Valve: The Unicorn game developer

 Shooting stars are more regular

If we were to look at pure numbers, cold and calculating people that we are, then it would be pretty obvious to one and all that Valve, the big boys themselves, are perhaps one of the biggest game companies on the planet for how many people flock to their platform on a daily basis. They're like the solitary sparkling Oasis in the sandy dunes, set in a excruciatingly delicate garden half-weeded to eye-watering perfection, and half totally left to the brambles, weeds and asset-flip dandelions. (I hate Dandelions.) But for all their fame and size, Valve make precious little effort to really assert their position in the games industry to, you know, actually make games. In fact, Valve are pretty much content to let their library ride whilst they get rich off the backs of every other two-bit developer in the world that come scrabbling up to their doors in order to peddle some vial of snake oil. 

And this isn't because Valve themselves are solely a platform-delivery company. Sure, that's what their company has largely pivoted to after decades of supporting Steam, (I can officially say 'Decades' now, it launched on September 13th.) but their company used to make games. In fact, they used to make the best games. Titles that totally rewrote what the industry was working with at the time, the way they utilised new technology in order to craft ever-green works of art has laid the foundations of inspiration for hordes of indie to mid-level studios since. Valve is a company that never lost sight of the 'game' at the start of all gaming, and that ended up making them absolute legends in the industry, which they then utilised to make all the money in the world. At this point I honestly wonder if Steam technically has more purchasing power than even the anarchic cold terror of from the sightless seas- Embracer Group, only perhaps Valve covet the sense not to waste their funds and pointless frivolities swooping up game studios like their trying to complete a Game Dev Pokedex.

So we know how this story goes, don't we? Scrappy studio with a heart of gold struggles and pushes their way to the top of the pack through years of iteration. The devs pat themselves on the back for finally reaching the height of the swing, and then as dissatisfaction with the size of the family starts gnawing at their pride, that dream team starts drifting off into smaller indie companies- addicted to the fight for the top. Management and founders stay with what they built and try to instil the same passions and hungry exuberance from all the sparkly-eyed new developers who signed up in reverence, only to find that the well-fed mouse to lack the same 'do or die' risk-taking drive of the rats fighting for food scraps. And so the unique little spark of creativity fades into a meek settling pattern, and a company once brimming with identity and purpose becomes chained in the prison of trying to match their faded selves. That's what happened to Valve, right?

Oh wait, no. It really seems that Valve just don't want to make games. Because when they are roused from their slumber across their dragon's hoard of market dominance by the shiny new treasure, the burgeoning world of VR, Valve waste no time in getting to work showing the world how it's done. When everybody was using VR to make quaint little experience pieces or port normally non-VR games into a VR format- (which has generally been the only solid type of VR game out there) the team at Valve came back together to blow everyone away with 'Half Life: Alyx'- the undisputed king of VR that made full use of the format, rode the very cusp of the technological wave and set an example that subsequent VR games are still trying to match today! They've still got it. When they want to.

This whole topic came to mind this morning when I woke up to the truly startling news that there was going to be a prequel chapter to Portal 2 releasing in the new year. "What a gift!" I thought, "A franchise some twelve years dormant finally getting what it deserves with some love from it's parent! Who could wish for a better way to wake up!" And I, like many others, love the crisp and meticulous puzzler wrapped in the officious style of an explorative mystery game, but without losing itself to metatextual philosophy like so many of the games it would go on to inspire often do. "No offence 'Turing Test' but you seriously diminish replayability rambling on like that." Of course, I was a rube like so many others, Portal 2 is not getting a prequel from Valve and is, in fact, still in process of gathering dust in their vault, right next to Disney's.

As you've likely guessed, this is a fans work to bring more life to the classic genre definer, and in that respect it is impressive in it's own right- but it's no Valve update. Valve actually stepping up to work on their evergreen properties is like spotting a Shiny Legendary Pokemon in a Master Ball with Perfect IVs- naturally spawned. That's what makes them Unicorn developers in my mind, you just never get the chance to see them work more than once a decade, and certain franchise lovers never get to see a follow-up. But then they aren't happy letting things lie, either. They want the mythos of their being to grow hit from longing. Why else would 'Half-Life: Alyx' contribute almost nothing to the overall narrative of 'Half Life' for all of it's runtime until the very last moment of pulling some momentous retcon that set fans ablaze. They feed the cryptid legend, keep people believing in the tooth fairy.

Now one theory I have of this; is that they are a victim of their own reputation. At this point it just really isn't possible for Valve to come out and make a straight sequel to a game like any other developer might. They came from an age of innovation constantly throughout game development, and they just happened to be equipped with a team of some of the most adventurous programmers to take advantage of that explorative developing age. Modern game dev-ing has already pushed all the limits, taking technology and manpower and funding to the very tips of possibility, and technological innovation is sparse. If Valve want to maintain their reputation, as needle pushers, they have to become so much more discerning about when they surface and which needles they want to tip. Hence the mysterious aura of the Unicorn.

So I guess that means one can both never be too sure when we'll ever seen another glimpse of their development talents, and also can't be entirely certainly they'll ever actually see them again with how the world of development stays stubbornly static with only brief stabs of excitement. Maybe once AI development becomes more robust we'll get a Portal 2.5 to warm us on cold nights, but until then we'll have to be our own friends. Of course, this does make Valve probably the worst narrative-based developers of all time- because they care more about all the details around a story rather than the story itself, but it sure does make them unendingly respected in an industry rife with old heroes living long enough to see themselves become the villains. So I guess that's worked out for the team at the very least, huh.