Valve Publications
Valve engineers and artists regularly contribute to industry and academic conferences, covering topics from the high level goals of our cabal development process to the inner workings of cutting-edge rendering algorithms.
All linked papers and slides below are in
Adobe Acrobat format.
2008
Jason Mitchell, "Connecting Visuals to Gameplay at Valve," Montreal International Game Summit, 18 November 2008. Slides Moby Francke and Randy Lundeen, "How Valve Connects Art Direction to Gameplay," Microsoft GameFest, July 2008. Slides Kim Swift and Erik Wolpaw, "Integrating Narrative and Design: A Portal Post-Mortem," Game Developer's Conference, February 2008. Slides Jason Mitchell, "Stylization With a Purpose: The Illustrative World of Team Fortress 2," Game Developer's Conference, February 2008. Slides Elan Ruskin, "How To Go From PC to Cross Platform Development Without Killing Your Studio," Game Developer's Conference, February 2008. Slides Alex Vlachos, "Post Processing in The Orange Box," Game Developer's Conference, February 2008. Slides 2007
Jason Mitchell, Moby Francke and Dhabih Eng, "Illustrative Rendering in Team Fortress 2," International Symposium on Non-Photorealistic Animation and Rendering, 2007. Paper Movie Slides Chris Green, "Improved Alpha-Tested Magnification for Vector Textures and Special Effects," SIGGRAPH Course on Advanced Real-Time Rendering in 3D Graphics and Games, 2007. Notes Chris Green, "Efficient Self-Shadowed Radiosity Normal Mapping," SIGGRAPH Course on Advanced Real-Time Rendering in 3D Graphics and Games, 2007. Notes Tom Leonard, "Dragged Kicking and Screaming: Source Multicore," Game Developer's Conference, March 2007. Slides 2006
Jason Mitchell, Gary McTaggart and Chris Green,"Shading in Valve’s Source Engine," SIGGRAPH Course on Advanced Real-Time Rendering in 3D Graphics and Games, 2006. Notes Slides Gary McTaggart, "HDR in Valve’s Source Engine," SIGGRAPH Course on High-Dynamic-Range Imaging: Theory and Applications, 2006. Slides David Speyrer and Brian Jacobson, "Valve’s Design Process for Creating Half-Life 2" Game Developer's Conference, March 2006. Slides Jay Stelly "Physical Gameplay in Half-Life 2," Game Developer's Conference, March 2006. Slides 2005
Brian Jacobson, "Sound Practices of Games Business and Design," Australian Game Developer's Conference, 2005. Slides 2004
Gary McTaggart, "Half-Life 2 / Valve Source Shading," Direct3D Tutorial Day, Game Developer's Conference, March 2004. Slides 1999
Ken Birdwell, "The Cabal: Valve’s Design Process For Creating Half-Life," Game Developer Magazine, Dec 1999.