'Half-Life', 'Portal' Co-writer Eric Wolpaw Leaves Valve

By Amee Florence Payno, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Eric Wolpaw, co-writer of the "Half-Life," "Portal" and "Left 4 Dead" video game franchises, has officially left Valve.

Following Wolpaw's workplace update on Facebook, former Valve employee and fellow co-writer Marc Laidlaw revealed Woldpaw's departure on his Twitter account.

"Wolpaw left Valve so I can now insult him freely without damaging the company's reputation. He's a comic genius and a true original," Laidlaw wrote on his Twitter post.

Get Our Latest News for FREE

Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.

Subscribe

According to PC Games N, Wolpaw helped pen "Half-Life 2: Episode One and Two" in cooperation with co-writers Laidlaw and Chet Faliszek. He also served as a co-writer for "Portal" – working alongside Kim Swift – and "Portal 2" with Faliszek and Jay Pinkerton.

As reported by GamingBolt, Wolpaw was originally the co-founder of the site "Old Man Murray" with Faliszek before he eventually found his way to the development studio.

Before his stint in Valve, Wolpaw was with Double-Fine, where he co-wrote the story of the platform-adventure video game "Psychonauts." He is also currently working as a writer on "Psychonauts 2," which was successfully crowdfunded in early 2016. Since his departure from the company, it is now presumed that he is working on the "Psychonauts" sequel full-time.

Wolpaw's announcement regarding his departure from Valve reportedly caused confusion among several members of the gaming community when he tagged his "Portal" co-writer Pinkerton on his Facebook post, according to PlayStation Lifestyle. This led some to believe that Pinkerton has resigned from his position and exited the company as well.

"Last day at Valve!" Wolpaw wrote. "People marching their crap out of their office in a box is central theme of 90% of what Pinkerton and I write, and now I'm finally doing it for real," he continued.

Wolpaw later on clarified through his Twitter account that Pinkerton is still a part of Valve, and also advised his social media followers to refrain from sending his "Portal" co-writer concerned emails about leaving the company.