Two big announcements for Tropico fans today!
So what kind of leader will you be? Kind or Generous? Take the reigns as El Presidente and do what is necessary to stay in power.
Source Continue reading Tropico 3 – 75% off Sale and New Release
Big news for Tropico fans today!
So what kind of leader will you be? Kind or Generous? Take the reigns as El Presidente and do what is necessary to stay in power.
Big news for Tropico fans today!
So what kind of leader will you be? Kind or Generous? Take the reigns as El Presidente and do what is necessary to stay in power.
Source Continue reading Tropico 3: Steam Special Edition – 75% Off
Yesterday when we shipped Steam on the Mac, previous owners of the PC Steam version of Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, Civilization IV: Warlords, Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization, or Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: The Complete Edition did not have access to their games when logging in on a Mac.
But as of now, upon logging into Steam, those owners will have access to the Mac version of their games, right in their Steam library.
Source Continue reading Previous PC Owners of Civilization IV Games on Steam Get Mac Version
In between obsessing over hats, we’ve been trying to keep up with all the neat things the community is doing.
Updates to Portal have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
It’s been a busy week for the Team Fortress team. That’s right: the police are here again. We’re on a first name basis with them, the fire department and the nasal extraction emergency response team at Overlake Hospital by now, so it was like meeting with old friends.
Anyway, seems like a Team Fortress staffer went missing this week, so they need to poke around the office a bit and see if they can find out where he went. While I was poking around the missing staffer’s PC looking for evidence to erase, I stumbled on a game production diary it looked like he’d been writing, and figured why not throw it up on the TF blog? Enjoy!
My first day at Valve working with the Team Fortress 2 team. Pretty excited! TF2 is my all-time favorite game, and I just know I’m due for big things here.
Robin Walker showed me around the office and explained that Valve has a “flat management” style, meaning that nobody’s in charge of anybody.
“And I’m the MOST not in charge of everybody,” he said, cocking a thumb at himself. “I fired everybody at the company once. I could fire you and not even break a sweat.”
I laughed at this, then looked around and saw everybody else not laughing. I trailed off.
“He really did fire everybody,” Corey Peters said.
“Then he bought a horse,” Dario Casali added.
Robin laughed warmly at these memories as he fed sugar cubes to his horse. “This is your desk,” he added. He didn’t point anywhere or look at anything besides the horse.
“The horse is my desk,” I said for clarification. Robin looked at me like I was some kind of idiot, then pointed to a tiny desk under the horse.
All in a all, a big first day. Pretty sure I’ll fit in fine around here. Robin’s already given me a nickname: Big Face. Wasn’t sure what that meant. Robin explained that I had a big face, in his estimation.
Also, note to self: buy a hat. I seem to be the only person not wearing one.
TUESDAY, APRIL 6th, 2010
Noticed that everyone’s wearing different hats than they were yesterday. Robin asked where my hat was. I said I didn’t have one yet. Got really quiet in the office all of a sudden. I added that I’d probably buy one this weekend. Could be wrong, but I swear I heard someone whisper “terrorist.”
Big team meeting today. I came prepared. I’ve been programming a playable demo version of TF2 with an entirely new tenth class. I had to teach myself programming, modeling, level design, character design and about twenty other skills, but I think the results speak for themselves. Everybody took a crack at playing it.
“This is pretty balanced gameplay,” admitted Robin.
“I like how we haven’t found any hats yet,” said Brandon Reinhart. “It sets up the suspense better. I’m all, ‘When am I going to find a hat already?'” Everyone laughed.
“I hope it’s soon, I can’t wait much longer,” said Corey Peters. “Look how stupid this tenth class’s bare head looks!” More big laughs.
“Actually, there aren’t any hats in this demo,” I said, chuckling. Deathly silence. Then everybody got up at once and stopped playing. Eric Smith got really mad and threw his keyboard through a wall, then stormed out and went home. Robin asked to speak to me privately.
“I don’t think you’re applying yourself enough,” he said.
“But I invented an entirely new class from scratch,” I said, feeling my face get hot.
“Yeah, that’s really, really…” he trailed off, so bored with the sentence he didn’t bother to finish it. “Look, maybe you should read this. You know–help you get into the ‘Team Fortress’ mindset.”
He slid over a well-worn game design manual. I leafed through it. It wasn’t a game design manual, it was a coffee table-sized book of women wearing hats.
Mistaking my confusion for interest, Robin excitedly pulled his chair over to me, and looked over my shoulder. “Would you look at that hat,” he whispered, pointing to a lady in a wide-brimmed hat. “Gorgeous.”
“Are you crying?” I asked, because that’s sure what it looked like he was doing.
“What? No. I just had something in my eye.”
“Okay,” I said. It was pretty easy to see what he had in his eye, though. Tears.
Robin suddenly jumped up and took everybody hat shopping. I tried working in the empty office for a while, then decided to just go home.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7th, 2010
All work suspended so the TF2 team could spend the morning modeling their hats. Brandon Reinhart won Best in Show for his calfskin sombrero. (I thought it looked ridiculous.)
After lunch it was back to work, and Robin outlined the next six months of objectives for the team. I noticed the word “hat” coming up a lot. Like in all the objectives, for instance. And a couple of times, it looked like he got distracted and just wrote “hat”.
“Question in the back?” said Robin, pointing to my outstretched arm.
“Yeah,” I said. “What the hell is wrong with you people?” Twenty-odd faces turned to me. “You could be designing anything you want! You could be coming up with new levels and game modes and weapons and–and–and all you do is sit around making hats!”
A hushed silence. I started to think I might have gotten through to some of them. Brandon Reinhart, especially, looked at me with a newfound sense of wonder.
“You know, guys,” said Brandon, “the new guy would make a great hat if we hollowed him out.”
Nods of agreement. Then, as one, they leapt up and advanced on me.
I woke up in a janitorial closet. I guess this is some hazing ritual on the new guy. I want to believe that, anyway. But now I’m starting to wonder if Brandon’s sombrero was calfskin after all.
Hmm. Actually, now I remember this guy. Brandon, you might want to hide that beret for a few days until the police leave.
Steam is now available for the Mac. Read what the press has to say, and what other gamers are saying. Or just download Steam now.
Steam has been a service exclusively for PC users since we launched it in 2004. For the first time we and our partners are bringing it to another platform. It’s been a ton of work, but the Mac is great for the same reason the PC is great – they are both open systems that let gamers and game developers be as close as possible.
So check it out. If you have a Mac and are new to Steam, welcome! If you’ve been with us since the beginning, borrow a Mac and log into your Steam account and jump into a game. And for everybody, Portal is free from today until the 24th.
Source Continue reading Steam for the Mac Released
Updates to Altitude have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
New Maps:
Balance:
Feature Additions:
Bug Fixes:
Updates to Braid have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Braid
Available immediately, Valve has launched an extensive update to Counter-Strike: Source, now in beta.
The update includes a host of new features and functionality developed in collaboration with Hidden Path Studios. These include 144 new achievements, a new domination and revenge system, player stats, and more.
This beta will run for a limited time, and once complete, the update will be deployed to all Counter-Strike: Source owners for free via Steam.
Server admins may download the dedicated server files via the HLDSUpdateTool using “-game cssbeta” in the command line.
Source Continue reading Counter-Strike: Source Update Now in Beta
Roll Out Begins Weds, May 12
May 11, 2010 – Valve announced that Steam will launch on the Mac platform this Wednesday, May 12.
On subsequent Wednesdays, additional collections of Mac titles will become available, each designed to highlight specific functionalities of Steam on the Mac.
The first collection of Mac titles will demonstrate “Steam Play,” which allows customers to purchase a game once and play it on all Steam supported platforms. Gamers who have previously purchased games on Steam will find them available in their account on the Mac as they are released.
Portal, in addition to supporting Steam Play, will be the first of Valve’s Source engine based games available on the Mac. Native OS/X support for the Source engine is also available immediately to licensees for use in their games.
Among the initial titles available on Wednesday will be Runic Games’ critically acclaimed Torchlight. “We’re very excited to be bringing Torchlight to the Mac,” said Max Schaefer, co-founder of Runic Games. “Having Steam for the Mac solves so many problems for us as a developer. We look forward to our future games coming out on the Mac as well.”
In addition to bringing the online functionality of Steam to the Mac, Valve will also make its Steamworks suite of publishing and development tools available on the Mac platform. These include product key authentication, copy protection, auto-updating, social networking, matchmaking, anti-cheat technology, and more. The features and services available in Steamworks are offered free of charge and may be used for both electronic and tangible versions of games.
Source Continue reading Steam for Mac Launch Details Revealed
Updates to Day of Defeat: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Day of Defeat: Source
Source Continue reading Day of Defeat: Source Update Released