Mystery of Valve's bald mascot revealed (mostly)

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Studio staffer reveals how Valve found its mascots

Valve is a studio rich with secrets, but one of the longest enduring mysteries has been the identities of the two dudes with red hardware sticking out of their heads in the opening credits of every game. Thankfully, one fan saw fit to ask the developer straight up for an answer, and though the names remain lost to time, we now at least know how Valve found its mascots.

"Interesting that you should ask about the bald guy. Back then, the casting agencies we were using to find models only had 'supermodel'-type talent. We kept requesting 'heavy-set', 'normal' models, and they kept sending us 'beautiful', 'thin', 'perfect' headshots to review. So, we finally asked them to just go out on the street and pull 'everyday Joes' who were more 'interesting', 'common', and for the bald guy, 'kinda big, heavy-set, and bald.'"

As Ueno remembers it, the search required Valve staffers to hit the streets of Seattle and take photos of the specific type of bald people they were after. Eventually, they found the perfect specimen and invited him to the studio to shoot the iconic image that now graces Valve's opening screen. Ueno noted the same process was used to put together the second shot of a guy with a valve protruding from his eye, rounding out the studio's 'Open Your Mind. Open Your Eyes' brand campaign.

Thinking back on the model's actual identities, Ueno admits, %26ldquo;It's been very long since we did that work, so we don't know who the models were. And the fact that they weren't professional models would make it very difficult to find them - if not impossible for the bald guy (not facing camera).%26rdquo;

We may never know specific names, but at least we have a spiffy piece of videogame history to tell over a few drinks.

[Source:Kotaku]

Apr 21, 2011

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Matt Bradford

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.