Stolen Pixels #77: Go 4 Broke

How far would Valve go to perfect one of its games? You probably don't want to know.

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Am I the only one who feels guilt when listening to the developer commentary for Valve games? What they convey is that you are playing a product of supreme extravagance, and that they spared no effort or expense to bring the game into existence. In the commentaries, Valve employees relate aspects of their work, which involves obsessing over slight imperfections in the experience that would escape the notice of the vast majority of players. It's shocking to hear anecdotes about the days and weeks of development time they spend fussing around with minute details.

Same here, I'm always amazed by the little details they put into those commentaries that show that e.v.e.r.y.thing was planned and tested on.

I'm not saying Valve would build, populate, and subsequently bomb a city to rubble in order to make one of their games.

Yes. Yes, they would ;)

And I wouldn't be surprised if they developed a Zombie virus and infected some play testers to develop the enemy A.I

Valve just puts that extra bit of effort into their games

thenumberthirteen:
And I wouldn't be surprised if they developed a Zombie virus and infected some play testers to develop the enemy A.I

They would have, but Umbra Corp beat them to it ;).

Doug:

thenumberthirteen:
And I wouldn't be surprised if they developed a Zombie virus and infected some play testers to develop the enemy A.I

They would have, but Umbra Corp beat them to it ;).

Has anyone checked under the Valve building recently?

thenumberthirteen:

Doug:

thenumberthirteen:
And I wouldn't be surprised if they developed a Zombie virus and infected some play testers to develop the enemy A.I

They would have, but Umbra Corp beat them to it ;).

Has anyone checked under the Valve building recently?

Hush, thats where they 'found' the combine *cough-made-a-real-City-17-and-xen-teleporter-cough*

Damn, haven't checked out the commentaries

Doug:
*cough-made-a-real-City-17-and-xen-teleporter-cough*

That's an awful lot of dialogue for a single cough, no?

Yeah, how'd that "I spared no expenses" work for Jurassic Park...

Brotherofwill:
Damn, haven't checked out the commentaries

Doug:
*cough-made-a-real-City-17-and-xen-teleporter-cough*

That's an awful lot of dialogue for a single cough, no?

I practise alot.

The commentary on Portal is brilliant, really gives you an idea on how games are 'actually' made, especially 'Just look up'

The_root_of_all_evil:
The commentary on Portal is brilliant, really gives you an idea on how games are 'actually' made, especially 'Just look up'

Indeed, its always impressive to go over a game again with the commentary turned on to see what they have to say. Valve give you a real insight into their design and development processes, and it does explain why they take so very, very, very long to make anything ;).

oop! ouchies, the poor townspeople.

so wait was that the big thump i heard above my new lab two weeks ago.

(yes, I moved the lab. To Canada)

Lord_Ascendant:
oop! ouchies, the poor townspeople.

so wait was that the big thump i heard above my new lab two weeks ago.

(yes, I moved the lab. To Canada)

Nah, that was the delivery of explosing barrels, so Valve could gather data on ragdolling for the source engine. With 'volunteers'.

Doug:

Lord_Ascendant:
oop! ouchies, the poor townspeople.

so wait was that the big thump i heard above my new lab two weeks ago.

(yes, I moved the lab. To Canada)

Nah, that was the delivery of explosing barrels, so Valve could gather data on ragdolling for the source engine. With 'volunteers'.

i think they stole some of those barrels from me, i lost a few in transit. wait does 2,000 constitute a "few"

Lord_Ascendant:

Doug:

Lord_Ascendant:
oop! ouchies, the poor townspeople.

so wait was that the big thump i heard above my new lab two weeks ago.

(yes, I moved the lab. To Canada)

Nah, that was the delivery of explosing barrels, so Valve could gather data on ragdolling for the source engine. With 'volunteers'.

i think they stole some of those barrels from me, i lost a few in transit. wait does 2,000 constitute a "few"

For Valve, yes.

Brilliant, even better reading it again.

Ever since the lost coast thing valve started putting in the commentary. I don't remember it in HL-2, just HL-2 lost coast, but people liked the commentary for lost coast since it was just a tech demo, they wanted to do SOMETHING to make it more interesting.

Yeah. It'd be nice if they retroactively added developer commentary to HL2. But they've probably forgotten many of the necessary anecdotes by now.

(There were shockingly large sections of HL2:E2 that were commentary-free. It made me sad. I love the commentary, especially the bits where they reveal how much effort they put into something that you just completely don't notice, because it's so realistic.)