Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi, and welcome to the ValveTime news.
Each week, we'll bring you the biggest talking points regarding Valve Software and the community.
Now, the news:
Steam Greenlight received another major update earlier this week
which introduced the 5th official batch of Greenlit titles.
10 new games and 2 new software titles were added to the Greenlight listings.
These include games such as Kingdom Rush, a fantasy themed tower defense,
Anodyne, a 2D action adventure game,
and Surgeon Simulator 2013, a full version of the "hilarious" QWOP style surgery game
which hit it big on YouTube around a month ago.
Software titles such as Black Ink, a drawing application,
and Driver Fusion, a system driver management program, were both added,
bringing the total number of Greenlit titles across games and software to 76,
19 of which have been released.
Be sure to head on over to our website via a link in the video description
to read more regarding the other Greenlit titles included in this update.
Yanis Yaroufakis, Valve's resident economist, was involved in a podcast-like discussion with EconTalk earlier this week.
The talk, which lasts just over an hour, revolves around a variety of topics
as Yanis and EconTalk host Russ Roberts discuss Valve, their flat management system,
their policies regarding the hiring or firing of employees, employee pay,
and a huge selection of additional talking points.
It's an extremely interesting discussion that we highly recommend listening to,
especially considering how open Yanis was in discussions about recent events such as employee firing policies.
As usual, a link will be provided in the video description.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Gabe Newell is set to be honored with a BAFTA--
a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Fellowship Award.
The event takes place next week on Tuesday the 5th of March and is being hosted by Irish Comedian Dara O Briain.
Gabe will officially become the fourth video game publisher to accept a Fellowship award,
following in the footsteps of Peter Molyneux, Will Wright, and Shigeru Miyamoto.
Congratulations to Gabe!
We're glad to see his impact in the gaming industry is being recognized and rewarded.
Gabe also briefly appeared in a small series of YouTube videos by "CodeOrg,"
a website dedicated to bringing attention to the lack of coding and programming educational courses
available in the United States.
Bronwen Grimes, a technical programmer at Valve, also makes a brief appearance
alongside the likes of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and, of course, Will.i.am...
who is extremely well known for being a computer programmer.
[Gabe Newell] The first time I actually had something come up and say "Hello, world"...
I made a computer do that? It was just astonishing.
A link to both videos featuring Gabe and Bronwen will be able available in the video description.
While no new heroes were introduced with Dota 2's weekly update,
players were treated to a variety of additions in the form of eight new cosmetic item sets for
Alchemist, Batrider, Dazzle, Naga Siren, Nyx Assassin, Queen of Pain, Silencer, and Weaver.
The first mission in a brand new tutorial questing system was also introduced, being dubbed "An Introduction."
This first quest, which is available from on the far left of the "Play" tab on the Dota 2 menu,
focuses on the game's basic mechanics such as movement, combat, last hitting, and the shop system.
As a single-player experience intended for new players,
the short mission follows Dragon Knight on a quest to kill Razor.
Just don't expect anything challenging for you advanced triple-killers out there.
While this update wasn't exactly heavy on content,
the community believes that new hero Skywrath Mage will be released with the next week's update,
as the majority of his content is now included in the game,
including advanced particle effects, strings, and textures.
Last week, on ValveTime NewsTime TriviaTime, we posed the question
Congratulations to...nobody.
That's right: last week's question was a little bit of a trick, albeit accidentally.
Famous Chicago-based musician Larry Heard is extremely frequently miscredited with being the face of Eli,
when he was in fact used as the inspiration for the "Male 03" citizen model, shown here.
The actual face of Eli was based off the homeless man we all know and recognize,
who was actually uncredited in the game, causing his name to remain unknown.
However, we'll still give bonus points to BananaLair
for being the first to mention the name of Eli's voice actor, Robert Guillaume,
famous for appearing in a huge amount of TV series, films, and games,
including The Lion King, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Sports Night, and much much more.
He's also pretty famous for looking totally badass.
Now, for this week's question:
We'll reveal these answers on next week's show, as always.
And that brings us to the end of another ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up.
Thanks for watching.
We'd just like to say a quick thank you to all of our viewers, site members, and subscribers
for sticking with us over this past year,
as this past week marked the first anniversary of the ValveTime YouTube channel.
The site is scheduled to have its first anniversary after transitioning from Halflife2.net later this month,
so why not head on over to get involved?
We hope you all continue to stay with us for many more years to come.
Stay tuned for more content coming very soon.
Until then, bye for now.