Valve -- Animator and Level Designer

[The Magic Pen]

Hire me and i'll be your bestest buddy and name my first born after you :love: :buttrock:

[Merkaba]

Man, it pains me to see this post when I'm just starting my University degree. I imagine that applicants should expect to relocate to America, and put one hell of a lot of time into the job - two things I can't do whilst I'm here at uni. DOH!

Maybe Valve isn't the place for me, anyway. :) Still, it'd be nice to know if I could even get the job.

[Sa74n]

sure you could merkaba :)

[Merkaba]

Thanks for the vote of confidence; assuming you didn't just say that for the hell of it. :D

[Christian West]

What university are you at Merkaba? Whats the name of the course you are studying?

I've just applied myself to do Computer Games Programming at a couple of universitys in the UK. Fingers crossed I'll get into one of them :)

[Merkaba]

I am studying 3D Digital Design at Greenwich University (in London). I'm beginning to have doubts about just how useful this course will be, but the alternative is me getting a full time job - and I don't want to do that just yet.

[Christian West]

That would mean you know Jenny Spencer :) Your course seems to be quite good, it covers lots of different areas:

"In the first year, students take courses in basic design, visual studies (including traditional and computer techniques), landscape and architectural history, media computing, media production and audio-visual applications. " - www.greenwich.ac.uk

Theres alot of programming mentioned in the course, considering the course is a BA course.


How many times do I have to say course in one post?

[Christian West]

If Valve are recruiting, does this mean we will actually see a NEW game from Valve?

/me falls off chair

shock shock, horror, horror!!!!

or are we going to see yet another dated Half-Life add-on?

[Merkaba]

It's been kinda a mixed bag of 'ooo's and 'eh's so far. I have 4 courses in the first semester:

- Cultural Context

This started off promising but has gone downhill very quickly since. Not very useful for 3D Dig Designers unless interested in the architectural side of things (and not even much then).

- Design and Communication

The most productive of all the courses. The first semester has been split up into 3 sub-courses. One teaches a bit about photoshop, one tells you to go visit art galleries, draw pictures, take notes, and the last (and longest) is Visual Studies which teaches Colour Theory, basic painting/drawing, etc. You'll generate a lot of work in this course, but consequently, you'll be given a lot too! (I have 6 projects to do over christmas for visual studies alone...erk! Not all require much work though.)

- Programming for Multimedia

Basic website skills, computer jargin explained, etc. Cakewalk.

- Multimedia Production

Basic Flash, InDesign, Photoshop, Director. Also a cakewalk. (For me, anyway, since I've used these programs before.)

All in all, Design & Communication is the only course which has really gotten me off my ass to do anything. I've had a few projects for the last two courses, but they were relatively simple. No doubt things will start to pick up from here onwards, as we'll be learning code in programming, and basically all the courses move up to the next 'notch'. We don't do any 3D design till next year.

Erm...sorry for dragging the thread off-topic :D

[satansmaster]

heh, i just survived the final year of Bsc computer science at Greenwich...

Fear the wrath of Greenwich Uni security guards ^_-

[CrabPirate]

For a protfolio, how much work would you like to see? If for say I give two maps, two screenshots, enough? I mean honestly one look at any of my work, and I'd be surprized if you didn't beg me to have your child let alone work for :p Well if you actually look at my application you'll realize what I mean, if any of you are non-believers, E-mail me, I'll show you a screenshot or two, and I dare you to not be amazed.

[vermilion]

I don't mean any disrespect to anyone with the following, but I'm registering just to address this.

A year ago, I'd have considered myself just about the perfect candidate for this job. I spent two years completing a Half-Life mod (published on a PC Gamer cover disc :p) and I feel I accomplished things with the HL character system most people would never have attempted - the mod even still has a mention on the Valve HL website. I have both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in digital design and work as an adjunct professor of design at the University of Cincinnati. I have taught 3DS Max, Maya and Cinema4D courses, character rigging+animation and recently an introduction to interactive game design using Shockwave3D. One day, I'd love to dedicated myself to a really ambitious gaming project.

But you know what? The most important thing to me is to share my work with others, to see people playing with and enjoying what I create. And I really have to wonder if Valve is the right place for anyone who feels as I do. What original work has any Valve animator had published in the last four years? Anything at all? It seems to me that Valve has done nothing but buy up mods and farm out expansion packs, and considering the apparent abandonment of TF2...

As I said, I mean no disrespect at all, but I just have to wonder. My mod team recently switched from HL to UT2003, because we just couldn't wait any longer. I loved Valve's inventiveness and community support, but we had to move on for our own work to grow - repeated emails asking for a reason (any reason!) to stay with Valve went curiously unanswered. I hope Valve has something amazing up their sleeve (HL2, of course) and I hope whomever they hire finds it the experience of a lifetime, but I'm going to have to see it before I believe Valve's actually making new games...

[vermilion]

Oh, and Merkaba - I've got to figure you'd have a pretty solid chance of getting hired on with Valve. NS kicks an whole lot of ass, that's excellent resume material :D

[Merkaba]

My biggest worry when considering what it'd be like working at Valve is that they are now a very large company. I'm not sure exactly on how the inner mechanisms work (although I'd be extremely interested to find out), but I feel I would be able to work much better within a small development team, where we can discuss ideas together and sit around in the same office doing our work.
Actually, I've thought about this and I think that would be the ideal working environment, i.e. something to work towards. There's plenty of time to do that. If I happen to get a job in the meantime or near future working as one of many mappers in a large dev team, then that's fine too; just so long as there's a capacity for me to use my own imagination. I don't want to be in a situation where I open up a brown envelope each week, take a look at a ton of ultra-detailed concept sketches which someone else has done for the level I've been told to do, and then simply convert the idea into 3D. I need freedom! I am an arteest!

Anyway, I'm sure it's not like that at Valve :) If I had to guess, I would think that some key members in Valve decide the overall path of the level design, with key points to be involved and things to consider, and perhaps a few rough sketches just to nudge the mappers in the right direction. Then, the lower-down mappers are given chunks of the workload and explained the basic idea. Perhaps then, the mappers contribute their own ideas and refinements to the plans given to them, maybe with concepts or a quickly designed area to test, and then when given the go-ahead from the men above, they get to it. They would also have to converse with fellow mappers to work out just how their levels would tie smoothly together, and if anyone comes up with an idea they think is worth considering (even if its just an easter egg in the level) then they send the suggestion to someone higher up (i.e. the lead level director) and wait for a reply.

Erm...yeah, that's just how I think it works :)

[vermilion]

Yeah, I agree with you completely. One of my old team members, Clem Samuel, left to take a full-time mapping job with Raven (he recently worked on SOF2, not sure what he's up to now). One of the things he lamented about working in a pro environment, even one as relatively small as Raven, was that he had a much smaller voice in the game design than he was used to with a mod team. He said things got better once he was really established on the team, but it's just not the same (and one of the reasons I've chosen to stay in the mod community than get a paying gig).

I think about a company like iD, and even though three guys control the whole show, it's such a small and dedicated development staff... I'd think that's go to be a great environment. On the other hand, when you look at a massive developer like EA and some of their extremely long-running franchises (Madden, etc), I think it could be frustrating for very creative/independent individuals who want more input into the development.

I don't know how Valve is on the inside, but it certainly seems they've gone from being a game devloper to corporate franchise managers (CS, HL obviously). Things like Steam and PowerPlay, heaven knows what else, and being under the thumb of Sierra/Vivendi... Who knows? :)

[Merkaba]

And there pops in another level of uncertainty - what game are they hiring level designers for? Will you be asked to do odd jobs? Or will you perhaps get the great chance to work on HL2? I'm not at home designing levels for any type of game. Some things suit me, some things don't. While I'm sure I could get by with realistic level design like Counter-Strike, I'm not really sure if I'd like to do that. My preferred design styles are futuristic, dark fantasy, or natural environments. I realise that this restricts my employment possibilities, but those are what I really enjoy doing. I don't want to design warehouses, government buildings, whatever. This is the point at which you gotta decide whether you want to sacrifice your own interests for experience and a job, or if you want to say No, I don't want to work on that.

My greatest fear is that I'll end up working in a company that produces generic console games. I want to work on something I can put my soul into.

[The Magic Pen]

It does not matter what you would be doing there because Valve is a AAA game company with huge succesful titles . You would larn more there in 1 month then you would in 4 years of art college so if your an inexpereinced artist then you would be lucky if they gave you the chance to pay them to work there :shame:

[Merkaba]

Well, Valve have only actually created ONE title - Half-Life. But I'm not nitpicking, I still think they're a great company.

Anyway, yes, Valve are a quality company who no doubt run a highly professional show. However, just because they are good at what they do, that doesn't neccesarily mean that by working there you will turn into an uber-god of artistic skills within one year. They aren't there to train you as an artist - they expect you to be able to do that already. However, you would probably pick up many skills relevent to working as part of a team, and other skills which are suited to the development of computer games. Sure, you would also pick up many tips from other workers regarding the actual level design, art direction, stuff like that - but to be able to use this information well would require a foundation knowledge of art and design, best obtainable through college.

When it comes to computers, college doesn't so much teach you what you need to know, but teaches you how best to learn what you need to know. A computing related dimploma (e.g. 3D Digital Design) simply says that you are able to adapt and work with whatever's given to you. It says that you have the ability to learn. Without the key skills college teaches you, you would probably have a much harder time using what information you recieve effectively. It's also with understanding of the foundations of design that you can confidently decide and invent new designs.

Am I talking utter crap now? I get the feeling I might be. I'm going to bed. (7am)

[Christian West]

I'd have to agree with you.

And there pops in another level of uncertainty - what game are they hiring level designers for? Will you be asked to do odd jobs? Or will you perhaps get the great chance to work on HL2?

Thats exactly it, although I have alot of respect for Valve and what they have done in the past, and I thank them for supporting the mod community (although I probably would have got better grades in my last exams if it weren't for the SDK :)) I'm just starting to loose abit of faith in them. We haven't seen a new title from them in over 4 years. Okay we have seen up-dates to a game that a classis it may be, but now clearly dated.

Maybe Valve will be sitting there reading comments like mine all over the place and just laughing at us, waiting to release details of a new game that is so fantastic and revolutionary they are keeping it under wraps for as long as possible. :drool:

Maybe not, maybe Valve are a one hit wonder. Mind you, I'm willing to wait for a NEW release from them.

[TheDoenerKing]

Sure, would be nice to work for Valve, but it would be realy difficult for me, because I am not living in USA. I am from Germany, Berlin and to relocate at this moment i dont know if this is such a good idea. It would be great earn money for thinks which you realy like to do ;D Why not trying it, i know some people which worked for Gearbox from home and made some Levels for CS:CZ or JB: Nightfire.

[Merkaba]

*wakes up*

Yeah, like Narby. (creator of de_aztec, etc) I'd love to have a level design job for which I can work from home, but I wouldn't want one like that for the rest of my life. I want to experience what it's like to work on a game with my co-workers whilst we're all in the same office - that's gotta be so much cooler (and easier!).

[Krunch]

sounds like a job for Goon! http://www.adinclark.com go bro! show em your stuff and good luck you deserve it!:bounce:

[Olbricht]

Hey,

Heard Valve was looking for help with mapping, I have been making maps for two years, I currently make maps for The Specialists, Day of Defeat and Half-Life. I would be interested in working with Valve and helping out.

Olbricht

[Merkaba]

Don't bother posting here. Do what the guy says and send in your resume/links to pictures/downloadable maps to the e-mail address in his post. Don't send attached files. Also talk a bit about your level design history and what it is you enjoy about level design, why you want to work at Valve, etc.

[Christian West]

I mentioned earlier in this topic that i had applied to study computer games programming and a number of subjects that are very close to this.

I have just been accepted on to a couple of courses with unconditional offers to study the subject at a couple of universitys in the UK, yay! :)

I've been drinking so i'm not sure if that makes sense, but ah well, i'm very happy :)

[Merkaba]

Hurrah! Nice one : )

[Christian West]

cheers mate, I can not wait to start learning (i'n currently on a gap year, but all i've done so far is work. I've done no traveling) All i can think about is learning again! I CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK INTO EDUCATION!

Only 9 months to go!

[3D_Mike]

Unless it can be donw from Home , count me out

Mike, the homefly mapp0r

[AngelX]

:bounce: LMAO I really really like to get the job, but the problem you see that ,i got better 1 =)

[manah]

Better than working for Valve ... hmmm. A job in Willy Wonkers chocolate factory perhaps?

[James the slim]

Hey Miles...


I just sent out a demo package today....
Let me know if you don't recieve it.

Thanks,
James

[JonM]

Worth a try:

www.jonmdesign.net

[3D_Mike]

Good luck jonM ;)

[Cayle George]

Hey Miles :) Sent you a demo packet, should be there by noon on dec 31. Hope to hear from you soon.

[Sinistar83]

Hey does anyone know if they are still hiring or the the position(s) have been filled yet?

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