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Portal 2 project lead Josh Weier says Newell didn't want to impose his ideas on designers, but being one of them wasn't an option.
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Gabe Newell remains the CEO of Valve, but it's no secret that he stepped back from actively running the company some time ago: he says himself he's been "retired for a long time." Newell now divides his days between various other pursuits, including Starfish Neuroscience, a company he co-founded that focuses on neural interfaces, and Inkfish, a marine research operation. As well as buying $500 million superyachts.
I've always been a little fuzzy about exactly when Newell stepped back from the game design side of things, not least because Valve itself often credits staff equally, though he was clearly intimately involved in the design of Half-Life and its sequel, as well as spearheading the company's acquisition of fan-made properties like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress. But an interview with Portal 2 project lead Josh Weier by Kiwi Talkz, recently resurfaced by PCG sister site GR+, gives a rough idea of the timeline for Newell moving away from being hands-on with development: and the main reason why.
"If you haven't met him, Gabe is a very imposing guy," says Weier. "He's literally just a tall dude, and also his mannerisms can be imposing. So when I'm like 20 on [Half-Life 2] and he's taking me out for lunch, giving me game ideas, I'm like [mimes eating and looking at the ground] 'Yes Mr Newell!'"
Weier laughs: "Head down freaking out! And I think over time Gabe realised 'oh OK, I should let the game teams do what I pay them for' and he would stop in and give us feedback. I think his things were, he was worried about… we redesigned GLaDOS for Portal 2, because she was going to have a bigger role and felt like the old model wasn't going to quite give us what we needed. He was very adamant about us giving GLaDOS a face and we were 'ah don't really think so, we're gonna go a different direction.'
"So we kind of went back-and-forth with him a bit, and then after a while he was like 'alright, you guys got it, I'm just gonna leave you to it.' And he would check in with me personally to say 'how you doing, are you stressed, how's l...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
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Gabe Newell remains the CEO of Valve, but it's no secret that he stepped back from actively running the company some time ago: he says himself he's been "retired for a long time." Newell now divides his days between various other pursuits, including Starfish Neuroscience, a company he co-founded that focuses on neural interfaces, and Inkfish, a marine research operation. As well as buying $500 million superyachts.
I've always been a little fuzzy about exactly when Newell stepped back from the game design side of things, not least because Valve itself often credits staff equally, though he was clearly intimately involved in the design of Half-Life and its sequel, as well as spearheading the company's acquisition of fan-made properties like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress. But an interview with Portal 2 project lead Josh Weier by Kiwi Talkz, recently resurfaced by PCG sister site GR+, gives a rough idea of the timeline for Newell moving away from being hands-on with development: and the main reason why.
"If you haven't met him, Gabe is a very imposing guy," says Weier. "He's literally just a tall dude, and also his mannerisms can be imposing. So when I'm like 20 on [Half-Life 2] and he's taking me out for lunch, giving me game ideas, I'm like [mimes eating and looking at the ground] 'Yes Mr Newell!'"
Weier laughs: "Head down freaking out! And I think over time Gabe realised 'oh OK, I should let the game teams do what I pay them for' and he would stop in and give us feedback. I think his things were, he was worried about… we redesigned GLaDOS for Portal 2, because she was going to have a bigger role and felt like the old model wasn't going to quite give us what we needed. He was very adamant about us giving GLaDOS a face and we were 'ah don't really think so, we're gonna go a different direction.'
"So we kind of went back-and-forth with him a bit, and then after a while he was like 'alright, you guys got it, I'm just gonna leave you to it.' And he would check in with me personally to say 'how you doing, are you stressed, how's l...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
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