Another day during this visit to Seattle!
Today my travel comrade Christian and I set out to visit a Game development company or two. Arenanet and Valve Corporation were our targets.
After a reasonable morning's start at 8ish we went to the "City" which is a Target store with the name "City" and I got some more socks because I failed to pack enough, as well as some water for the day's trip. Christian got himself some Starbucks in the City's attached cafe. We departed to Pioneer Square Transportation Station or something like that (actually Transit Center) and hopped on a bus to the Bellevue area of Washington.
On the bus ride to Bellevue I sat next to a young gent whom I found out worked for Microsoft. He said he could tell me when to get off of the bus at the prime location for us to begin the next part of our trip of finding our targets. It turns out the bus took us closer to Valve rather than Arenanet which was our original destination, so we changed our primary destination to Valve upon learning this. I chatted with the guy about Seattle and his sleek new Microsoft phone and we ended up passing the best spot to depart from the bus... We got the next best spot, so no big deal. The gent and our party split ways and we began searching for Valve.
Despite our expectations which were vague to begin with, we saw no clear signs signifying we were close to Valve Corporation's headquarters. The map and GPS functions on my phone said we were at the location, but no sign anywhere said the same. We finally decided to go into the building marked on the map and go to the 5th floor because Google Maps said Valve was at #500 in the designated building.
To our surprise and elation, the doors opened up to a sleek dark gray wall with a bright orange Valve sign painted on the wall between two other elevator doors...Looking back at the picture I took, I am pretty wrong. There was a Bold 5 on the wall with an orange line below it extending to the right. At the end of the orange line there was an orange 5. Below the orange 5, there was a black 4, and above the orange 5 was 6-9 in ascending order. Below the Orange line was a small "Valve" painted in black in its signature stylization.
Looking left we could see magazines organized on the wall about Valve and their games with well lit, shining Game awards of various shapes and sizes on the opposite wall.
To the right, on a glass wall, A big ol' metal sign with "Valve" cut out of it with little symbols of various games cut out of the metal as well. A waiting room was before this wall with bright red chairs- one with a stuffed Cthulu on it, surrounding a nice wooden coffee table with some Valve related material and updated game magazines.
To the left of this lounge area was a setup for two women sitting behind some very sizable monitors. Among the first words said included my mention of my status of a tourist.
scheduled a tour with Valve at 3:30pm
took a bus to the arenanet area
went to arenanet about a block away
took a pic in the lobby and kicked out because there was a development meeting ocurring and they had a glass wall
got on a bus to go back to the Valve area.
Sat next to a girl with a big ol' portfolio case. talked a bit
realized we were going way south instead of north. went to Renton
Went back up to Bellevue
had some chipotle. very slow service. Didn't have lemonade </3 got coke instead
walked to Bellevue Art Museum (BAM) got this cubebot or something
walked back to Valve had the tour with 3 other people
a guy and a girl happened to be going back to our hotel as well. Took bus with them back to the Seattle area and walked to the hotel. Parted ways after the elevator ride. Tried to find them after to invite them to sushi, but couldnt find them
started Tumblr-ing
looked into the LA Gamespace Kickstarter.. It succeeded with 3 days left!
started writing this stuff up as part of my log of things done today. Should be
Today my travel comrade Christian and I set out to visit a Game development company or two. Arenanet and Valve Corporation were our targets.
After a reasonable morning's start at 8ish we went to the "City" which is a Target store with the name "City" and I got some more socks because I failed to pack enough, as well as some water for the day's trip. Christian got himself some Starbucks in the City's attached cafe. We departed to Pioneer Square Transportation Station or something like that (actually Transit Center) and hopped on a bus to the Bellevue area of Washington.
On the bus ride to Bellevue I sat next to a young gent whom I found out worked for Microsoft. He said he could tell me when to get off of the bus at the prime location for us to begin the next part of our trip of finding our targets. It turns out the bus took us closer to Valve rather than Arenanet which was our original destination, so we changed our primary destination to Valve upon learning this. I chatted with the guy about Seattle and his sleek new Microsoft phone and we ended up passing the best spot to depart from the bus... We got the next best spot, so no big deal. The gent and our party split ways and we began searching for Valve.
Despite our expectations which were vague to begin with, we saw no clear signs signifying we were close to Valve Corporation's headquarters. The map and GPS functions on my phone said we were at the location, but no sign anywhere said the same. We finally decided to go into the building marked on the map and go to the 5th floor because Google Maps said Valve was at #500 in the designated building.
To our surprise and elation, the doors opened up to a sleek dark gray wall with a bright orange Valve sign painted on the wall between two other elevator doors...Looking back at the picture I took, I am pretty wrong. There was a Bold 5 on the wall with an orange line below it extending to the right. At the end of the orange line there was an orange 5. Below the orange 5, there was a black 4, and above the orange 5 was 6-9 in ascending order. Below the Orange line was a small "Valve" painted in black in its signature stylization.
Looking left we could see magazines organized on the wall about Valve and their games with well lit, shining Game awards of various shapes and sizes on the opposite wall.
To the right, on a glass wall, A big ol' metal sign with "Valve" cut out of it with little symbols of various games cut out of the metal as well. A waiting room was before this wall with bright red chairs- one with a stuffed Cthulu on it, surrounding a nice wooden coffee table with some Valve related material and updated game magazines.
To the left of this lounge area was a setup for two women sitting behind some very sizable monitors. Among the first words said included my mention of my status of a tourist.
scheduled a tour with Valve at 3:30pm
took a bus to the arenanet area
went to arenanet about a block away
took a pic in the lobby and kicked out because there was a development meeting ocurring and they had a glass wall
got on a bus to go back to the Valve area.
Sat next to a girl with a big ol' portfolio case. talked a bit
realized we were going way south instead of north. went to Renton
Went back up to Bellevue
had some chipotle. very slow service. Didn't have lemonade </3 got coke instead
walked to Bellevue Art Museum (BAM) got this cubebot or something
walked back to Valve had the tour with 3 other people
a guy and a girl happened to be going back to our hotel as well. Took bus with them back to the Seattle area and walked to the hotel. Parted ways after the elevator ride. Tried to find them after to invite them to sushi, but couldnt find them
started Tumblr-ing
looked into the LA Gamespace Kickstarter.. It succeeded with 3 days left!
started writing this stuff up as part of my log of things done today. Should be
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