Valve was officially founded on August 24 1996 by Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington.

In 1998 they released Half-Life, which was revolutionary for the FPS genre.

noclip produced a great documentary for its 20th Anniversary that I highly recommend.

Valve then kept working on some things, which also included hiring the creators of Counter-Strike and turning the mod into a full-fledged game.

And then came Half-Life 2, which was another big step for FPS due to the integration of physics. While that was a big thing, the more important aspect to HL2 might arguably be the requirement of Steam.

While Steam was already a thing since 2003, it was HL2 that brought it to a wider audience due to the game’s popularity. The requirement caused a lot of criticism, because HL2 basically acted as a trojan horse to establish Steam.

noclip produced another documentary about the development of HL2. Also highly recommended.

In the following years Steam slowly expanded and Valve began distributing …

Ardenfall is a first-person immersive RPG - explore living towns where NPCs remember your choices, delve into handcrafted dungeons full of danger and loot, and journey through a compact open world built to be dense and reactive. If you enjoyed Skyrim or Morrowind, you’ll probably feel at home here :)

And we’ve just released a new free demo - check it out on Steam!

🎮 Play Demo on Steam
📹 Demo Trailer

Key Features

• Living towns where every NPC has their own schedule and opinion of you, with your choices changing how they act.
• Handcrafted dungeons full of strange creatures, unique loot, and dangerous spells.
• Dynamic sandbox combat - summon monsters, mix magic with weapons, throw potions mid-fight - or just levitate into the sky
• No handholding - you’ll read journals, ask questions, and figure things out yourself
• Deep character builds - stats, class, gear, and even tattoos all matter
• A compact open world - rich, dense biomes designed for exploration without filler

Early Access …

Announcement Trailer

Hi r/Games, I am Leon, a solo developer from Germany. Kaperfahrt is my attempt to build the successor that the great pirate sandbox from 2004, Sid Meier’s Pirates!, never got.

You start with one sloop and an open Caribbean. Board ships in close naval combat and keep what you take, up to four of them sailing at your side in formation. Run trade between five rival houses and watch prices move across the map when you blockade a harbor. Hunt the 23 named pirates of the Blacklist, each with their own crew and fighting style, and work your way from a nobody into a name people know.

What gives those choices weight is that the Caribbean does not sit still around you. 200 captains sail their own routes, trade, scheme and go to war on their own. The sea you sail into on hour twenty is not the sea you started in. Some of that is their doing, the rest is yours, and the map keeps both.

Status. The Steam page is live and Playtest signups are open on the store page. The …

Valve was officially founded on August 24 1996 by Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington.

In 1998 they released Half-Life, which was revolutionary for the FPS genre.

noclip produced a great documentary for its 25th Anniversary that I highly recommend.

Valve then kept working on some things, which also included hiring the creators of Counter-Strike and turning the mod into a full-fledged game.

And then came Half-Life 2, which was another big step for FPS due to the integration of physics. While that was a big thing, the more important aspect to HL2 might arguably be the requirement of Steam.

While Steam was already a thing since 2003, it was HL2 that brought it to a wider audience due to the game’s popularity. The requirement caused a lot of criticism, because HL2 basically acted as a trojan horse to establish Steam.

noclip produced another documentary about the development of HL2. Also highly recommended.

In the following years Steam slowly expanded and Valve began distributing …

Previous Threads

Use this thread to discuss whatever you’ve been playing lately (old or new, AAA or indie). Don’t just list the names of games as your entire post, make sure to elaborate with your thoughts on the games.

Use spoiler tags if you’re posting anything about a game’s plot that might significantly hurt the experience of others that haven’t played the game yet (no matter how old or new the game is).

r/pcgaming has a Discord server where you can chat with fellow PC gamers anytime you want.

Hello! I’m making SongRunner, one of the winners/favorites in the 2025 GMTK game jam, and I’ve been working on it since then, so a little over a year now. SongRunner is a 2D platformer where you need to play music to create platforms. No musical knowledge is necessary though! Your notes fit right in with the soundtrack, and the stages often feel more puzzly than musical. My goal is that you have at least a few moments where you stop and admire a neat little bop that you made before moving on to the next room.

This demo is a short standalone section of the full game, featuring 5 condensed versions of worlds from the full game. Each world has its own original song, instrument, and mechanics. All of the stages are handcrafted - no generation or randomization and definitely no AI anything. The fifth stage in particular was a huge undertaking to add, but I’m so happy with how it turned out.

Get the demo on the Steam page here, and don’t forget to wishlist! It …

Dirtnap, a “realtime Worms”, launches on 28th August.

It is a nostalgy-filled 2d multiplayer arena shooter sharing similarities with legendary games such as Worms, Liero, Soldat and Noita.

Featuring multiple characters, 30+ weapons, 4 game modes (deathmatch, TDM, battle royale, CTF), along with its incremental-like single player mode, and ability to create custom and share custom maps through Steamworks.

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgdgWhDmGuA