My email to Gabe Newell
Back in 2023, I had some brief email correspondence with Gabe Newell of Valve, as part of “research”. It was for my extended project qualification, that I was mandated to do as part of sixth form. It was pretty fun and I enjoyed it.
I didn’t expect him to reply initially, so I didn’t check my email for ages (I was like, 16, at the time. What 16 year old frequently checks their emails?)
Sometimes, in conversation (when it’s relevant), I’ll bring up this small fact up, and people are like wow, oh my goodness! You emailed the “world’s only good billionaire!” (I would argue the phrase “good billionaire” is a bit of an oxymoron)
Anyway, I fished it out of my archive for the world to see - here it is:
The email
[!]
On Dec 23, 2023, at 6:12 PM, Milo Tek milotek07@gmail.com wrote:
Hello sir :^)
I’m a college student in the UK. I wanted to make a video game for something called EPQ. Unfortunately, this means I have to do the boring part of development, and do research.
I was wondering if you would be open to answering a few game dev questions (which are below)!
If you are busy, and cannot respond, I only ask for you to reply to the last question
5 Questions:
Do you feel pressure being a big role in such a big and renowned company at all?
Not really. I have a lot of fun.
What is the best part of Valve? What’s the worst part?
The people I work with.
Firing people.
How do you at valve propose/brainstorm ideas for games? Are you involved in that?
Everyone at the company does this all the time.
What other advice would you give to young people making games? (be honest!)
Iterate a design in the context of quantitative feedback while making predictive statements about how those variables will change as a result of your work.
What is your favourite sandwich?
Philly cheesesteak.
Research notes
I wrote quite a lot of notes based on his feedback. I remember them being pretty analytical. If I can be arsed, I’ll fish them out of whatever drive they’re hiding in.
TODO: fish the notes for the answers back out of the epq pdf