (http://pipeline.valvesoftware.com/images/logo_final_gray.png http://pipeline.valvesoftware.com/images/logo_final_gray.png). The <div class="clearfix"> it's wrapped in ends up being 1x0 in Safari.
    - fredsted 13y ago
      Works fine here. I'm using Safari 6.1, though.
- sublimit 13y 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 13y 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 13y ago
I wonder how many students will be funneled through DigiPen's summer workshop programs. (https://projectfun.digipen.edu/summer-workshops/workshops-grades-8-12/ 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 13y 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 13y 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.
ChrisAntaki 13y ago
I would so choose this over Auto Shop.
johnpowell 13y ago
Free labor.
dindresto 13y 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.
- javert 13y ago
  I didn't have any problems with it whatsoever. I think you're being too picky.
  - dindresto 13y ago
    "I think you're being too picky." Oh well, screenshots following... https://www.dropbox.com/s/cfftfq8ubq4rn5q/Foto%2013.07.13%2010%2034%2028.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/cfftfq8ubq4rn5q/Foto%2013.07.13%20... https://www.dropbox.com/s/axsg6e27byqy1y6/Foto%2013.07.13%2010%2031%2003.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/axsg6e27byqy1y6/Foto%2013.07.13%20...
    - javert 13y ago
      You took those with your phone, right? Do you always browse with your phone, or did you specifically pull it out just to test the site? (It's OK if you did, just curious.) If you can explain it, I'd like to know why anybody ever browses on the phone unless you're literally travelling or on the toilet. I just don't get it. A tiny screen and no keyboard seems like a crappy way to experience the Internet when you could use a big screen, but everybody is saying it's the next thing. (Perhaps it is purely economic and I'm being a bit of a Marie Antoinette here?)
      - danbee 13y ago
        I browse websites often from my phone even when I've got a laptop 6 feet away from me. Usually when I'm on the sofa flicking through twitter or email etc... It really doesn't take much to at least make sure your website is accessible. If it doesn't work properly it's likely I'll give up and not even bother trying anywhere else.
javert 13y ago
Looks like someone (Gaben) finally got around to reading Ender's Game.
zerr 13y ago
Anyone noticed that related videos are very interesting? (About real pipelines).
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

Valve Pipeline

180 points by pizza 13y ago

hobs 13y ago

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

tfgg 13y 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 13y 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 13y 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.
  - fzzzy 13y ago
    It's totally possible to get a job in those areas without a degree.
    - redorb 13y ago
      Highschool can help grow you up a bit.. And it's expected you finish in today's society.. Please let's not encourage people to drop out and yes, let's encourage them to stay in.
    - hobs 13y ago
      Correct, but its harder and you need work experience typically. Which can be hard to get with no GED equivalent.
  - emddudley 13y ago
    Drop out of high school? Don't be stupid. You don't know nearly as much as you think you do.
  - snoman 13y ago
    Dropping out of high school, especially if you are interested in and want to work in computing, will be the worst mistake you ever make. Whatever is making school unbearable for you, fix that problem instead (or ask for help to fix it) of trying to get away from it.
6d0debc071 13y ago
Well, cool things are pretty much inherently outliers ^^;
codemonkeymike 13y 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 13y 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.

ChrisNorstrom 13y 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.

CaveTech 13y 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.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- jmgrosen 13y 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.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]

r00k 13y 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 13y ago

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

ecuzzillo 13y ago
It's hard to find high school girls who are really stoked about Valve. I suspect the video reflected that ratio.
TeMPOraL 13y ago
Why exactly? Serious question. Is there any reason for this except political correctness?
- Fomite 13y ago
  Because when people are considering aspirational activities, "People like me" doing those things helps a huge amount.

cromwellian 13y ago

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

6ren 13y 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...

jackmaney 13y ago
The Valve Employee Handbook was made public some time ago: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployeeHandbook.pdf http://media.steampowered.com/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployeeHa...
elq 13y ago
http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1074301/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1074301/Valve_Handbook_Low...

jackmaney 13y 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.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

eridius 13y 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 13y ago
Header image is hotlinked from wallpapersus.com.
- grinich 13y ago
  "This website was created entirely by teenagers..." -- Gabe (in the first 15 seconds)
- eridius 13y ago
  Not the texture. The logo (http://pipeline.valvesoftware.com/images/logo_final_gray.png http://pipeline.valvesoftware.com/images/logo_final_gray.png). The <div class="clearfix"> it's wrapped in ends up being 1x0 in Safari.
  - fredsted 13y ago
    Works fine here. I'm using Safari 6.1, though.
sublimit 13y 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 13y 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 13y ago

I wonder how many students will be funneled through DigiPen's summer workshop programs. (https://projectfun.digipen.edu/summer-workshops/workshops-grades-8-12/ 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 13y 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 13y 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.

ChrisAntaki 13y ago

I would so choose this over Auto Shop.

johnpowell 13y ago

Free labor.

dindresto 13y 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.

javert 13y ago
I didn't have any problems with it whatsoever. I think you're being too picky.
- dindresto 13y ago
  "I think you're being too picky." Oh well, screenshots following... https://www.dropbox.com/s/cfftfq8ubq4rn5q/Foto%2013.07.13%2010%2034%2028.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/cfftfq8ubq4rn5q/Foto%2013.07.13%20... https://www.dropbox.com/s/axsg6e27byqy1y6/Foto%2013.07.13%2010%2031%2003.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/axsg6e27byqy1y6/Foto%2013.07.13%20...
  - javert 13y ago
    You took those with your phone, right? Do you always browse with your phone, or did you specifically pull it out just to test the site? (It's OK if you did, just curious.) If you can explain it, I'd like to know why anybody ever browses on the phone unless you're literally travelling or on the toilet. I just don't get it. A tiny screen and no keyboard seems like a crappy way to experience the Internet when you could use a big screen, but everybody is saying it's the next thing. (Perhaps it is purely economic and I'm being a bit of a Marie Antoinette here?)
    - danbee 13y ago
      I browse websites often from my phone even when I've got a laptop 6 feet away from me. Usually when I'm on the sofa flicking through twitter or email etc... It really doesn't take much to at least make sure your website is accessible. If it doesn't work properly it's likely I'll give up and not even bother trying anywhere else.

javert 13y ago

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

zerr 13y ago

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

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]