Given that I'm not generally attracted to the FPS genre, the fact that Valve is quickly becoming one of my favorite and most-respected developers is telling. I like their games, I like their business model, and I like their design philosophy.
Imagine my glee, then, when Left 4 Dead writer Chet Faliszek spoke with Gamasutra about Valve's policy of extensive playtesting and the stages of acceptance:
"When you first encounter using outside playtesters, you go through these stages," Faliszek explained. "They're stages of denial. The first time you go, you see the guy not looking at what you want him to look at, and he's not going to the right place. You're like, 'You're an idiot. We got idiots for playtesters. Who is this, somebody's friend? Let's get somebody who knows how to play games.'"
"Then the second group comes through," he continued, "and you're still saying, 'Alright. Alright. You're stupid. What the hell? Who are these people?' Then by the third or fourth time, all of a sudden you're realizing, 'I'm an idiot. This is pretty obvious this doesn't work. It's not their fault, it's our fault.'"
The rest of the interview is an interesting peek into game development and is worth a read.
When so many games come out feeling broken, unintuitive, and unfinished, Valve's approach to playtesting -- which can start as early as the first week of development -- seems to be common sense, even if pushes the release date back a few months. Maybe I'm a sucker and a fool, but I can tolerate some delays if Left 4 Dead matches the caliber of Valve's other offerings.
[Via Gamasutra]
Contest:
1:01 PM on 08.07.2008
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That being said, they almost always deliver great games, so we give them a pass on having to wait longer.
Left 4 Dead, do want!
Thanks a ton Valve. Now how about making TF2 on 360 not lag.
The only other major developer I know of who shares this understanding is Blizzard, who you'll notice shares the standard of Valve Time.
I would love to playtest for them in the future
*cough*Eternity'sChild*cough*
Honestly, I wouldn't mind waiting Valve Time (see FrogWhoIsFinal's post above) between releases from other developers if their games were all so polished.
More on the Valve Time topic: props for honesty and being able to laugh at themselves.
I once read in a book, that you could buy games months, even YEARS after they were released. Sure, it must be crazy talk.
Thankyou for the insight. I am truly enlightened. There is one point that you may be missing though. You must get certain games around launch time. There is a very quick learning curve with map knowledge. If you get a game even a few weeks late, all the little retards without jobs/lives have time to learn all the chokepoints and best sniper positions. (this pertains more to Gears than L4D)
By God, I can't let that happen. I SHALL NOT!!!!
But see, those delays, frustrating though they may be are precisely why Valve is as good as they are. Their entire company's foundation is based around a damn near obsessive-compulsive dedication to perfection (not that they've ever achieved it, but they're often way closer to the mark than 99% of other devs). It's the reason *every* game created by them is late. Every single one. They absolutely cannot let shit slide.
But you know what? When they do finally let one of their babies out the door, it's worth it. Every time.