Valve: Are they European based?

[chrisj1968]

I had this nagging thought in my mind that, Valve seems to be a European firm. I could be wrong. Reason I ask is, playing Halflife 2, the architecture is strongly or strikingly European. I served in our military for 10 years most of which was in Germany. I see a striking resemblance to European architecture in the houses. City 17 has really strong resemblance to a European city with all of the multi-unit dwellings.

 

has anyone else noticed this?

 

~Chris

[wakjak]

No, Valve are based out of Bellevue, Washington.

[Max Norris]

Been years since I've played HL2, but I do recall City 17 being located in an unnamed Eastern European country, so that's why it looked as it did.

[Athernar]

One of the big environment artists that worked on HL2 was Viktor Antonov, who was born in Bulgaria. Most notably he's responsible for the aesthetic of Combine architecture in the game.

 

You may also notice the similarity with Dishonoured, which he also worked on after leaving Valve for Arkane.

 

Edit: Also if you pay close attention you'll see a lot of remnants of posters/signs with Cyrillic lettering, indicating City 17 is somewhere in eastern Europe.

[Shiranui]

This thread is joke, right?

[chrisj1968]

One of the big environment artists that worked on HL2 was Viktor Antonov, who was born in Bulgaria. Most notably he's responsible for the aesthetic of Combine architecture in the game.

 

You may also notice the similarity with Dishonoured, which he also worked on after leaving Valve for Arkane.

 

Edit: Also if you pay close attention you'll see a lot of remnants of posters/signs with Cyrillic lettering, indicating City 17 is somewhere in eastern Europe.

 

I haven't seen that. But I shall look @ Shiranui, yes this thread is for real. This is about software hence I put it here. I like the architecture a lot. He did a great job.