about the valve team
Members of the Valve staff come from the states of Florida, Virginia, California, Washington, and New York, and the countries of Texas, England and Australia. They collectively define sunlight as "that which makes a computer monitor difficult to see" and free time as "when we get to play games instead of making them."
Gabe Newell - Founder/Managing DirectorGabe held a number of positions in the Systems, Applications, and Advanced Technology divisions during his 13 years at Microsoft. His responsibilities included running program management for the first two releases of Windows, starting the company's multimedia division, and, most recently, leading the company's efforts on the Information Highway PC. His most significant contribution to Half-Life was his statement "C'mon, people, you can't show the player a really big bomb and not let them blow it up."
Mike Harrington - Founder/Director of DevelopmentMike's development career began at Dynamix, where he worked on a variety of sports titles for GameStar/Activision. He spent the last nine years at Microsoft working as a developer or lead developer on OS/2, Windows NT and Microsoft Bob v1 and as a development manager on Microsoft Bob v2 and Microsoft News Viewer. Mike was pleased to learn that resistance is not, in fact, futile.
Ken Birdwell - Senior Software Development EngineerKen has contributed to a wide range of projects in the last 15 years. These include in-circuit emulators (CodeTap), 3D surface reconstruction (Surfgen), 3D prosthetics design tools (Shapemaker), and satellite networking (Microsoft's Broadcast PC). He also wrote one of the first graphical shells for multiplayer on-line games for Compuserve's Sniper. Oddly enough, Ken has a BFA from Evergreen State University, where he studied painting, photography, and animation. Ken has designed and implemented the animation system and many other engine components for Half-Life.
Monica Harrington - Business Development ManagerMonica has been in the software business for fourteen years, eleven of them at Microsoft, where she was most recently a senior marketing manager in the Interactive Media Group. At the time Mike and Gabe decided to start Valve, Monica had just taken a job as the group marketing manager for Microsoft's consumer software businesses, including games. She decided to change jobs so she could continue to pump Mike for inside information on Head Crabs, Big Momma, and Mr. Friendly. Monica's maiden name is Harrington. She claims Mike changed his name.
Harry Teasley - Game Designer/Level Designer/ArtistHarry came to Valve from Shiny Entertainment, where he was working on the upcoming game Wild 9's. Prior to Shiny, Harry was at Williams Entertainment where he was lead artist and designer for PlayStation Doom, and was lead designer for Doom64. Before Williams, Harry worked with Sid Meier at Microprose on Civilization as well as Pirates Gold, among other projects.
Chuck Jones - Illustrator/3D ArtistChuck joins Valve from Apogee/3D Realms where he was an artist and animator for Duke Nukem 3D, Rise of the Triad, Shadow Warrior and, most recently, the Duke Nukem Plutonium Pack. Formerly a tattoo artist, Chuck tagged Jerry Cantrell of rock group Alice In Chains long before he created the space aliens who invaded Los Angeles.
Ted Backman - Art Director/Conceptual Artist/Illustrator/AnimatorTed has been a freelance artist and animator in the Seattle area for the last four years. Ted developed many of the more unusual monsters for Half-Life, including the Head Crab, Mr. Friendly and Big Momma. He is also a black-belt karate instructor.
Gregg Coomer - Game Designer/Art DirectorGregg has worked on a variety of graphic design, multimedia, and web projects for Nintendo and Microsoft. Resident art-boy, he'll critique your shoes, interior decoration, and interface design, in that order. His secret dream is to create a game called 'Aksidenz Grotesk'. You know, for kids.
Kelly Bailey - Senior Software Development Engineer/MusicianKelly, formerly a product unit manager at Microsoft, has a programming background that includes consumer multimedia, database engines, and networking. He created all of the music and sound effects for Half-Life. He is also lead singer for a Seattle band, Lucy's Fishing Trip, and, therefore, shaves less than the rest of the staff.
Dario Casali - Level DesignerJoining Valve from England, Dario is a world-famous level designer. His work includes some of the most popular deathmatch levels on the Internet, as well as Final Doom, published by id Software.
Steve Bond - Game Designer/EngineerHaving made the great trek westward from Fort Walton Beach, Florida, Steve is responsible for much of Half-Life's sophisticated monster and entity behaviors, of which the squad-level AI is his favorite. Steve worked with John Guthrie on several projects that demonstrated the power and flexibility of the QuakeC development environment, which caught John Carmack's attention, who in turn referred him to us. Before that, Steve worked at a local Internet service provider and delivered pizza, a fact that we rarely let him forget, even in his corporate bio.
John Guthrie - Game and Level DesignerAlong with Steve Bond, John started the influential and popular Internet gaming site, Quake Command. John was also the co-creator of Quake Airplane and Quake Kart. Today, he occupies Valve's darkest office, where he is hard at work constructing the chambers and corridors of Half-Life's treacherous missile base and underground train system.
Brett Johnson - Level Designer/ComposerBrett's craftsmanship as a musician is matched only by his ability to create traps which snare, snag and frag unwary explorers in 3D environments. Valve lured Brett mid-way through his final year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a promising career in biochemistry. A hard-assed New Yorker, Brett continues to deny Seattle's claim to being the birthplace of espresso.
Karen Laur - Illustrator/Texture-Maker/Artist at LargeKaren has contributed to Starwave Corporation's Castle Infinty and Eastwood, and Activision's Zork Nemesis. She was the sole creator of Materia Prima, a texture collection published by the Valis Group, and was head designer for Maya Romanoff, a prestigious producer of hand-made wallpaper. Karen was also owner/operator of the Washington DC restaurant, Dante's.
Randy Lundeen - Level Designer/Graphic DesignerRandy comes to Valve by way of Microsoft, where he worked as an interface designer for the Internet Gaming Zone. Randy designs some of the most unusual and original levels in the company; he also is the most likely person to be pushing the polygon and memory limits of our engine. In his distant past, he was a key staff member at a potato processing plant (his responsibilities including peeling and potato quality oversite).
Dave Riller - Level DesignerPrior to joining Valve, Dave was an active developer in the on-line Quake community, and worked with id Software on the deployment of Quake World. For his day job, Dave was a program designer/analyst at MSI, a Windows software developer located on the East Coast. He also ran their website. Dave has been a beta tester for Doom 2, Hexen, Quake, and Warcraft II. In his virtually non-existent spare time, Dave is a pilot and musician.
Marc Laidlaw - Writer/Game DesignerMarc Laidlaw is the author of half a dozen strange novels, including Dad's Nuke and The 37th Mandala. While writing a cover-story about Quake for Wired Magazine, he determined that level designers had the coolest jobs on earth--although the fact that he'd been working as a legal secretary for 10 years might have warped his perceptions very slightly. In addition to building levels for upcoming projects, Marc will be working to ensure that Valve's stories and scripts are as intense and entertaining as all the other elements of its games. Oddly, he refuses to do anyone else's typing.
Jay Stelly - Senior Software Development EngineerJay recently joined Valve from Tetragon where he was lead engineer and 3D engine developer of Virgin's Nanotek Warrior. Before that, he developed titles for Sony Playstation & 3DO. Way before that, he wrote his first computer game (at age 9) and had a game published in a magazine (at age 15). A native of Cajun Country, Jay finds Northwest buildings too hot (what, no air conditioning?) and the food not hot enough.
Yatsze Mark - Artist/Texture IllustratorYatsze Mark (pronounced "Mark") came to Valve from San Diego where she was working at the Lightspan Partnership, doing background painting for traditional cel animation in educational games. Prior to Lightspan, she worked at Leland Interactive Media (later to become Midway Home Entertainment) after her graduation from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Her exceptional skill at painting is only exceeded by her questionable taste in husbands.
Douglas R. Wood - Animator/Modeler/2D ArtistDoug joins us from Apogee/3DRealms where he worked on projects such as Duke Nukem3d, Shadow Warrior, Prey (before everyone left) and the Plutonium/Atomic Edition for Duke. Before 3DRealms, he worked for Origin down in Austin. As far as we know, Doug is the only member of Valve who has ever been a Guardian Angel in New York City. Doug is responsible for many of Half-Life's scripted sequences, including tentacles that pull unsuspecting scientists through the ceiling.
Steve Theodore - Game Designer/AnimatorSteve Theodore comes to Valve from FASA Interactive in Chicago, where he made BattleMechs (tm) for FASA Interactive's MechCommander and the ill-fated MechWarrior III. He's probably the only animator you'll ever meet with a degree in Roman History and a reading knowledge of ancient Greek. Despite his professorial manner, Steve was a member of Chicago's famous art-rock trio, "The Chimps" and was feared and hated by his former landlady.
Yahn Bernier - Software Development EngineerYahn was an Atlanta patent lawyer with a degree in chemistry from Harvard. So obviously he ended up in Seattle developing computer games. He taught himself to program at the age of 12 and, more recently, developed what we at Valve have called "that other level editor," BSP. Now that he's getting paid to make games, he figures he'll practice law in his spare time (little does he know). Yahn is working on Half-Life's multiplayer code, and on Worldcraft 2.0. His favorite phrase, when imbibing too freely, is "Yucca will assimilate you."
Robin Walker - Game Designer/Development EngineerRobin co-wrote the popular Quake mod TeamFortress with John Cook and Ian Caughley, before being assimilated when Valve acquired TeamFortress Software. He's now hard at work on the TeamFortress2 design and game code, and has no time to answer email, so please don't send him any. Easily identified by the large inflatable kangaroo mounted on his monitor, Robin has no idea how to relax now that his hobby has become his job.
John Cook - Software Development EngineerFormerly of TeamFortress software, John is lead programmer on the TeamFortress2 project recently acquired by Valve. Before that, John studied computer science at RMIT in Australia. John is apparently still suffering jetlag from the move to Seattle, as he doesn't seem to be able to make it in to work until past noon.
Aaron Stackpole - Network / Systems AdministratorAaron magically appears whenever there are computer problems. With a background in game and level design, Aaron's status as a Microsoft Certified Professional with over eight years of computer software and network support experience makes him a valued ghost around the offices. His work for the Gunman TC has brought him acclaim in what he laughingly calls his spare time ... we're still trying to figure out why. Aaron also became the proud father of twin baby girls on September 14, 1998.
Mona Lisa Guthrie - Office ManagerMona comes to us by way of Florida. She spends her time pretending to work at the front desk, ICQ'ing the entire development staff, and forgetting to send faxes. She has a nice haircut, so we forgive her.