Dear Esther Developer Accepts Position With Valve

Robert Briscoe, a developer with The Chinese Room, the team behind the PC indie game Dear Esther, recently accepted a position with Valve.

In a post on his personal blog, Briscoe writes over the course of the last 11 months he has been in process of applying for a US work Visa so he could relocate to Seattle, WA from Brighton, UK.

Other than the desire to work for a well-respected developer, Briscoe says the main reason he accepted the position with Valve was to escape his isolation and get himself out of his comfort zone. He writes, "I think I need to be around people for a while."

Working for Valve won't instantly separate him for his continued work with The Chinese Room. Briscoe is finishing up a Unity version of Dear Esther. He also says he is sure he will return to independent development in the future and is confident he will be "tinkering with stuff" in his free time.

For our review of Dear Esther, head here.

[Source: Robert Briscoe, via VG247]

Our Take
As Valve moves its projects closer to games like Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 – games with little to no narrative direction – I'm excited to see it bring on someone like Briscoe who has worked extensively with narrative-driven games. My favorite experiences from Valve are the games like Half-Life and Portal, games with strong expertly directed stories, and I hope Briscoe can help with projects like that. Ones I hope Valve is secretly working on.