Valve Makes Gaming Better With Source

Valve has been picking up independent developers with good ideas for some time now, giving them access to the Source engine to create games using a highly produced back end. Two new games are due out for release, one of which is an Independent Games Festival entry.

The Hunger: Lost Souls is a remake of an original Half-Life mod, and Narbacular Drop is an incredibly unique-sounding puzzle game. From Gamasutra's article, Narbacular's developers had this to say:

Life is really strange sometimes. Like sometimes you make a kick ass student game project. And then the heads of Valve might see that project. And before you know it, they want to contract your entire team to make that game in the Source Engine.

It's great to see big guys helping little guys. Though, Valve has never really personified "big business." Developer community outreach is just one of the many facets of the company. Scuttlebutt says they're the studio to work for.