A spectacular failure would be just as important as the next big thing.īrainstorming commenced.
Employees were told to assemble small groups and try whatever they thought was cool or interesting. The 'Directed Design Experiments' as he called them would hopefully lead to a creative renaissance. Newell assembled the team in the main conference room and outlined his plan. And most important, the entire process would be a secret to the outside world. Concerned that Valve was spending far too much time making games and not enough time pushing its designs in bold new directions, Newell showed up one morning with a radical idea: What if he effectively shut down Valve's production pipeline for a few months and turned the company into one big creative playground? There would be no deadlines, no milestones, and little accountability. That is, until what employees dub the 'Gabe Fiat' is invoked to shake things up. The invisible hand of curiosity is what guides the company. Privately owned by Newell and the employees, there are no outside shareholders or a board of directors to please. Valve has the blessing of being in the catbird seal - or the curse. Please note that I removed some paragraphs (for example about the prequel idea with the Cave Johnson antagonist - that was leaked to the press) from the original text: