The Final Hours of Half-Life

 
Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - The Microsoft
            Millionaires
Part 3 - The Valve
            Difference
Part 4 - Reassembling
            the Pieces
Part 5 - Squashing the
            Final Bug
Bring in the Troops
Beside the Quake source code, the most important thing that Newell and Harrington obtained from id was a shopping list of sorts - a list of names of some of the most innovative and exciting developers working with Quake technology. Two of those developers were Steve Bond and John Guthrie, Floridians who had started a popular online fan site called Quake Command. Guthrie was going to college and delivering pizza when he and Bond received an e-mail that would change their lives.


John Guthrie, former pizza delivery boy, checks his e-mail.
"We got this e-mail from a guy named Gabe Newell," recalls Guthrie. "He told us he wanted to talk to us and left his phone number." Both Guthrie and Bond thought the e-mail message as a joke, and they ignored it until curiosity finally got the better of them. "Steve eventually called him," says Guthrie. "That day, Gabe bought Steve a plane ticket, a rental car, and a hotel room." It all seemed too good to be true. "Steve was standing at the airport," says Guthrie, "waiting for the electronic ticket to come through, and he kept saying, 'This has got to be a joke.'"

But it wasn't.

Once in Seattle, Bond was given a few days to stay in the city and make a decision that would change the rest of his life. Once Bond decided to join Valve, Guthrie wasn't far behind. "A week later, I followed Steve up to Seattle and decided to drop out of school." (In case his parents are reading, he's quick to add, "Though I'd like to return to [school] one day.")

Harrington can empathize. "Both Gabe and I didn't finish school - we dropped out to do software," he says, "and we firmly believe that if you find a smart creative person, they can do a great job." It's catching them early that's key: "If you're lucky enough to find them early on, you can be around when they grow into themselves. That's the time when they do a lot of really interesting work."

But with young guns, growing pains are inevitable, especially since many of their hires had never done professional work before. "We had to help them get grounded in Seattle," admits Harrington. "But it was a lot of fun - creating a positive work environment and some aspect of parenting, too."


Veteran 3D Realms artist Chuck Jones joined the Valve team.
Harrington and Newell rounded out the team with other online developers, although they were careful to not hire myopic Quake fans that didn't have a sense of what was next for the genre. They also brought in some industry veterans from companies such as 3D Realms, Shiny, and Microsoft to round out their team or "band" as Harrington refers to it. "Until you find the right people, the band just never takes off," he says.

They had their technology, their team, and their genre. Now they needed a game and a publisher to put it on store shelves.

Next: The E-mail