HomeLAN - How much access did Valve Software give you to write the book?

David Hodgson - All the access I wished. Really, this book couldn't have been possible without the help and support of Valve. It began with a meeting where Doug Lombardi, myself, and my Prima boss had all these ideas that were tossed about. Doug had some really cool plans for how a "coffee table" style book would work, and we ran with the plan of making a history of Valve, plus an art book, and merging them together into a tome around the size of a phone directory, but with a hardback cover and glossy paper.

After the meeting, which occurred last September, I began a series of interviews with all the members of the team. This included Marc, Gabe, Ken, Bill Van Buren, John Guthrie... basically all the members of the different Cabals. We had interviews that lasted around a couple of hours for each team member (although some were clumped together, such as the TFC team), and then we followed up with emails. I then visited Valve on five more occasions between September and July 2004 to speak with more members of the team, tidy up loose ends, and work with Jess Cliffe on where the stacks and stacks of art were going to be placed in the book. At last count, there's around 1000 images in there.

Obviously, we had to halt production on the book in October due to the theft, but once that was sorted out, I was able to fit around the team's schedule and ask anyone anything I wished. This is an officially licensed book, so Valve helped me every step of the way.