Former Valve writer Chet Faliszek joins Bossa Studios to direct co-op action game

Update, December 4: Chat Faliszek’s new project will use AI to “push the boundaries of emergent narratives.”

Chet Faliszek’s next project will use AI to develop dynamic narratives. Faliszek worked for Valve between 2005 and May 2017, where he contributed storylines for both the Half-Life and Portal series.

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According to a press release from Bossa, Faliszek is the creative lead on a the project, which is “seeking to push the boundaries of emergent narratives” through the use of AI. In a recent lecture, which you can watch above, Faliszek told his audience that “we can use AI not only to add to games, but to fundamentally change the way we tell stories.”

Bossa hope that their new project will use AI to develop dynamic narratives. The studio’s CTO Sylvain Cornillon says “we are looking at AI as a means to create bigger games, allowing the players to experience deeper, more meaningful stories tailored to them.”

Bossa are currently recruiting the team to support their new AI vision. Particularly notable is the posting on the studio’s job page hiring for an AI/ML game developer, which says that the new hire will be “part of the newly created Bossa Game Tech team”, where they “will be working on new technologies aimed at being used in our new coming projects. The focus of the team is centered around R&D in the areas of procedural generation and machine learning and their application to game development and design.”

There’s little information currently available on the project, but Bossa say more will be revealed some time next year.

Original story, September 18:Chet Faliszek, one of the writers who made his mark on Valve’s biggest single-player stories, left the companyearlier this year. Today, he revealed that he’s going to Bossa Studios to direct an as-yet-unannounced cooperative action game. He says the project will have something new to offer in terms of narrative and AI.

Faliszek, whose credits include Portal and its sequel, both episodic Half-Life 2 expansions, and the Left 4 Dead games, had been with Valve for over a decade. Old-school gaming fans will also recognize him as the co-creator of Old Man Murray alongside Eric Wolpaw, before both went on to work at Valve.

Faliszek’s later days at Valve saw him as the company’s most visible proponent for the Vive, but he says this new game will not be a VR title.

Bossa Studios are best known for the their goofball physics games like Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread, and are currently working on Early Access sandbox MMO Worlds Adrift. The upcoming game will be the first narrative-focused title from the studio. They’re currently hiring in Seattle and London to fill out the team for the new game.

Chet’s cat appears to be very confused by the whole situation.