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[ashecitism]

update:

apparently its confirmed now https://www.pcgamesn.com/kerbal-space-program/valve-hire-kerbal-space-program-team

” Lundeen tells me. “I guess some members of that team are now at Valve, how many I don't know. I imagine KSP remains the IP and property of Squad, in Mexico City. So the devs, not a mod-team.”

We also emailed Valve for comment, and a representative responded confirming the hire. “Yes, they joined a little while ago and we will have more news about what they are doing soon,” explains the Valve spokesperson.

Lets hope the expansion is not cancelled

Update2: Statement by Squad: http://www.pcgamer.com/kerbal-space...-says-its-still-independent-and-hard-at-work/

"There was news today that former KSP developers have joined Valve. We want to clarify that Squad is not joining Valve, and we continue to be an independent studio with the core KSP team remaining at Squad, hard at work on the improved KSP for consoles port, Update 1.3 and the Making History Expansion. The KSP community shouldn't be concerned about this news having any impact on the game," the studio said.

"Regarding the developers joining Valve, it is important to note that we have had several people working on our team over the years, and it is common among development studios for team members to come and go. If some of them joined Valve, it is on their own behalf and we wish them good luck and success in their current and future endeavors. So do not worry, everything continues normally with KSP."

In an email, Squad clarified that no current KSP developers had left the studio to move to Valve. "These people departed Squad prior to joining Valve," a rep said. "We do not know who they are exactly or how many there are, either."

---

Valve Time posted this on twitter: https://twitter.com/ValveTime/status/865916954825162753

https://soundcloud.com/gamedevunchained/0086-a-architect-at-valve-with-roger-lungdeen

An interview with former Valve dev Roger Lundeen who's currently at Turtle Rock. It's at 20 mins. Before they talk about how Valve has hired modders throughout their career and he says they're still doing it. He says they didn't buy the mod, but gave the entire team jobs, but not sure how many joined. He mistakenly calls it Kerbal Space Station and also a mod, but it should be them since he says they're from Mexico and Squad is located there. Unless there's indeed a mod called Kerbal Space Station with team based in Mexico. But I searched and didn't find anything like that.

 

[AntraxSuicide]

Good for those devs.

Maybe someone should make a Customer Service simulator and get their attention.

 

[Sad Affleck]

Hired them to do what?

 

[Kade]

Hired them to do what?

CS:GO skins.

 

[AcademicSaucer]

Hired them to do what?

Hats

 

[Abilidebob]

Valve Time posted this on twitter: https://twitter.com/ValveTime/status/865916954825162753

https://soundcloud.com/gamedevunchained/0086-a-architect-at-valve-with-roger-lungdeen

An interview with former Valve dev Roger Lundeen who's currently at Turtle Rock. It's at 20 mins. Before they talk about how Valve has hired modders throughout their career and he says they're still doing it. He says they didn't buy the mod, but gave the entire team jobs, but not sure how many joined. He mistakenly calls it Kerbal Space Station and also a mod, but it should be them since he says they're from Mexico and Squad is located there. Unless there's indeed a mod called Kerbal Space Station with team based in Mexico. But I searched and didn't find anything like that.

Wait, WANTED to hire, or hired?

 

[Wonder Peter]

Isn't the title misleading? According to your source they really hired them.

 

[Drencrom]

Hired them to do what?

Have them hang around and waste their talent by not working on video games until they leave out of boredom like the HL writers.

 

[Corpekata]

Have them hang around and waste their talent by not working on video games until they leave out of boredom like the HL writers.

Would probably be an upgrade over Squad's notoriously shitty conditions.

 

[Brashnir]

Hired them to do what?

hats.

 

[ashecitism]

Wait, WANTED to hire, or hired?

Isn't the title misleading? According to your source they really hired them.

Well, he says they offered them jobs, but he's not sure how many joined. Maybe a couple joined, maybe all. But then I sure they would have given an update to the fans considering Kerbal is still active. Hell, an expansion was announced recently. So I doubt all of them joined.

 

[More_Badass]

Interesting. This is how Portal and Portal 2 happened; Valve brought on the Digipen teams that did Narbacular Drop and Tag: The Power of Paint

 

[Aselith]

Good for those devs.

Maybe someone should make a Customer Service simulator and get their attention.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/262900/Smooth_Operators/

 

[Slayven]

Would explain why Kerbal hasn't been updated since Dec. But wasn't the team treated like shit by the company?

 

[RedShift]

Even Valves weird structure sounds better than how Squad treated the team.

Would love to see these guys make another game, and Valve thinking about a really making games would be great.

 

[Data West]

I'd rather see them at like Paradox or something

somewhere that would lead to us seeing the results of their talent

 

[Wonder Peter]

Would explain why Kerbal hasn't been updated since Dec. But wasn't the team treated like shit by the company?

Were they?

 

[LelouchZero]

Wow they hired them? Wow that's cool!

 

[JaseC]

Were they?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1215499

 

[Yohane]

I would have sell out

 

[Abilidebob]

Well, he says they offered them jobs, but he's not sure how many joined. Maybe a couple joined, maybe all. But then I sure they would have given an update to the fans considering Kerbal is still active. Hell, an expansion was announced recently. So I doubt all of them joined.

Interesting. This is how Portal and Portal 2 happened; Valve brought on the Digipen teams that did Narbacular Drop and Tag: The Power of Paint

Simulation game about being Cave Johnson and inventing new, physics-based stuff?

 

[Gtagentleman]

 

[More_Badass]

Simulation game about being Cave Johnson and inventing new, physics-based stuff?

I could see Valve wanting to do a VR simulation game, leveraging the Kerbal team's talents

 

[Yukinari]

Hired them to do what?

Clearly make VR games for Vive users.

Cause you know making games for 0.5% of your steam userbase is worth the time and means Valve is not dead.

 

[Wonder Peter]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1215499

Wow, that's depressing...

Lol nice one

 

[TheRedSnifit]

Clearly make VR games for Vive users.

Cause you know making games for 0.5% of your steam userbase is worth the time and means Valve is not dead.

I see the goalpost moving has already begun.

How dare Valve take risks and try to move the industry forward?

 

[Fisty]

Clearly make VR games for Vive users.

Cause you know making games for 0.5% of your steam userbase is worth the time and means Valve is not dead.

Well at least they would actually be releasing games

 

[Mechazawa]

I hope they poached the grunts and not the underpaying dicks at the top.

 

[Corpekata]

I hope they poached the grunts and not the underpaying dicks at the top.

IIRC the people at the top aren't even in games really.

Squad started as a company that was I think family or friend owned and was in a lot of fields. Kerbal was just their first success, but they were like in marketing and one guy wanted to open his own record label.

 

[DoctorFling]

The hell with Valve, some devs actually like making games. leave 'em alone.

 

[serenewarfare]

I see the goalpost moving has already begun.

How dare Valve take risks and try to move the industry forward?

Can you really blame people for being upset about that though?

It'd be like if Naughty Dog came out and said "we're only making Playstation VR games right now".

No one wants to see studios that talented working on games with a barrier to entry like that.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

Can you really blame people for being upset about that though?

It'd be like if Naughty Dog came out and said "we're only making Playstation VR games right now".

No one wants to see studios that talented working on games with a barrier to entry like that.

A barrier to entry like buying a PS4?

Naughty Dog games are exclusive because they want to push their hardware. Valve's games are (likely) going to be exclusive because Valve wants to push their hardware.

 

[JaseC]

A barrier to entry like buying a PS4?

Naughty Dog games are exclusive because they want to push their hardware. Valve's games are (likely) going to be exclusive because Valve wants to push their hardware.

Valve is actually staunchly against arbitrary VR exclusivity. Quite literally the entire point of OpenVR/SteamVR is that it's a one-size-fits-all VR API that allows developers to easily target anything and everything that supports it. Take this decidedly budget setup, for example.

 

[Bluth54]

The hell with Valve, some devs actually like making games. leave 'em alone.

But Valve works on three of the most popular games on Steam, has multiple full VR games in development and are working on Source 2.

Or does all of that not count for some reason?

 

[SirPinkyNose]

Well the last time they hired outside developers they made Dota 2.
The time before that was Left 4 Dead 2.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

They probably wanted to actually develop games, so they turned Valve down

 

[lukeskymac]

Naughty Dog games are exclusive because they want to push their hardware.

Pretty sure it's because Sony owns them so they wouldn't have a choice even if they wanted to.

 

[Kayhan]

Our first indication of the direction they will take Half-Life 3 in?

 

[Abilidebob]

They probably wanted to actually develop games, so they turned Valve down

Or maybe they wanted to not be treated like garbage, and were hired.

 

[PuppetMaster]

Just hire the talented devs. The actual company is rubbish.

 

[Interfectum]

Hired them to do what?

Roll around their portable desks for 10-15 years.

 

[Durante]

Clearly make VR games for Vive users.

Cause you know making games for 0.5% of your steam userbase is worth the time and means Valve is not dead.

You sound upset.

But Valve works on three of the most popular games on Steam, has multiple full VR games in development and are working on Source 2.

Or does all of that not count for some reason?

Only flat single player games count.

These are things which don't count, and which only show that Valve is just procrastinating:

• New platform features no one else is offering
• Great free development tools
• Popular multiplayer games
• Hardware
• VR games

 

[Interfectum]

You sound upset.

Only flat single player games count.

These are things which don't count, and which only show that Valve is just procrastinating:

• New platform features no one else is offering
• Great free development tools
• Popular multiplayer games
• Hardware
• VR games

I dunno, we've seen a lot of talented devs seemingly do nothing at Valve for years and eventually jump jobs and/or retire. So I'm not sure people's skepticism is completely off base. Lots of gamers got into Valve for HL, Portal, L4D, etc... not Steam cards.

 

[TheRed]

They're space game is alive?!? I would love that. It was probably them wanting to make a full kerbal type game for VR. That would be cool too.

 

[andycapps]

Why? Do they need more people to process refunds?

New Valve us really disappointing to me. From some of the best games I've ever played to nothing.

 

[orava]

I dunno, we've seen a lot of talented devs seemingly do nothing at Valve for years and eventually jump jobs and/or retire. So I'm not sure people's skepticism is completely off base. Lots of gamers got into Valve for HL, Portal, L4D, etc... not Steam cards.

If those people just sit there, thumb up in their asses and can't think anything to do, they probably should not work at valve.

 

[Ketch]

They were gonna use them to develop more shady addictive gambling systems to put inside free to play games

 

[Durante]

I dunno, we've seen a lot of talented devs seemingly do nothing at Valve for years and eventually jump jobs and/or retire.

Sure, clearly the environment is not something that everyone can thrive in, I'd never claim that. You need an ability to intrinsically motivate yourself and self-manage, and not everyone likes that. And it probably also inherently discourages the type of incremental megaproject that is a traditional modern AAA game.

But this observation is often intermingled with some kind of "Valve (as a whole) is unproductive" claim, which, looking at all they create and maintain and contrasting that with their number of employees is just plain wrong.

 

[oneils]

Why? Do they need more people to process refunds?

New Valve us really disappointing to me. From some of the best games I've ever played to nothing.

Their store stats say that they process around 60,000 refund requests a day. It's crazy. No wonder devs aren't a fan.

 

[Arulan]

Only flat single player games count.

These are things which don't count, and which only show that Valve is just procrastinating:

• New platform features no one else is offering
• Great free development tools
• Popular multiplayer games
• Hardware
• VR games

The impression of Valve on this forum never ceases to amaze me. They're a significant positive contributor to the industry.

I understand the desire for more games from them, considering the quality of their previous work, but the hyperbole and shitposting is getting ridiculous.