Did Viktor Antonov leave Valve?

[Apocalypse89]

Anyone else notice that Viktor Antonov has been missing from Valve's offical website for the last month or so? Did he get kicked out, quit, or what? And why? I'd like to know the full story, if it's available.

For those who don't know, Antonov was the main art director for HL1 and 2, and was responsible for creating many of the places, people, and things that populate the HL universe as well as supervising level design. His Bulgarian origin is one of the main reasons why City 17 was chosen as the location for HL2. You can hear his voice in the Lost Coast commentary, he's the guy with the weird American/East European hybrid accent.

Anyways, it'd be a real shame if he left for whatever reason. Artistic direction is one of my favorite and IMO most underrated aspects of game design.

 

[ríomhaire]

I knew he was gone, I don't know why. Ask Gabe.

 

[iMMuNiTy]

OMG He has been Valvenapped!

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Oh my god, first the hackers steal the source code and now they steal their personnel?! VALVe has GOT to upgrade their security.

 

[iMMuNiTy]

That's what you get when you hire monkeys to work as security guards. Valve has paid the price.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

That's what you get when you hire monkeys to work as security guards. Valve has paid the price.

It's like, if you have a thousand monkeys with a thousand 9mms for a thousand years, what will happen?

 

[ríomhaire]

Oh my god, first the hackers steal the source code and now they steal their personnel?! VALVe has GOT to upgrade their security.

They should hire Munro and Short Recoil.

 

[2Fast4U]

They should hire Munro and Short Recoil.

Short Recoil would be more than enough.

 

[ríomhaire]

Short Recoil would be more than enough.

They'll need someone to keep him in check.

 

[iMMuNiTy]

Nevermind, stupid question, move along.

 

[Ennui]

lol, i was all ready with a reply saying READ THE THREAD FOO

 

[iMMuNiTy]

lol, i was all ready with a reply saying READ THE THREAD FOO

Haha.

 

[StardogChampion]

The saddest thing is that you noticed his name wasn't there among that huge list of names.

Valve geek.

 

[Apocalypse89]

This is actually something that was pointed out by someone else a while ago. I just decided to bring it up again.

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

Um....what did Viktor do for Valve?

 

[Apocalypse89]

I explained in my first post.

 

[jondy]

Um....what did Viktor do for Valve?

What didn't Viktor do for valve?

 

[ríomhaire]

What didn't Viktor do for valve?

Stop the hackers

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

I see.....he had a lot of quotes in RtB for a hack preventer...

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

Nooooooooooooo! Mother ****er!

 

[oD1Nz]

Read his site: http://www.vulkanbros.com.

Viktor has recently founded the entertainment design firm "The Building", in Paris France. The studio provides concept design services and consulting for multiple platforms, ranging from video games, animation feature films, to television series.

 

[Przemek]

Conspiracy Theory - Victor quit Valve and decided to take all his HL2: Aftermath projects with him. That's the reason for the delay :O

 

[Asknoone]

Your theory fails and falls flat on its ass.

 

[Gargantou]

oD1Nz, so that hopefully means he'll still work on the HL series, just that he does so via his own firm now.

 

[Max35]

Geez, who's going to leave next?. I can see the headlines now:

"LaidLaw leaves Valve to become matchmacker."

 

[Apocalypse89]

Read his site: http://www.vulkanbros.com.

So he just left to start his own art design firm?

Well, hopefully this means that he would still work closely with Valve on their later projects, even if he isn't actually part of the team.