Tag Archives: Gabe Newell

Train2Game news: Valve announces Steam mobile beta release for iOS and Android

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Train2Game students will soon be able to use Steam via mobile phones, Valve has announced.

The Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead developer also announced that a closed beta will be available for iOS and Android devices.

The Steam mobile app will allow you to chat with Steam friends, browse community groups and user profiles, view screenshots and of course, will let you keep up to date with the latest Steam sales.

“The Steam app comes from many direct requests from our customers,” said Valve co-founder and President Gabe Newell, who as recently reported by The Train2Game Blog, offered some excellent advice to aspiring game developers.

“Seeing which of your friends are online and playing a game, sending quick messages, looking at screenshots for an upcoming game, or catching a sale – these are all features customers have requested.” he continued, before adding that mobile is having a huge impact on the games industry.

“Mobile is changing way people interact, play games and consume media, and the Steam app is part of our commitment to meet customer demands and expand the service functionality of Steam to make it richer and more accessible for everyone.” said Newell.

Train2Game students who wish to take part in the Steam mobile beta, should download the app for free from http://store.steampowered.com/mobile then use it to log into their Steam account.

Keep up to date with the latest news from Valve, here on The Train2Game Blog.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Steam going mobile? Will use the Steam via your smartphone?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: Gabe Newell offers advice to aspiring game developers

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Train2Game students will know Gabe Newell as one of the most respected  veteran developers in the industry.

The Valve founder has spoken to Develop Online as part of their New Year, New Job feature and offers advice to those looking to begin their path into the games industry as an independent developer. It’s a must read for Train2Game students looking to found their own businesses.

The man behind the Half-Life series says the most important thing for an independent game developer is to treat their customers fairly.

“Do not focus on anyone but your customers. Your reputation will follow you forever so always be fair to your customers, and certainly one thing you need to always remember is that your customers are not going to be fooled.” Newell told Develop.

“Some people think they can get away with something and just hope people won’t see it through the bullshit. The internet is way smarter than any of us.”

“In terms of business, do not take out huge advances to fund projects, because they are only loans, and have strings attached.” he added.

Train2Game students have received advice about getting into the industry from Valve before, as part of to The Train2Game Blog interview with Chet Faliszek. The game writer told us that modding is “a really good way” to get noticed in the industry.

“It’s a really good way for someone to get noticed because it shows that you’re able” he told The Train2Game Blog.

“Normally modders have to work as a team and that’s important, and they also have to be able to finish something and that’s really important. So those two things together are a really good way to demonstrate that you’re ready to work in the industry.”

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Gabe Newell’s advice? Will you be taking it on board?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Develop Online]

Train2Game news: Team Fortress 2 community makes $2m from created items

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Train2Game blog readers will have previously read that since the introduction item store to Team Fortress 2, community item creators have been earning money for their work.

Now a year on since the Mann. Co store was introduced, Valve has revealed that community item creators have collectively earned over $2 million from selling the items in the virtual store.

They’ve also introduced an update called ‘Steam Workshop’ that’ll make it easier for community item creators to test, share and get feedback on their weapons, hats and items.

“The ‘Mann Co. Store’ represents an important new direction for games and game makers,” said Valve co-founder and president Gabe Newell.

“By leveraging and extending the platform features of Steam, Team Fortress 2 has enabled a viable marketplace for independent content creators and significantly extended the gameplay experience in an incredibly short amount of time.”

Of course, this being Team Fortress 2, the Manniversary Update also sees the introduction of plenty of new hats. Train2Game students can find out about the modelling process behind Team Fortress 2 hats here on the Train2Game blog.

Team Fortress 2’s community tools could potentially allow Train2Game students to submit items to the game, make money and earn a reputation from their creation.

Valve have a reputation of being supportive of their community, and activity encourage modding using the Source SDK.

And in an interview with the Train2Game blog last month, Valve’s Chet Faliszek told us that modding is a really good way to get into the games industry.

“It’s a really good way for someone to get noticed because it shows that you’re able” he said.

“Normally modders have to work as a team and that’s important, and they also have to be able to finish something and that’s really important. So those two things together are a really good way to demonstrate that you’re ready to work in the industry.”

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the Mann Co. Store? Is it a good way for game developers to get noticed?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Gamasutra]

Train2Game news: Gabe Newell – Apple will make consoles ‘disappear’

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Train2Game students will be well aware of the impact Apple has had on the games industry, but they won’t stop with mobiles, they’ll make a move for the home console market too.

That’s according to Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, who made the comments to The Seattle Times.

“I suspect Apple will launch a living-room product that redefines people’s expectations really strongly and the notion of a separate console platform will disappear,” he said.

Newell’s comments echo those of owner of cloud gaming service Gaikai Dave Perry, who as previously reported by the Train2Game blog, believes the main threat to traditional consoles is actually Apple.

Newell however was critical of Apple, and other gaming platforms, accusing them of being too closed and stifling innovation.

I’m worried that the things that traditionally have been the source of a lot of innovation are going,” he said.

“There’s going to be an attempt to close those off so somebody will say, ‘I’m tired of competing with Google, I’m tired of competing with Facebook, I’ll apply a console model and exclude the competitors I don’t like from my world.’

“I consider Apple to be very closed,” Newell added

“Let’s say you have a book business and you are charging 5 to 7 percent gross margins. You can’t exist in an Apple world because they want 30 percent and they don’t care that you only have 7 percent to play with.” he said.

Valve are currently working on CS:GO, and you can find out more about its development in an interview with writer Chet Faliszek here on the Train2Game blog.

So Train2Game, is Apple a threat to consoles? And what do you make of Newell’s comments about closed systems?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Seattle Times via Industry Gamers]

Valve finished with episodic gaming

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Valve logo

Any Train2Game students still expecting there to be a Half Life 2: Episode 3 may about to be disappointed, as Valve CEO Gabe Newell has said the developer is done with its episodic gaming experiment.

“We went through the episodes phase, and now we’re going towards shorter and even shorter cycles,” Newll told games industry magazine Develop. “For me, ‘entertainment as a service’ is a clear distillation of the episodic content model.”

The Valve CEO cited Team Fortress 2 as a successful example of a new model for game development. The multiplayer shooter released in 2007 has received over 200 free updates, some of which have introduced new items developed by fans. (Train2Game students take note!)

“If you look at Team Fortress 2, that’s what we now think is the best model for what we’ve been doing,” Newell said.

“Our updates and release model on [Team Fortress 2] keeps on getting shorter and shorter

Newell suggests that the development cycle for Portal 2 could evolve into a similar sustem.

“Portal 2? We’ll have to see how much our customers want us to push in that direction,” said the Valve CEO.  “In general, our approach is to come into work and ask ‘what can we do for our customers today’?”

As reported by the Train2Game blog, Valve has hailed Portal 2 as its best single player game.

Train2Game blog readers can find out much, much more about Valve and their approach to game development in an extensive feature on Develop Online.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Valve giving up on episodic games? Does episodic content have a future? Or is a constantly rolling method of game development a la Team Fortress 2 the way forward?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Develop Online]

Valve offer free game after ban blunder

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Nothing says "I'm sorry" like zombies.

Well that’s certainly one way to apologise. Valve has offered not one, but two, copies of Left 4 Dead 2 to the 12,000 players that were accidently banned from playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 via Steam.

Poor, innocent gamers found themselves banned from online servers and the internet was flooded with forum posts pleading for help. Alas, Valve support staff could only tell these poor gamers that they were unable to help. It looked like many wouldn’t be able to play Modern Warfare 2 on PC anymore.

However, each of these players can now get back to shooting each other again, and have the option to pick up two free copies of Left 4 Dead 2. So, now they can shoot zombies too.   Players affected by the ban received an e-mail from Valve CEO Gabe Newell which said:

“Recently, your Steam account was erroneously banned from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

This was our mistake, and I apologize for any frustration or angst it may have caused you.

The problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version. This was caused by a combination of conditions occurring while Steam was updating the disk image of a game. This wasn’t a game-specific mistake. Steam allows us to manage and reverse these erroneous bans (about 12,000 erroneous bans over two weeks).

We have reversed the ban, restoring your access to the game. In addition, we have given you a free copy of Left 4 Dead 2 to give as a gift on Steam, plus a free copy for yourself if you didn’t already own the game.”

Well isn’t that nice?  It’s not often you see a Games Developer Apologise for their mistakes? Do Train2Game students think that other developers – we won’t name specific examples of course – could learn a thing or two from Valve? And have you ever thought about what you’d do if there was a mistake in one of your games?

As usual, leave your thoughts here or on the Train2Game forums.

Sony E3 Press Conference – The key announcements

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Like  Microsoft’s presentation before it, Sony’s press conference not only saw key titles get release dates, but also full details on their own motion controller – the PlayStation Move.

In surprising – but welcome on this side of the Atlantic – twist, the PlayStation Move will be available in Europe on September 15th this year, four days before it’s released in the United States. The motion controller and PlayStation eye will be available in a bundle for €59.99 – a price in pounds sterling is yet to be revealed, but it’ll be much lower in cost than Microsoft’s Kinect.

Speaking at the E3 press conference, Sony President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America Jack Tretton, added that 40 developers are currently working on Move titles. Hopefully some of these will be innovative games, and the type that Train2Game students – be they a Games Designer, Games Developer, or Games Artist & Animator – would be proud to work on.

In non-Move related news, several of the PlayStation 3’s flag ship titles we’re given release dates including the long awaited – and long delayed lest we forget! – Gran Turismo 5. The racer will be available in the USA from Novemer 2nd with a trailer revealing the Top Gear test track as one of the circuits. Jack Tretton also revealed that the game will be fully 3D compatible.

In other PlayStation 3 games news, Killzone 3 will be released in February 2011 – slightly earlier than thought, while it was announced there will be PS3 exclusive content for Assassin’s Creed’s Brotherhood, Medal of Honour and Dead Space 2. There were also new details about the much anticipated Little Big Planet 2.

However, perhaps the biggest surprise of the show so far, was that Valve’s Gabe Newell himself appeared on stage to announce that Portal 2 will be coming to the PlayStation 3. It’ll be connected to Valve’s powerful Steamworks service with the PlayStation 3 being the only system doing so. It represents a huge turnaround for Gabe Newell – previously one of Sony’s consoles biggest critics. While on stage he joked “I’d like to thank everyone at Sony for their hospitality and not repeatedly punching me in the face.”

So, that’s a quick round up of Sony’s E3 Press Conference? Are you impressed? If so what are you looking forward to? As usual, leave your comments here or on the Train2Game forum.