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.

2010

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


• Alex Vlachos, "Rendering Wounds in Left 4 Dead 2," Game Developer's Conference, March 2010.
  Slides


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

2009

• Michael Booth, "The AI Systems of Left 4 Dead," Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference at Stanford.
  Slides


• Michael Booth, "Replayable Cooperative Game Design: Left 4 Dead," Game Developer's Conference, March 2009.
  Slides


• Mike Ambinder, "Valve's Approach to Playtesting: The Application of Empiricism," Game Developer's Conference, March 2009.
  Slides

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.