Multiple Valve games in the past have been developed by talented indie studios and modders which the company had hired, leading to critically acclaimed series such as Portal, Counter-Strike, and Team Fortress.
Now, according to former Valve environmental designer Roger Lundeen, the company has taken aboard some of the development team behind the popular space flight simulation game, Kerbal Space Program.
Lundeen revealed the news while speaking at the Game Dev Unchained podcast, saying "[Valve] is still buying up mod teams," and its latest hire were "the group of modders who made Kerbal Space [Program]". He also went on to say this occurred around four to six months ago, and that Valve "gave that entire team jobs."
This certainly could be alluding to the group of developers who left the Kerbal Space Program studio, Squad, last year, but Lundeen referring to the new Valve recruits as a 'mod team' sparked up some confusion as to whether the company hired the actual developers or one of the numerous modding groups that create third party add-ons for the game.
The matter was put to rest when PCGamesN reached out to Valve and received confirmation that the ex-Squad developers are now, in fact, working at the company, saying “Yes, they joined a little while ago and we will have more news about what they are doing soon.”
Although 'soon' may be a very broad term when it comes to Valve, as to what the new team could be working on, the three VR games Valve is reportedly developing may be one answer.
Meanwhile, Kerbal Space Program's post-launch development is also still underway by the team leftover at Squad, with the game's first expansion, Making History, announced back in March.
Source: Game Dev Unchained (SoundCloud) via PCGamesN | Image: Kerbal Space Program
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