`Valve Corporation`

5.0 4 reviews

www.valvesoftware.com Bellevue, WA 150 to 499 Employees

Work in HR? Complete Your Profile

Write a Review

Be The First To
Add Photos

Founded Unknown

Type Company - Private

Industry Computer Software

Competitors GameStop, Electronic Arts, GameFly

Valve Corporation keeps gamers moving full Steam ahead. Along with creating video games for consoles and portable devices from Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony, as well as for the PC, Valve also runs the industry-leading online game distribution, management, and social platform Steam. Popular Valve titles such as Half-Life, Portal, and Left 4 Dead are available on Steam, as well as games from publishers such as Electronic Arts and Ubisoft. Valve also licenses its Source game engine to game developers and others, and it provides gaming content to a network of cybercafes in...More

`Valve Corporation` – Why Work For Us? Provided by employer [?]

About Us |
Work at Valve |
Publications

Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 and based in Bellevue, Washington. The company’s debut title, Half-Life®, has won over 50 Game of the Year Awards and was named "Best PC Game Ever" in the November 1999, October 2001, and April 2005 issues of PC Gamer, the world's best-selling PC games magazine.

Valve's portfolio of entertainment titles also includes Half-Life® 2, Counter-Strike®, Day of Defeat®, Team Fortress®, and Portal™. This portfolio of titles accounts for over 20 million retail units sold worldwide, and Valve games account for over 80% of the PC online action market.

In addition to producing best selling entertainment titles, Valve is a developer of leading-edge technologies including the Source® game engine and Steam®, a leading platform for digital content with over 10 million registered users.

Today, Valve is composed of just over 160 of the industry's best artists, programmers, and writers. In the company's 12-year history, it has risen from "unlikely new entry" to industry leader, producing a string of best selling and critically acclaimed PC products and technologies.

We’re always creating.

When you give smart talented people the freedom to create without fear of failure, amazing things happen. We see it every day at Valve. In fact, some of our best insights have come from our biggest mistakes. And we’re ok with that! Since 1996, this approach has produced award-winning games, leading-edge technologies, and a groundbreaking social entertainment platform. We’re always looking for creative risk-takers who can keep that streak alive.

Our handbook for new employees

Congratulations, and welcome. We want to make sure that your first experiences in our unique culture are easy to navigate—working without bosses, no one telling you what to work on next, what’s the deal with the weekly massages, why do all the desks have wheels? What happens after you get here is something we spend a lot of time thinking about, so we’ve created a handbook for new employees that explains how we’re organized (or not!), why we’re set up the that way, and what to expect the first day, first month, and first six months.

Download a pdf of the handbook:

Small (4mb) Large (25mb)

We publish our work.

Valve engineers and artists regularly contribute to industry publications and academic conferences. Their articles, papers, and presentations cover a wide range of topics, from the high level goals of Valve’s cabal development process to the inner workings of our cutting-edge rendering algorithms.

2012

Joe Ludwig. March 2012. "TF2 - From The Orange Box to Free to Play in "Just" Four Years!." Game Developers Conference.
Slides

Elan Ruskin. March 2012. "Rule Databases for Contextual Dialog and Game Logic." Game Developers Conference.
Slides

2011

Bruce Dawson. August 2011. "How Valve Makes Games Better with Xperf." Microsoft GameFest.
Slides | Sample Code

Bronwen Grimes. March 2011. "Making and Using Non-Standard Textures: Manipulating UVs through Color Data in Portal 2." Game Developers Conference.
Slides

Mike Ambinder. March 2011. "Biofeedback in Gameplay: How Valve Measures Physiology to Enhance Gaming Experience." Game Developers Conference.
Slides

2010

Alex Vlachos. June 2010. "Water Flow in Portal 2." SIGGRAPH Course on Advances in Real-Time Rendering in 3D Graphics and Games.
Slides

Alex Vlachos. March 2010. "Rendering Wounds in Left 4 Dead 2." Game Developers Conference.
Slides

Bronwen Grimes. March 2010. "Shading a Bigger, Better Sequel: Techniques in Left 4 Dead 2." Game Developers Conference.
Slides

See What Employees Are Saying

Posted by employees

Company Reviews
Salaries
Interviews

`Valve Corporation` Ratings & Reviews Posted by employees

Employees are “Very Satisfied” 4 ratings

5.0

`100`% Approve of the CEO `1` ratings

Gabe Newell

CEO

Pros: Amazingly empowering. No management. No red tape. Salaries are above top of the industry. And families come first - work-life balance pretty much couldn't be better. Not constrained by public/outside investment - entirely self-funded, so making… – Full Review /Reviews/Employee-Review-Valve-Corporation-RVW2594836.htm

More Valve Corporation Ratings & Reviews (4)

`Valve Corporation` Salaries Posted by employees

Salaries in `USD`	Avg. Salary	$90k $130k $170k
`Multi-media Artist` `7` `Valve Corporation` Salaries	`$144,429`	$139k $180k
`Senior Software Engineer` `6` `Valve Corporation` Salaries	`$125,478`	$106k $138k
`Software Engineer` `4` `Valve Corporation` Salaries	`$110,773`	$83k $151k

= Salary Range

= Anonymous Salary Range

= Avg.

More Valve Corporation Salaries (39)

`Valve Corporation` Interview Questions & Reviews Posted by candidates

No Offer – Interviewed in Bellevue, WA Feb 2011 – Reviewed May 14, 2012

Interview Details – They recruited me, would not say what job I was even interviewing for, and then told me NO without any explanation. – Full Interview

Interview Question:
Why do you want to work with us? – View Answers (3)

More Valve Corporation Interview Questions & Reviews (6)

Inside Connections at `Valve Corporation`

See who your friends know who've worked at Valve Corporation and could give you an inside look.

`Valve Corporation` Awards & Accolades

Let us know if we're missing any workplace or industry recognition – Add an award

Worked for `Valve Corporation`? Contribute to the Community!

Add Review Add Salary Add Interview Review Add Photos

`Valve Corporation`