As a publisher, Valve might be most famous for Half-Life and the Steam gaming platform, but the company is hiring for a lot of interesting jobs supporting game development, ranging from psychologists to economist, that might hint at the company's future direction. Valve has been historically secretive about its business plans and game development so even a little bit of new information can give gamers some signs about what to expect from future Valve games.

After rocketing to the top of the industry market with the Half-Life universe as well as the Portal and Left 4 Dead series, Valve released just a handful of games in the past decade. That didn't stop gamers from latching onto rumors of games that never came to be, among them a sci-fi-themed RPG called Prospero, a collaboration with Arkane Studios on an FPS called The Crossing, and the ongoing myth of Half-Life 3. In an industry that can be unpredictable at the best of times, Valve continues to surprise users with its ups and downs, recently seeing a huge boost in sales of its Valve Index VR headset as well as some unexpected downtime on its Steam platform recently.

For those interested in working in the game industry, the most logical path has always been through a technical degree in game design, engineering or the user experience but currently Valve is advertising jobs with unusual proficiencies. Among them is a psychologist with some expertise in data crunching as well as an economist, a statistician, and some help managing the company's burgeoning trade in eSports. One job description offers some insight into Valve's philosophy regarding game development: "We believe that all game designers are, in a sense, experimental psychologists. That is why we're looking for an experimental psychologist with superior research skills to apply knowledge and methodologies from psychology to game design and all aspects of Valve's operations."


These days, data seems to drive everything and that's equally true of Valve's approach to securing talent to craft its latest groundbreaking games. The advertisement for the psychologist stresses, "One thing we have at Valve is data. Lots and lots of data. We are looking for an experienced economist to help us leverage all that information to improve our customers' experience and make better decisions."

Many memorable games have succeeded not despite their reliance on psychology, but because of the emotional and physiological reactions they inspire in gamers. From the memorable video game twists of Bioshock to emotional roller-coasters from developers like Quantic Dream, Telltale and Square Enix, many of those experiences come from designers interested in the ways games make players feel. Those looking for a new way to experience Valve's particular flavor of games will be pleased to hear the company's latest VR-inspired title, Half-Life Alyx, is gearing up to meet its launch window when it hits the market in March (of this year).