So many video game projects are started through Crowdsourcing. Kickstarter and IndieGogo have been a godsend to many (increasingly numerous) unemployed game creators.  Unfortunately, not much oversight exists for these websites, and there is little to stop fund recipients from pocketing the donations and walking away.

So Valve says to itself, we’ve got money, the games will be released through OUR platform, why don’t we let our community choose which games get released? This August, Valve will be releasing Steam Greenlight, a platform where game developers can submit their concepts and have them voted on by the Steam community. The winning projects will be distributed on the Steam Store, at which time the burgeoning community that the developers have built will buy the game with real shiny money! It’s democratic, it’s meritocratic, and it’s free for gamers!

Source: Steam Community

After years of speculation and frustration, Valvetime.net uncovered a cache of concept art from Half-life 2: ep. 3 and posted the whole shebang on their facebook page! The images feature Alyx Vance’s winter wardrobe, new Combine buildings, and a possible HD return to the border world of Xen from the first Half-life. The images are around four years old, and it’s probably no accident that they’ve surfaced only now. What could Valve be up to?

Source: Gamespot

Over the past little while, Valve Software has been releasing very charming and disturbing series of “Meet the Team” videos from the hit free-to-play shooter Team Fortress 2. They’ve produced the shorts using a super secret form of middleware called the Source Film Maker, and now they’re releasing Beta Keys to see what the community can come up with. So far, they’ve turned this:

Into this:

and this:

You can sign up for a beta key of your very own at the Source Filmmaker website.

Gabe Newell is trying to find a way to create a burgeoning economy between the free-to-play games in Valve’s library, such as Team Fortress 2 and DOTA 2. To that end, Valve has hired internationally renowned economist Yanis Varoufakis to:

…forge narratives and empirical knowledge that (a) transcend the border separating the ‘real’ from the digital economies, and (b) bring together lessons from the political economy of our gamers’ economies and from studying Valve’s very special (and fascinating) internal management structure.

Whatever that means. Varoufakis expects to publish his findings, providing new insight in how free-to-play works (or should work). Hats for everyone!

Source: Boing Boing

From the “Fine, I wasn’t going to sleep here anyway” school of interior decorating, some enterprising soul has created a Half-life Barnacle creature and stuck a lamp at the end of its horrible capturing tentacle. I hope there’s a wall switch. You might lose an arm trying to turn it on otherwise.

Source: So Geek Chic

Valve software has decided to quell some rumours regarding their upcoming collaboration with Overkill, the developers of Payday: The Heist. The new game, (if it is a game at all) will not be a prequel Valve’s 2008 hit Left 4 Dead. Instead, it will be a much smaller project that will involve co-op in some form. No matter how small the project is, if Valve’s involved, you can bet it will be a game-breaker of some kind.

ComputerAndVideoGames.com.

The International Flipper Pinball Association held its 9th annual tournament last weekend on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, WA. Among the contestants was the previous year’s champion, Team Fortress 2 Level designer Cayle George, who came in 2nd behind Daniele Celestino Acciari of Italy. Contestants had a choice of games from all over the pinball lexicon, including Cyclone and Lord of the Rings.

Source: GeekWire.