A Tour Inside Valve Headquarters

Our students had the opportunity to get an inside look at the legendary Valve Corp Headquarters, the studio that has brought us the Half-Life series, and the distribution platform, Steam. Kelly Cline and Mike Belzer, who were our guides for our group throughout the tour, showed Valve’s state of the art motion-capture room, sound design room, among various studios.

What about the culture of Valve Corp? Valve employees have plentiful options to enjoy the benefits of an on-site gym, barber, massage parlor, spacious cafeteria, and several luxurious break rooms, or as affectionately labeled, “sulking rooms”.

Kelly and Mike also shared what it’s like working at Valve, explaining the internal structure and how that affects the company’s culture. The structure may come as a surprise to some. There’s no organizational hierarchy, which is impressive considering the 320 employees currently housed at Valve HQ.

Employees have desks which can be unplugged and wheeled into workrooms, each of which is organized around a project. Employees self-determine where they’re needed in each project, and which project they’d like to participate in. However, this structure is not for everyone. Even a decorated industry veteran may not thrive in such conditions, unless the working conditions suited the personality of the employee.