Half-Life and Portal writer Chet Faliszek leaves Valve after 12 years

Valve legend Chet Faliszek, whose writing credits include the Half-Life 2 episodes, both Portal games and the Left 4 Dead series, has departed the company after a celebrated 12 year stint at the video game giant.

Faliszek confirmed the amicable split to GameIndustry.biz, saying: "[It was] nothing exciting or drama filled. I worked there 12 years, shipped a bunch of great games and some amazing hardware and wanted to change things up.

"There's no news on what's next etc, I will let you know when that happens."

Since his last writing credit in 2013, for Dota 2, Faliszek has become an important part of Valve's growing virtual reality business, acting as a sort of liaison for developers looking to publish their games on Valve's Vive VR platform.

He was a passionate advocate for VR, and in particular its potential for storytelling. His approach and approachability made him popular in the development scene.

He wrote with Erik Wolpaw and Mark Laidlaw. As a trio they defined the style of Valve's string of hugely successful releases in the noughties. All three have now left the company: Wolpaw to write Double Fine's Psychonauts 2, novelist Laidlow to write his own original stories.

Together, Faliszek and Wolpaw started video game website Old Man Murray, which helped them get their jobs at Valve.

Sadly the departure leaves Valve with few writers, a consequence of the company's focus on VR hardware, distribution platform Steam and the continued success of Dota 2, rather than development of new games.

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