the magic happens when we’re all on the
same page collaborating and building
something together there’s always this
temptation to assume that the way things
are today is the way things are going to
be we’re always sort of experimenting
international itself was an experiment
approach the problem of if I’m a fan and
I hear about this that gets me really
fired up and excited the rate of
innovation is not remaining constant
it’s not like we’re plateauing in just
about every dimension innovations
increasing we thrive on the feedback we
received we we we get better when we
know what people think both positive and
negative if you have a limited amount of
time that’s the that’s the scarcest
resource we have
there wasn’t a magic pioneer fairy who
hit us on the head and allowed us to do
pioneering work but that’s that’s how we
evolved usually by people deciding that
I have a bad idea
he’s the co-founder and managing
director of the video game company valve
he spent 13 years working for Microsoft
ultimately becoming a Microsoft
millionaire according to Forbes magazine
he has a net worth of 2.2 billion
dollars he’s Gabe Newell and here are
his top 10 rules for success you’re
testing your ideas you’re stimulating
each other that’s what what makes us
successful it’s not some flash of
brilliance by somebody who then codes 24
hours a day for three weeks it’s what
happens the magic happens when we’re all
on the same page collaborating and
building something together there’s
always this temptation to assume that
the way things are today is the way
things are going to be and having been
through this long enough in the games
industry I think I and everyone at valve
know that you know that you’re only as
successful as what you’ve done lately so
the the idea that steam is somehow the
anythings the answer to digital
distribution
I think ignores the fact that the you
know every two or three years
something’s going to change dramatically
it’s like along comes the we and that
overthrows a bunch of ideas along comes
social gaming you know and that throws
over a bunch of ideas about what things
are like you know I think steam is the
same way it’s like if you stand still
and if you’re not looking to the future
and doing the things that you need to to
be valuable in the future to customers
and partners you’re going to get left
behind really rapidly so that’s what we
focusing on is what do we need to do
next what are the tools and services and
features and capabilities to make gamers
happy and other software developers
happy we look at all of our games and
evaluate them in terms of what we think
would be best for the community you know
we’re always sort of experimenting
International itself was an experiment
you know counter-strike was an
experiment all the way back at the
beginning where we were like maybe we
can do an online-only game so we’re
always sort of looking for you know each
game will sort of leapfrog the other
than what we learn goes back to all of
our other games of course your first
game was half-life which was very
successful what was the key to that I
think part of the reason that
that the community responded to it as we
approached the game like fans right we
wanted to it seemed like people were
looking at what deta had been creating
with doom and quake and had picked out
some of the least interesting details of
those games to build upon if a
double-barreled shotgun was better than
a four barrel if a double-barreled
shotgun was good a four barrel shotgun
was better and what we had thought when
we were playing the game was you know
there was so much atmosphere and so much
environmental storytelling that was
going on in these games you know that
they sort of opened the door to this new
way this new kind of entertainment and
that that viewing it is just a shooting
gallery which is what all of the doom
copies and later quake copies seemed to
be you know extracting from the
successive of doom and quake was missing
the whole point of what we as fans had
seen that had gotten us really excited
you know and so that’s what the impulse
was behind our games is to take those
pieces of as fans that we had really
loved about those games and try to
amplify that and build on that as much
as we could but I think it turned out
that we were on the right track that you
know approaching it that way was sort of
a fans enthusiasm and and sensibilities
about what was compelling about and what
the opportunities were to push even
further that ended up really working in
our favor and I think that that trying
to think like a fan is a super valuable
thing to any game developers don’t think
about it in terms of constraints or
budgets or what you know management
somewhere is thinking but approach the
problem of if I’m a fan and I hear about
this that gets me really fired up and
excited that’s you know that that’s a
valuable tool in
and approaching this business I get a
lot of questions from other people who
run companies about organizations I
think that if you the important thing
that you do is about measure ability and
repeatability than hierarchical
organizations are appropriate but that’s
not what is happening in our industry
the rate of innovation is not remaining
constant it’s not like we’re plateauing
in just about every dimension
innovations increasing and the most
effective organizations are those that
can self-organize and that are
relatively that are extremely flat and
that the question when you’re trying to
think about how you’re how your company
is organized or how you want it to grow
is how you can deliver help people
deliver smart and creative people create
the most value and delivered as
efficiently as possible to your
customers the decision to break into
episodes was wasn’t really driven to buy
the story requirements the story sort of
ended up being fit into three buckets
typically in any of these larger arcs
it’s not too surprising that you can
think of them as as three acts and it’s
a very traditional hollywood-esque
approach to storytelling the decision to
go with episodic was more driven out of
the experience we had working on
half-life 2 where we really weren’t able
to give anything to our customers for
like a five-year period and that was
very hard on us as as game developers
because we thrive on the feedback we
received we we we get better when we
know what people think both positive and
negative and so with episodic it really
allowed us to tighten that loop up
enormous ly there are lots of benefits
in terms of managing scale in terms of
reacting to what’s happening on the
hardware side but one of the biggest
reasons is simply so we don’t get into a
situation where we have to wait five
years before hearing from the people who
play our games about what what works and
what we need to do better if you have a
limited amount of time that’s the that’s
the scarcest resource we have every
decision you make with your time is a
vote about what the company’s priority
to be the question you should ask as a
programmer is what’s the best way for me
to spend my time right now that creates
value for our customer there wasn’t some
magic
pioneer fairy who hit us on the head and
allowed us to do pioneering work it’s
really consequence of a bunch of other
decisions you make along the way how
your games are being funded how you
select your colleagues how you organize
your teams are really the things that
are going to allow you to do pioneering
work in our case we’ve designed the
company in such a way that we really not
only give everyone who works there the
opportunity but they all have the
expectation that they’re going to be
doing original and creative work I am a
big believer in one person one office
DeMarcos people where if anybody’s read
that you know I sort of treat that as a
Bible and so I was like I hated cubicles
like with a passion and a vengeance
it’s like you know they grew out of this
data general philosophy of screw if
you’re screwing your employees you’re
probably doing something right and so
I’m like okay everybody always has their
own office and you know and you’ve got a
Do Not Disturb button on your phone and
you have a door you can close and you
can decorate your office every want and
people kept sneaking into other people’s
offices and then they started tearing
doors down so everybody had their own
office but nobody was ever in it right
so they were all congregating in our
conference rooms and so we had all these
empty offices and all these clustered
clusters of people in conference rooms
and you know that’s when I realized you
know they were making the right decision
right they were deciding that the the
there were benefits to being closer
proximity to other people and that
Gabe’s rigid adherence to one person one
Hauk office was actually hurting the
their productivity so even you know hid
after being hit on the head long enough
I realized that everybody else was
making a decision that was correct for
them and so now we just say everybody
designs their own office space so our
largest single room right now is about
80 people in it I share an office with
two other people that each person you
know has to that’s one of the things
that you think about you think about how
you communicate with other
people you think about what’s an optimal
optimal work environment for the the
goals that you have desks are all on
wheels we only have two contact points
with the floor so you can pack up
enjoying a different group of people in
about 15 minutes some people are working
on the design of if anybody’s done
paired programming there’s some people
are trying to build a desk that’s more
optimal for paired programming and
giving you a shared thing and they have
to make a decision whether it’s more
worth their time to work on something
like that than it is to do the work that
they already are so we just sort of said
okay each person has to make their own
decisions about what they work on who
they’re working with what are the tools
they need and what you know what what
their offices ought to look like but
that’s that’s how we evolve usually by
people deciding that I have a bad idea
and this one Pulaski
Oh
crankin you choose Turk the mass
all right three thank you so much for
watching I made this video because King
Naru Helio asked me to so there’s a
famous entrepreneur that you want me to
profile next leave it in the comments
below and I’ll see what I can do
I’d also love to know which of gabe
newell’s top ten rules meant the most to
you had the biggest impact on your life
leave it in the comments and I’ll join
the discussion thank you so much for
watching continue to believe and I’ll
see you soon
same page collaborating and building
something together there’s always this
temptation to assume that the way things
are today is the way things are going to
be we’re always sort of experimenting
international itself was an experiment
approach the problem of if I’m a fan and
I hear about this that gets me really
fired up and excited the rate of
innovation is not remaining constant
it’s not like we’re plateauing in just
about every dimension innovations
increasing we thrive on the feedback we
received we we we get better when we
know what people think both positive and
negative if you have a limited amount of
time that’s the that’s the scarcest
resource we have
there wasn’t a magic pioneer fairy who
hit us on the head and allowed us to do
pioneering work but that’s that’s how we
evolved usually by people deciding that
I have a bad idea
he’s the co-founder and managing
director of the video game company valve
he spent 13 years working for Microsoft
ultimately becoming a Microsoft
millionaire according to Forbes magazine
he has a net worth of 2.2 billion
dollars he’s Gabe Newell and here are
his top 10 rules for success you’re
testing your ideas you’re stimulating
each other that’s what what makes us
successful it’s not some flash of
brilliance by somebody who then codes 24
hours a day for three weeks it’s what
happens the magic happens when we’re all
on the same page collaborating and
building something together there’s
always this temptation to assume that
the way things are today is the way
things are going to be and having been
through this long enough in the games
industry I think I and everyone at valve
know that you know that you’re only as
successful as what you’ve done lately so
the the idea that steam is somehow the
anythings the answer to digital
distribution
I think ignores the fact that the you
know every two or three years
something’s going to change dramatically
it’s like along comes the we and that
overthrows a bunch of ideas along comes
social gaming you know and that throws
over a bunch of ideas about what things
are like you know I think steam is the
same way it’s like if you stand still
and if you’re not looking to the future
and doing the things that you need to to
be valuable in the future to customers
and partners you’re going to get left
behind really rapidly so that’s what we
focusing on is what do we need to do
next what are the tools and services and
features and capabilities to make gamers
happy and other software developers
happy we look at all of our games and
evaluate them in terms of what we think
would be best for the community you know
we’re always sort of experimenting
International itself was an experiment
you know counter-strike was an
experiment all the way back at the
beginning where we were like maybe we
can do an online-only game so we’re
always sort of looking for you know each
game will sort of leapfrog the other
than what we learn goes back to all of
our other games of course your first
game was half-life which was very
successful what was the key to that I
think part of the reason that
that the community responded to it as we
approached the game like fans right we
wanted to it seemed like people were
looking at what deta had been creating
with doom and quake and had picked out
some of the least interesting details of
those games to build upon if a
double-barreled shotgun was better than
a four barrel if a double-barreled
shotgun was good a four barrel shotgun
was better and what we had thought when
we were playing the game was you know
there was so much atmosphere and so much
environmental storytelling that was
going on in these games you know that
they sort of opened the door to this new
way this new kind of entertainment and
that that viewing it is just a shooting
gallery which is what all of the doom
copies and later quake copies seemed to
be you know extracting from the
successive of doom and quake was missing
the whole point of what we as fans had
seen that had gotten us really excited
you know and so that’s what the impulse
was behind our games is to take those
pieces of as fans that we had really
loved about those games and try to
amplify that and build on that as much
as we could but I think it turned out
that we were on the right track that you
know approaching it that way was sort of
a fans enthusiasm and and sensibilities
about what was compelling about and what
the opportunities were to push even
further that ended up really working in
our favor and I think that that trying
to think like a fan is a super valuable
thing to any game developers don’t think
about it in terms of constraints or
budgets or what you know management
somewhere is thinking but approach the
problem of if I’m a fan and I hear about
this that gets me really fired up and
excited that’s you know that that’s a
valuable tool in
and approaching this business I get a
lot of questions from other people who
run companies about organizations I
think that if you the important thing
that you do is about measure ability and
repeatability than hierarchical
organizations are appropriate but that’s
not what is happening in our industry
the rate of innovation is not remaining
constant it’s not like we’re plateauing
in just about every dimension
innovations increasing and the most
effective organizations are those that
can self-organize and that are
relatively that are extremely flat and
that the question when you’re trying to
think about how you’re how your company
is organized or how you want it to grow
is how you can deliver help people
deliver smart and creative people create
the most value and delivered as
efficiently as possible to your
customers the decision to break into
episodes was wasn’t really driven to buy
the story requirements the story sort of
ended up being fit into three buckets
typically in any of these larger arcs
it’s not too surprising that you can
think of them as as three acts and it’s
a very traditional hollywood-esque
approach to storytelling the decision to
go with episodic was more driven out of
the experience we had working on
half-life 2 where we really weren’t able
to give anything to our customers for
like a five-year period and that was
very hard on us as as game developers
because we thrive on the feedback we
received we we we get better when we
know what people think both positive and
negative and so with episodic it really
allowed us to tighten that loop up
enormous ly there are lots of benefits
in terms of managing scale in terms of
reacting to what’s happening on the
hardware side but one of the biggest
reasons is simply so we don’t get into a
situation where we have to wait five
years before hearing from the people who
play our games about what what works and
what we need to do better if you have a
limited amount of time that’s the that’s
the scarcest resource we have every
decision you make with your time is a
vote about what the company’s priority
to be the question you should ask as a
programmer is what’s the best way for me
to spend my time right now that creates
value for our customer there wasn’t some
magic
pioneer fairy who hit us on the head and
allowed us to do pioneering work it’s
really consequence of a bunch of other
decisions you make along the way how
your games are being funded how you
select your colleagues how you organize
your teams are really the things that
are going to allow you to do pioneering
work in our case we’ve designed the
company in such a way that we really not
only give everyone who works there the
opportunity but they all have the
expectation that they’re going to be
doing original and creative work I am a
big believer in one person one office
DeMarcos people where if anybody’s read
that you know I sort of treat that as a
Bible and so I was like I hated cubicles
like with a passion and a vengeance
it’s like you know they grew out of this
data general philosophy of screw if
you’re screwing your employees you’re
probably doing something right and so
I’m like okay everybody always has their
own office and you know and you’ve got a
Do Not Disturb button on your phone and
you have a door you can close and you
can decorate your office every want and
people kept sneaking into other people’s
offices and then they started tearing
doors down so everybody had their own
office but nobody was ever in it right
so they were all congregating in our
conference rooms and so we had all these
empty offices and all these clustered
clusters of people in conference rooms
and you know that’s when I realized you
know they were making the right decision
right they were deciding that the the
there were benefits to being closer
proximity to other people and that
Gabe’s rigid adherence to one person one
Hauk office was actually hurting the
their productivity so even you know hid
after being hit on the head long enough
I realized that everybody else was
making a decision that was correct for
them and so now we just say everybody
designs their own office space so our
largest single room right now is about
80 people in it I share an office with
two other people that each person you
know has to that’s one of the things
that you think about you think about how
you communicate with other
people you think about what’s an optimal
optimal work environment for the the
goals that you have desks are all on
wheels we only have two contact points
with the floor so you can pack up
enjoying a different group of people in
about 15 minutes some people are working
on the design of if anybody’s done
paired programming there’s some people
are trying to build a desk that’s more
optimal for paired programming and
giving you a shared thing and they have
to make a decision whether it’s more
worth their time to work on something
like that than it is to do the work that
they already are so we just sort of said
okay each person has to make their own
decisions about what they work on who
they’re working with what are the tools
they need and what you know what what
their offices ought to look like but
that’s that’s how we evolve usually by
people deciding that I have a bad idea
and this one Pulaski
Oh
crankin you choose Turk the mass
all right three thank you so much for
watching I made this video because King
Naru Helio asked me to so there’s a
famous entrepreneur that you want me to
profile next leave it in the comments
below and I’ll see what I can do
I’d also love to know which of gabe
newell’s top ten rules meant the most to
you had the biggest impact on your life
leave it in the comments and I’ll join
the discussion thank you so much for
watching continue to believe and I’ll
see you soon
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